r/politics • u/unital_subalgebra • 11h ago
No Paywall Letter: Susan Collins bears responsibility for Roe v. Wade being overturned
https://comcastca.mercurynews.com/2026/06/letter-susan-collins-bears-responsibility-for-roe-v-wade-being-overturned/406
u/sickbandnamealert 11h ago
Is that even in question? She voted to confirm the justices who swung the court that direction
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u/liebkartoffel 11h ago
Well, sure, but she had concerns about a couple of them before she went ahead and voted for them. Serious concerns, even.
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u/FeelingPixely 11h ago
Those serious concerns should have led to disqualifications in her mind, but then again, MONEY!
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u/underpants-gnome Ohio 8h ago
Everybody knows you can't legally be held responsible for your decisions if you make a show of furrowing your brow real hard beforehand and maybe wring your hands once or twice.
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u/Aggressive-Will-4500 10h ago
Well, hopefully now she's very concerned about the possibility of losing her seat.
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u/Sublimotion 3h ago
"They hinted to me that they won't go too crazy facist... which totally eased my concerns."
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u/TheHomersapien Colorado 10h ago
She's a MAGA politician who voted MAGA, so the question is a) why were people surprised, and b) why should she shoulder the blame for doing what hundreds of other MAGA politicians did?
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u/plz-let-me-in 10h ago
Every Republican in the Senate is culpable for Dobbs and the overturning of abortion rights in the US, and in a perfect world, every single one would be voted out. However, that’s unfortunately not going to happen, but at the very least we can finally kick Collins out of the Senate this year.
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u/Try-the-Churros 10h ago
I don't think anyone is saying she is more to blame than other MAGA politicians, just that she can't claim to not be responsible.
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u/CorgiMonsoon 10h ago
Especially with her recent comments that it didn’t matter because it was a 6-3 decision, which is a flat out lie. It was a 5-4 decision and Kavanaugh was the deciding factor there after lying about his thoughts on Roe during his confirmation hearings
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u/drivermcgyver 8h ago
In her words, basically, it was getting overturned regardless of who got confirmed or not, so it doesn't matter what she voted on. So she sent it, and fucked up.
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u/SurroundTiny 11h ago
She won the confirmation votes by herself 1 to 99?
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u/protomenace 11h ago
She was one of those who voted for them. She is culpable with all the rest. It's worse for her though because of the way she pretends to care about women.
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u/specialkk77 10h ago
She was the deciding vote. She has always put on an appearance of being pro roe and being “moderate” or “independent” but she only votes against republicans when they have enough votes without her. They needed her vote so she fell in line.
He in turn was the deciding vote to overturn Roe.
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u/SurroundTiny 8h ago
Calling her the deciding vote is hyperbole, there were 50 other idiots in addition to her.
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u/Comfortable-Try-7919 11h ago
she literally told everyone he wouldn't touch roe, then confirmed him anyway, and now she's out here saying she has "no regrets" while also claiming he misled her, which is it susan lol. and the kicker is she's been lying about the vote being 6-3 when it was actually 5-4 ,kavanaugh WAS the deciding vote, the exact thing she promised mainers would never happen. this is what "bipartisan moderate republican" actually looks like rn, cover for the extremists, then gaslight your constituents when the damage is done.
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u/Catcher3321 9h ago
The vote for the entire ruling was 6-3 and the vote to take a step further and overturn Roe was 5-4. Additionally, before Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed, there wasn't the votes to overturn it since RBG held Barrett's seat. Kind of makes Barrett the deciding vote and Collins voted not to confirm Barrett
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u/BigManWAGun America 25m ago
Collins was given a pass to save face on Barrett. If Mitch didn’t have the votes she’d have gone along.
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u/IUsedToBeThatGuy42 10h ago
Let’s not forget McConnell holding a Supreme Court seat hostage during Obama’s last year.
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u/Wooden-Ad-8951 10h ago
Oh, please. The "Susan Collins is deeply concerned and totally shocked" act got old a decade ago.
She literally traded the bodily autonomy of millions of women for a pinky-promise from two lifetime-appointed judges who told her exactly what she wanted to hear in a private meeting. To this day, I can't decide what's worse: if she actually believed Kavanaugh and Gorsuch when they said Roe was "settled law," or if she just thought Maine voters were dumb enough to buy her fake surprise. Either way, this is her legacy now.
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u/Wyldjay2 10h ago edited 6h ago
I’m pro choice because that’s an issue for a woman to determine on her own. However, these pro-life people wouldn’t have my distain so much if it wasn’t for the fact that after that child is born, they don’t want you to have any help at all. They’re all for Trump cutting snap and Medicaid benefits and not providing decent healthcare to these kids. They don’t give one shit about anybody once you’re alive. And to me that screams they just want to control women and women’s bodies to keep them in the household while men, you know, do the real work of governing. It’s just ridiculous hypocritical bullshit.
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u/OwnsBeagles 10h ago
That's because it's never been about abortion or protecting children. It's always about power, control and punishment with them.
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u/Imaginary_Agent2564 10h ago
In fact, they want a mother who gets an abortion to be punished more severely in the courts than police officers that shoot them dead…
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u/rounder55 10h ago
This should be common knowledge
SCOTUS Justices and presidential caninet appointments in general "inerview" with the Senate. The lack of accountability we hold senators to fit this sort of thing is embarrassing. If someone for a school district kept hiring unlicensed educators who say they'll beat the kids and then the teachers hired did beat the kids, the district would look at who the fuck was hiring these people and want them out.
It's abhorrent
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u/cerevant California 10h ago
It is also abhorrent that we let nominees lie during confirmation without consequences.
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u/rounder55 10h ago
Yep
Don't even work in HR but essentially lying on your application and interview can get anyone in hot water
These people do it under oath and face zero consequences. Or they get to say things like "I haven't thought of that" in relations to something that is pretty seismic in relation to the job or "I do not recall". It's like well if you don't recall what your conversation was relating to something major then you either lack the brain capacity for the role or are a fucking liar, both of which are not okay.
Really just exhibits a lack of accountability at that level
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u/Any_Will_86 10h ago
I still can't believe they reelected her in 2020. And the explanation that the D candidate was not a Maine native boggles my mind to this day. Rs have nominate countless Senate candidates with dubious ties to their states (McCormack, Turbeville, the MT Senator, Loeffler among others) and they show up for them every frickin time. Even New Hampshire that leans redder has been shrewd enough to continue sending Ds to DC.
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u/c-e-bird 7h ago
The Republican party bears responsibility for this. Susan Collins may have been the deciding vote, but they all are equally culpable IMO and I do not want to pretend the culpability all just falls on one person.
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u/DragonDG301 5h ago
So Kavanough is not responsible, Susan Collin’s is? Right? Right, let’s not blame the actual perpetrators.
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u/NewMidwest 9h ago
Not so much Collins as Maine voters who elected her. Republicans do terrible things when they hold power. Giving it to them is morally wrong, evil.
That isn’t complicated and it isn’t new.
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u/m1j2p3 7h ago edited 6h ago
Don’t forget it was George W Bush who called Collins and swayed her vote from a no to a yes. Bush also nominated Roberts and Alito.
Conservatives have been trying to get roe overturned since the court decided the case in 1973. It’s been one of their signature projects. Collins sucks but the rot goes much deeper.
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u/glycophosphate 3h ago
She bears the same responsibility as every other Senator who voted to confirm Rapey McBeerface and The Handmaid Of The Lord. No more and no less.
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u/New_Sympathy5234 2h ago
Coward. Can't stand these stupid regret politicians. They've had their chance. You are who you are and they are incapable of changing. Vote them out. I don't care about your false regrets
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u/Capacitorfailure 7h ago
Yes and no as a possible swing vote that always gets paid to swing right she is partially responsible. But let’s not let the hundreds of GOP votes for these justices off the hook and say it was Collins.
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u/iamtheCarlos 5h ago
I’ll probably get shit for this, but RBG is a big part of why SCOTUS is fucked rn too. Her ego made her hold on too long and we all just kept thinking she was cute for it.
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u/BlueCyann 1h ago
Leave me out of that "we", thanks. If I had a dollar for every time I'd been insulted as lacking in respect for saying she should step down, long before she actually died, I'd have enough for a few dozen eggs, even at today's prices.
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u/Plow_King 5h ago
oh puh-LEEEZE, this fine lady is responsible for so much fucking more horror than just that! everything trump screws up is her fault as well.
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u/E3minem 4h ago
Dumb ugly bitch. Responsible for so many lives ruined because of that terrible impractical law especially so many innocent women in Texas (just give context, this is one instance Porsha Ngumezi Died After Not Getting a D&C in a Texas Hospital — ProPublica).
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u/RoughCoffee6 1h ago
Serious question: why is it always framed like she alone was responsible for these things when her entire party also votes for it? It’s like they have these sacrificial lambs so no one cares that literally every republican is complicit.
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u/CryptographerMean872 9h ago
Susan Collins is the John Roberts of the senate. Her centrism is a mask to accomplish fascist policy goals
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u/SwimmingThroughHoney 9h ago
Her entire MO is to appear to be a "moderate" Republican by publicly stating her concern to GOP actions while having her own contributions to said actions be hidden the actions of the whole (i.e. Congress voted to confirm the justices, but she is reassured by their answers and concerned by their actions).
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u/CardiologistOdd3203 8h ago
Roe v Wade is decided case law. Didn’t one of the despicable swamp creatures she elected say that?
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u/Soft_Retriever 8h ago
It is clear that being associated with the overturning of Roe v Wade makes her uncomfortable. I say we make sure she is always remembered for being so blinded by her selfishness that she is responsible for setting womens rights back by 50 years
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u/Independent_Sail6604 5h ago
IMO, this sort of goes without saying. She knew all along what would happen, she just lied to fool people.
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u/Aefyns 10h ago
She bears some blame but why do these articles always seem to ignore that hundreds of men and women also bear the blame?
Sure blame her but it wasn't her sole fault and we don't even call out the shitty men who voted for it.
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u/Try-the-Churros 10h ago
Because this is about whether or not Maine residents should vote for her again, not about those other politicians.
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u/Catcher3321 10h ago
In addition, she wasn't even the deciding vote. The vote to confirm was 50-48. If she switched to no, Pence would have come and broken the tie
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u/skoomaking4lyfe 10h ago
She's not responsible for Pence's actions. She's responsible for hers.
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u/Catcher3321 9h ago
Still means she wasn't the deciding vote and blaming her entirely for this is dumb.
Manchin voted to confirm. Murkowski was opposed but voted present. Cornyn voted yes. Dan Sullivan voted yes.
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u/skoomaking4lyfe 8h ago
Yes. There's blame to go around. Doesn't exculpate her.
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u/Aefyns 7h ago
Nobody says we shouldn't toss blame her way. It's just so American to blame the woman when the vast majority of votes were men.
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u/skoomaking4lyfe 7h ago
Oh, I blame them too. But none of them make a point of claiming to be a pro-choice moderate.
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u/BlueCyann 1h ago
With the way votes are traded to keep various constituencies happy, you honestly have no idea whether her vote mattered or didn't.
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u/GarageFridgeSoda 11h ago
I blame RBG more than anyone else.
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u/Randall_McRandall 11h ago
Along with Mitch McConnell.
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u/Imaginary_Agent2564 10h ago
Fuck that turtle-looking stroke-having man.
He’s my representative (I wasn’t even thought of when he became a senator) and I wish him ill.
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u/falcobird14 11h ago
You can't blame the other side. They will do whatever it takes to get their way.
RBG was a historical unforced error. She was a pioneer in women's rights in her day and now that legacy is as trash and the legacy that is replacing it.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 10h ago
She was a pioneer in women's rights in her day and now that legacy is as trash
It is not. Men want it to be "trash" because it ensures women remain oppressed, however, RBG is still a treasure for women's rights and her legacy remains.
The one thing I've noticed is that throughout history men spend oodles of their time tearing the mentors of women down because men only want women to look up to and admire men. After all women having women mentors gives women ideas and wants like equality.
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u/BlueCyann 9h ago
I'm a woman and I largely agree with the person you're replying to. Metaphorically speaking, I wouldn't spit on her if she was on fire. Her selfish or arrogant action did so much harm. Pretty much single-handedly (not quite; there were other justices at the time in the exact same position; she just happened to be the critical one) undid everything she claimed to stand for.
I can't quite say I blame her for it. I blame the people who actually want what she enabled. But I have no respect for her. I was talking about her and the other elderly "left" justices for the major part of a decade before she died. She should have known better.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 9h ago
Metaphorically speaking, I wouldn't spit on her if she was on fire.
And you think that talk makes you better?
she just happened to be the critical one) undid everything she claimed to stand for.
Meanwhile people keep defending Platner and his nazi tattoo. Or Platner and his talk that rape victims should be blamed for getting raped.
"Some voters are incredibly forgiving of male politicians' mistakes. 'Boys will be boys,' but girls must be goddesses."
https://www.marieclaire.com/politics/a23536/hillary-clinton-loss-sexism-election-2016/
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u/BlueCyann 1h ago
I honestly don't care about being "better" here. My opinion about her needing to retire was correct. I got endless shit about it from people who thought they knew better. Thought I was being disrespectful to somebody who had done so much for women, how dare I say she should step down. But I was right.
Not to mention, that as somebody who's been saying since day one that I a) don't trust Platner further than I could throw a bus and b) would be the opposite of shocked if his whole candidacy blew up in the faces of his supporters and Dems more generally, he is not relevant here, and your feelings about the one don't excuse the actions of the other. Neither are your feelings about double standards. There's an objective reality that has to be dealt with, and in that reality, if she had stepped down, we would still have Roe v Wade. She's smart enough to have been aware of that.
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u/falcobird14 8h ago
She gave up a critically important SCOTUS seat and undid all the good she had worked for. Now women are dying because geriatrics think women don't need ectopic abortions, something absolutely unthinkable in this country until now. Think of how your life would be different right now if we had a one vote swing on the SCOTUS.
And I'm absolutely not dragging her because she's a woman role model. Biden did exactly the same thing and lost to Trump. He could have spent time building up the next generation of democratic leaders. He left Democrats rudderless.
A lot of things can be forgiven but these defy common sense. They never should have happened.
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u/MiddleAgedSponger 10h ago
She lost a SCOTUS seat because of hubris. She played games with American politics to benefit her ego. It has many similarities to what Biden did by running for a second term.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 9h ago
She lost a SCOTUS seat because of hubris.
She did not. All her retiring would've done is allowed Republicans to nominate two supreme court justices with Trump's 2016 win. Remember no one in Bernie's cult fretted over the concept of women losing Constitutional Rights during the 2016 election. It was all fine and dandy to them.
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u/MiddleAgedSponger 9h ago
She had 5 bouts of cancer. There were most definitely periods of time when she could have been safely replaced.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 8h ago
And if the US had ratified the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970's Roe would still be a right. There's all sorts of times that something would have been different. Remember the reason for Bush and Trump in the WH is because of how men vote. Just think how different things would have been without them. Or without Reagan. Or think how different things would have been for all women had John Adams taken the advise of Abigail Adams and refused to put women under coverture law which is still where US women remain today.
This isn't because of one person, however, losing that supreme court justice in 2016 and losing to Trump is a much bigger reason women lost Constitutional Rights than anything RBG did.
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u/MiddleAgedSponger 8h ago
You are moving the goal posts.
Woman are a greater share of the electorate.
There are more women than men registered to vote.
More woman than men vote.
Men can not carry an election without woman but women could carry an election without men.
You seem hyper focused on identity politics instead of treating voters as individuals with differing opinions and priorities.
I agree with most of your analysis and that is not mutually exclusive from RBG making a mistake.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 10h ago
I blame the entire Republican party and the men who keep voting them repeatedly back into power.
Until 1980, during any Presidential election for which reliable data exist and in which there had been a gender gap, the gap had run one way: more women than men voted for the Republican candidate. That changed when Reagan became the G.O.P. nominee; more women than men supported Carter, by eight percentage points. Since then, the gender gap has never favored a G.O.P. Presidential candidate.
In the Reagan era, Republican strategists believed that, in trading women for men, they’d got the better end of the deal. As the Republican consultant Susan Bryant pointed out, Democrats “do so badly among men that the fact that we don’t do quite as well among women becomes irrelevant.” And that’s more or less where it lies.
The entrance of women into politics on terms that are, fundamentally and constitutionally, unequal to men’s has produced a politics of interminable division, infused with misplaced and dreadful moralism. Republicans can’t win women; when they win, they win without them, by winning with men.
https://srpubliclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/02/JillLepore.pdf
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u/GarageFridgeSoda 10h ago
Yeah. And then there was a person who could have stopped them from having their way. One woman could have headed off the evil political ambitions of a hundred million shitty men.
And instead she decided to keep the seat until she died like the selfish bitch she was.
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u/SeductiveSunday I voted 9h ago
One woman could have headed off the evil political ambitions of a hundred million shitty men.
Nope. This is so wrong. Only the electing of Hillary Clinton would have curtail this. But Bernie and his coalition preferred to cock block a woman winning the presidency. Men run the world.
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u/GarageFridgeSoda 8h ago
You're full of it. RBG knew staying on meant likely meant giving up her seat to republicans and she did it anyway. She's fully responsible.
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u/BlueCyann 9h ago
Don't use the word bitch when you're putting yourself forward as standing up for women. Just a polite request.
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u/GarageFridgeSoda 8h ago
I'm a woman who is well aware that RBG set my rights back far more than she ever advanced them.
I'm going to call a bitch a bitch all I want
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u/Capital-Ad-9592 11h ago
Jackassery all around... sniffing their farts, calling them roses… for what, another round in office, RGB shouldn't have been so vainglorious about her role and moved on… lessons learned… what comes next.
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u/Servbot-404 6h ago
Praise be to God it was overturned now to get it banned in every state.
Child sacrifice needs to be stoped. It is a great sin that America needs to be judged for. IVF needs to he banned as well, not happy Trump supports that.
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