Within moments of Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing on day two, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) attempted to corner the SCOTUS nominee with questions about abortion and Roe v. Wade.
Keeping it dramatic, the senator from California began with the statement that “a lot of women died” prior to abortion becoming legal, citing refuted statistics to support her assertion.
“Deaths from illegal abortions in this country ran between 200,000 and 1.2 million … so, a lot of women died in that period,” Feinstein claimed.
As noted by LifeNews, in actuality, “government statistics prior to the Roe decision in 1973 show nowhere near 1.2 million women (or even 200,000) died in abortions. A 1972 Center for Disease Control report noted the maternal death rate from abortions was 39 in the United States, the year prior to Roe.”
Dr. Bernard Nathanson, a former abortionist and co-founder of NARAL, admitted that the statistics on illegal abortion deaths were inflated. “I confess that I knew that the figures were totally false and I suppose that others did too if they stopped to think of it,” he wrote. “But in the ‘morality’ of our revolution, it was a useful figure, widely accepted … The overriding concern was to get the laws eliminated, and anything within reason that had to be done was permissible.”
Feinstein went on to grill Kavanaugh about his opinion on Roe v. Wade. Predictably, her probings were ineffective, as Kavanaugh continually deflected her questions with empty declarations that Roe is “settled law.”
“I will tell you what my view now is: It is an important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times,” Kavanaugh said. “One of the important things to keep in mind about Roe vs. Wade is that it has been reaffirmed many times over the last 45 years, as you know, and most prominently, most importantly reaffirmed in Planned Parenthood v. Casey in 1992.”
When Feinstein asked him to expand what he meant by saying “settled law,” he did not take the bait. “What do you mean by settled law? Do you believe that it is correct law? Is it settled precedent or could be overturned and have your views changed since you were in the Bush White House?” Feinstein asked.
“I understand your point of view and I understand how passionate and how deeply people feel about this issue,” Kavanaugh responded. “I understand the importance of this issue … I don’t live in a bubble. I live in the real world. I understand the importance of the issue.”
When probed on whether he thought Roe was “correct law,” Kavanaugh remained firm in his stance that it is “settled” precedent.