Judge Brett Kavanaugh was in the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hot seat last week. The Supreme Court confirmation hearings were intense with protesters and leaked confidential (or at least recently “committee confidential”) information to The New York Times and the general public. Public opinion remains divided – with 38% supporting and 39% opposing his confirmation. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote on Kavanaugh’s confirmation next Thursday (originally scheduled for today) before it moves on to the full Senate. Washington State Senators Murray and Cantwell both oppose Kavanaugh’s nomination. But two Republican Senators would need to block his nomination to keep him off the Supreme Court.

As a Bush Administration lawyer, Kavanaugh helped prep nominees for their confirmation hearings and he followed his advice during his own hearings, often professing neutrality. But his past record is cause for grave concern. His dissent to a high-profile case last year allowing timely abortion for a detained immigrant teen is extremely troubling. One leaked email included his skeptical statement expressing uncertainty in 2003 that Roe v. Wade was settled law. And he referred to some forms of birth control as “abortion-inducing drugs” – a claim unsupported by science and one that baffled many women.

NoHLA joined other women’s health and health care advocates at the Unite for Justice rally against the Kavanaugh nomination in Seattle on August 26.