en. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., and Planned Parenthood have come under fire after accusing Judge Brett Kavanaugh of describing contraceptives as “abortion-inducing drugs” -- when he was only summarizing the position of a pro-life group.
The flashpoint came on Thursday when Kavanaugh was asked at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing about a case he ruled on that involved Priests for Life, who were challenging Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate that the group said violated their religious beliefs.
"That was a group that was being forced to provide certain kind of health coverage over their religious objection to their employees. And under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the question was first, was this a substantial burden on the religious exercise? And it seemed to me quite clearly it was," Kavanaugh told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"It was a technical matter of filling out a form in that case," he said. "In that case, they said filling out the form would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objected to."
Pro-choice and anti-Kavanaugh groups seized on his reference to "abortion-inducing drugs." Harris tweeted out the video, but cut out the preface that showed Kavanaugh making it clear he was summarizing the arguments of Priest for Life. The video therefore presented the reference as his own.
Harris accused Kavanaugh of choosing his words carefully and said, “This is a dog whistle for going after birth control.”
“He was nominated for the purpose of taking away a woman’s constitutionally protected right to make her own health care decisions,” the tweet said. “Make no mistake - this is about punishing women.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ugh-out-context-on-birth-control-remarks.html
The flashpoint came on Thursday when Kavanaugh was asked at his Supreme Court confirmation hearing about a case he ruled on that involved Priests for Life, who were challenging Obamacare’s contraceptive mandate that the group said violated their religious beliefs.
"That was a group that was being forced to provide certain kind of health coverage over their religious objection to their employees. And under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the question was first, was this a substantial burden on the religious exercise? And it seemed to me quite clearly it was," Kavanaugh told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"It was a technical matter of filling out a form in that case," he said. "In that case, they said filling out the form would make them complicit in the provision of the abortion-inducing drugs that they were, as a religious matter, objected to."
Pro-choice and anti-Kavanaugh groups seized on his reference to "abortion-inducing drugs." Harris tweeted out the video, but cut out the preface that showed Kavanaugh making it clear he was summarizing the arguments of Priest for Life. The video therefore presented the reference as his own.
Harris accused Kavanaugh of choosing his words carefully and said, “This is a dog whistle for going after birth control.”
“He was nominated for the purpose of taking away a woman’s constitutionally protected right to make her own health care decisions,” the tweet said. “Make no mistake - this is about punishing women.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ugh-out-context-on-birth-control-remarks.html
