The Abortion Rights Long Game: Decades of Deception
The overturning of Roe v. Wade wasn’t a surprise legal development—it was the predetermined outcome of a decades-long campaign.
The three Trump appointees—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—all assured senators during their confirmation hearings that Roe was “settled law” and established precedent. Barrett called it “precedent of precedent.” Kavanaugh said he would follow precedent “going forward.” Gorsuch emphasized the importance of stare decisis.
They were lying.
Within two years of Barrett’s confirmation, these same justices voted to overturn Roe, dismissing 50 years of precedent and the reliance interests of millions of women. The legal reasoning didn’t change—the composition of the Court did.
This was always the plan. Conservative legal groups spent decades crafting the perfect test case, forum-shopping for sympathetic judges, and building the legal infrastructure to challenge reproductive rights. The moment they had five votes, precedent became meaningless.
If Supreme Court nominees can lie under oath about their intentions and face zero consequences, what does that say about the integrity of the confirmation process?