Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was grilled on a controversial abortion case where he twice sided with the Trump administration’s argument that it could block a detained immigrant minor’s abortion until she was found a sponsor.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) asked Kavanaugh about the dissenting opinion in Garza v. Hargan where he said the full appeals court, in its decision against the delay, had adopted a philosophy “that unlawful immigrant minors have a right to immediate abortion on demand.”
Kavanaugh defended his opinion, and claimed he was following Supreme Court precedent on parental consent and on when delays were appropriate in abortion cases.
Durbin pointed out that the minor had already gotten the approval from a judge, as a required by Texas law, to seek the abortion, and asked Kavanaugh why he wanted to add a requirement that she must also have an immigration sponsor before obtaining it.
“I’m not adding [the requirement], I’m a judge,” Kavanaugh said. “The policy is being made by others.”
His job, he said, was to asses whether the Trump administration’s policy was consistent with Supreme Court precedent.
He blew past Durbin’s question as to whether the immigration sponsor was a state requirement, and stressed that his opinion acknowledged the “difficult situation” the immigrant minor was in.
