Sen. Susan Collin’s office says it has received threats of rape and other violence from abortion activists who want her to vote against U.S. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
The Maine Republican is a key swing vote in Kavanaugh’s confirmation. Collins is pro-abortion, and she has not yet announced her decision about him.
Over the past few months, NARAL, Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups have been targeting her with phone calls, political ads, fundraising for a pro-abortion Democrat opponent and a coat hanger campaign; but these attempts to influence may have the opposite effect.
Collins told reporters this week that her office has received a number of threatening phone calls and other messages, including one caller who threatened to rape one of her female staffers.
“In one case—and we are going to turn this over to the police, but unfortunately, of course, the person didn’t leave a name or number—but they actually threatened to rape one of my young female staffers,” she told the Wall Street Journal.
Newsweek reports many of the phone calls and letters arriving at her offices are threatening and full of profanities. A number appear to be out-of-state abortion activists who are calling at the promptings of Planned Parenthood, NARAL and other pro-abortion groups.
Here’s more from the report:
“If you care at all about women’s choice, vote ‘no’ on Kavanaugh. Don’t be a dumb bitch,” one caller said. “F**k you, also. ”
Another caller said Collins was “a feckless, feckless, feckless woman standing there letting Trump and his appointees steal the right to choose what women do with their bodies. And you stood by, ‘Oh, I don’t know. I’m so naive.’ F**k you. F**k you,” the caller said.
A letter sent to her office in Portland, Maine, read: “If you vote fo Kavanaugh, EVERY waitress who serves you is going to spit in your food, and that’s if you’re lucky, you f**king c**t! Think of that every meal.”
Another caller told one of Collins’s 25-year-old female staffers that he hoped she would be raped and impregnated, according to another voicemail that was provided to The New York Times by Collins’s spokeswoman Annie Clark.
Steven Abbott, her chief of staff, said they have received many abusive and vulgar calls lately about the Kavanaugh vote.
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“Since the 2016 elections, we have definitely noticed an increase in the intensity and anger of our callers,” Abbott told Maine News 6. “Most of that is from the left but it’s from the right as well.”
The Wall Street Journal reports more:
The Senator’s office also has been receiving coat hangers in the mail, a grisly attempt to insinuate that a Justice Kavanaugh would restrict abortion rights. About 3,000 have arrived so far. “I am pleased to say,” Ms. Collins says with a small chuckle, “we had a group that has a thrift shop that helps low-income women ask us for 300 of the hangers. So at least 300 of them have gone to a very good cause.”
Collins also slammed a political fundraising campaign against her as an attempt at “bribery.”
She said she will announce her decision on Kavanaugh before the Senate vote. She did vote to confirm President Donald Trump’s first nominee to the Supreme Court, Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Pro-abortion groups have labeled Kavanaugh a “serious threat” to “women’s right” to abortion, while national pro-life leaders have expressed high hopes for Kavanaugh and the future of unborn babies’ rights.
Kavanaugh has served on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for D.C. for more than a decade, where he developed an extensive record of protecting religious liberty and enforcing restrictions on abortion. Pro-life leaders believe he would do the same on the Supreme Court.
The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on his confirmation this fall.
ACTION: Contact Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.
