Despite facing significant backlash from Mainers regarding her support for Brett Kavanaugh, Susan Collins said she would not change her decision to back him. According to recent reporting from the New York Times, Collins was caught on tape saying, “I would vote for him again, yes.” This came after she told reporters in Portland, “I do not regret that vote.” Collins cast the deciding vote to confirm Kavanaugh, who, in turn, cast his own to overturn Roe v. Wade and end abortion access across the United States.
“Susan Collins played a key role in stripping millions of American women of their reproductive rights, and every chance she gets, she defends her decision to do so,” said American Bridge 21st Century spokesperson Gus Nathanson. “That decision will haunt her at the ballot box this November.”
Read more about Collins’ vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh and the disastrous fallout:
- Collins was caught on tape saying she’d vote for Kavanaugh again. This came after she told reporters she does not regret her vote to confirm him.
- Collins announced that she would vote to confirm Kavanaugh on October 5, 2018, after weeks of hearings and news reports of credible sexual assault accusations made against Kavanaugh
- Prior to the confirmation vote, abortion rights activists sounded alarms regarding Kavanaugh’s anti-choice stances, citing the fact that he dissented from a high-profile decision that allowed a 17-year-old detainee in an immigration facility to receive an abortion.
- He argued that the decision created a new right for “immediate abortion on demand.”
- When Christine Blasey Ford accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault during the confirmation proceedings, Collins said that she “did not believe” the allegations.
- After Collins voted to confirm Kavanaugh, Donald Trump praised her effusively and hailed her as a “star.”
- Kavanaugh would go on to cast the deciding vote in the Dobbs v. Jackson decision, ending the guaranteed right to abortion access in the United States.
- As Kavanaugh ended Roe, Collins voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify abortion access nationwide.
Published: Aug 3, 2026