WASHINGTON.— Conservative groups are pushing for the confirmation of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court with the idea of eventually eliminating the right to abortion, even though most voters, including Catholics and Protestants, support keeping it in force.
Barrett attended his third day of confirmation hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, where he faced questions on issues such as the future of abortion rights, gun control, gay marriages, and the well-known 2010 health reform. like Obamacare.
[Dozens protest as Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearing to the Supreme Court begins]
Barrett has suggested that he will act in accordance with a strict interpretation of the laws and has avoided statements that alarm senators.
The judge, 48, and mother of seven, was nominated by President Donald Trump to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Experts and activists consulted by Noticias Telemundo agreed that, of all electoral issues, the one related to the Roe v.
Wade, with whom the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the United States in 1973, is one of the most polarizing.
“Abortion
is an important symbolic issue for conservatives,
both politically and religiously, and it is a widely used argument among their elites.
But ordinary citizens who belong to these groups do not consider it a litmus test to support a candidate, ”explained Robert Jones, founder of the Public Institute for Religious Research (PRRI).
But Republicans opposed to the legality of abortion contravene the opinion of the general public: A 2018 PRRI poll showed that only a third of Americans and 34% of Catholics support reversing that ruling.
With the exception of white evangelicals,
the majority of major religious groups, including 56% of Catholics, support the legality of abortion
"in all or almost all cases," Jones added.
Bridgette Gomez, director of strategy for Planned Parenthood Federation of America, a progressive family planning group, believes Barrett "
will be a threat to women's reproductive rights
.
"
"
We are concerned that his religious thinking influences the opinions
he may issue from the podium," he said.
In this sense, Víctor Reyes, president of the board of directors of Catholics for Choice, in favor of the option to abortion, explained that his group supports the separation of Church and State and religious freedom because, in his opinion,
abortion "It is a matter of conscience."
Most of the more than 70 million Catholics in the United States support keeping abortion legal, and even believe it should be covered by health insurance, Reyes said.
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Voters support the right to abortion
Barrett was raised and educated in conservative Catholic circles, and has held leadership roles in the People of Praise, a multi-denominational Christian community in South Bend, Indiana that advocates for the traditional family, opposes abortion and intermarriage. of the same sex, and claims a greater space for religion in secular life.
A joint poll by The Washington Post and ABC, released on Monday, indicated that 62% of Americans support the Supreme Court leaving the Roe v.
Wade, against 24% who support its elimination.
Another poll, by The New York Times and Sienna College, indicated that 60% believe that the right to abortion should be preserved, against 33% who believed otherwise.
In a PRRI poll, only 40% support Trump's administration and 57% reject it, although the president is very popular with 71% of white evangelicals, 54% of Catholics, 49% of Protestants. , and 26% of voters without any religious affiliation.
If confirmed in the lifetime office, Barrett would help cement the Supreme Court's conservative majority, 6-3.
To do this, Barrett has had the political and financial backing of the Federalist Society, an organization that opposes abortion and has dedicated himself to seeding the country's courts with conservative judges.
[This senator tells the "painful" story of how abortion saved his wife's life]
The group funded six of her 13 trips in her first year as a seventh appeals court judge to speak on campus and at the conservative group's annual convention in Washington, according to the 2018 financial file Barrett submitted to the Senate.
The rest of the trips in 2018 were funded by universities that invited her to make presentations, according to that document.
Armed with graphics, Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse has argued that Barrett's nomination is part of
a long-term strategy to populate the courts with conservative judges,
orchestrated and funded with millionaire funds from the Federalist Society and the Network on the Judicial crisis.
Rhode Island Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse presents his arguments to the Senate Judiciary Committee on October 14, 2020 against the confirmation of Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.
(Photo by Stefani Reynolds-Pool / Getty Images) Getty Images
But the Republicans have closed ranks around Barrett, and his confirmation is practically guaranteed, because they number 53 to 47 Democrats in the Senate, and the judge only needs a simple majority, of 51 votes.
An electoral promise
Trump, who in 2016 promised to appoint federal judges to help restrict or eliminate legal access to abortion, formally introduced Barrett during an event at the White House Rose Garden on Sept. 26.
The event was attended by prominent conservative leaders, including the widow of Justice Antonin Scalia, who was the judge's mentor.
President Donald Trump announced conservative Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court during an event at the White House Rose Garden on September 26, 2020. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) Getty Images
Barrett's record is peppered with opinions favorable to the Conservatives, and in 2006 she added her signature to an advertisement in the South Bend Tribune that called for the removal of Roe v.
Wade and denounced his "barbarous legacy".
All of this worries Democrats and like-minded progressive groups, who fear the dismantling of "Obamacare";
the deregulation of weapons;
support for large corporations; and support for restrictions on abortion.
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Democrats seem resigned to losing the battle against Barrett, but have turned his nomination into an electoral weapon to mobilize their base.
Gradual weakening of "Roe v. Wade"
With the backing of conservative groups, state legislatures have adopted restrictions on access to abortion across the country.
Since 1973, 1,227 abortion restrictions have been approved, of which 480 occurred in the last decade, concentrated in 29 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which specializes in research on women's reproductive rights.