Susan Collins still isn’t listening to women | Opinion
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Maureen Terry is a former state representative for Gorham and former House majority leader. Bev Uhlenhake is a former mayor of Brewer and former chair of the Maine Democratic Party.
Sen. Susan Collins says that she has no regrets about her vote for Brett Kavanaugh.
As two members of a 17-woman delegation of elected officials from across Maine, who traveled to Washington, D.C., in 2018 to plead with her to reject his nomination, we are surprised.
Does she not regret that millions of women in America have had their basic healthcare compromised? Does she not regret that a dozen women, at least, have died due to Roe v. Wade being overturned?
Sen. Collins’ refusal to accept responsibility, or show any remorse, for being the deciding vote for Kavanaugh’s confirmation — which led to ending 50 years of constitutional protections for abortion rights — is perhaps the most glaring example of her complete lack of accountability.
We all knew what would happen once Kavanaugh was on the court. After all, President Trump promised to only appoint anti-abortion judges to our country’s courts and he was making good on that promise. Everyone knew, it appears, but Collins.
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Maybe that’s because she never gave us the chance to meet with her. In the fall of 2018, when the 17 of us went to Sen. King’s and Sen. Collins’ offices to share our stories and ask them both to vote no, only one met with us face-to-face. Sen. King made the time. He listened. He voted against Kavanaugh.
Collins didn’t give us five minutes. She never even said hello.
As elected officials ourselves, constituent services was always at the center of our work. It was stunning to see our own senator refuse to make time for elected Mainers who’d traveled hundreds of miles to be heard.
Had she listened, we would have told her what most Mainers believe: that women have a fundamental right to make their own healthcare decisions.
We would have told her our own stories, as well as stories from our constituents, to reinforce how critical it was to protect women’s health and reproductive freedom. We would have pointed to warning signs in Kavanaugh’s record — his past criticism of the Roe v. Wade decision to his support of denying women employees no-cost birth control based on private employers’ personal religious beliefs.
But she refused to meet with us. Refused to listen.
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We weren’t alone in trying. Calls and emails from Mainers flooded her office. Over 200 Maine attorneys shared their concerns about how Kavanaugh’s voting could affect environmental laws and civil rights. Sen. Collins’ platitudes and assurances made on the Senate floor before she cast her deciding vote were a slap in the face to all of us who warned what his appointment meant to the future of one of the most fundamental of human rights.
Actions speak much louder than words. Sen. Collins keeps voting to confirm anti-abortion judges — including two more in recent weeks.
Women have the right to decide if, when and how many children to have. We have the right to make our own medical decisions, free from political interference. So we can control our future.
That’s what this has always been about: autonomy and dignity, and we expect our representatives to not just meet with us but to stand up for us.
And we definitely expect them to listen.
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Tagged: columns, election 2026, senate 2026
