Susan Collins Called Police Over A Chalk Drawing Asking Her To “Please” Support Abortion Rights

In an announcement to BuzzFeed Information on Thursday, a spokesperson for Collins mentioned that “as a result of Senator Collins periodically will get threatening letters and cellphone calls, we’ve been suggested by Capitol Police to inform the native police division when there may be exercise directed at her round her house.”

Collins beforehand instructed Bangor Day by day Information that the chalk message was “defacement of public property.”

“We’re grateful to the Bangor law enforcement officials and the Metropolis public works worker who responded to the defacement of public property in entrance of our house,” Collins added.

Collins is not the one official whose residence has lately been the location of abortion rights activism after the leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court docket steered the top of Roe v. Wade — protests have been held exterior the Maryland houses of Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and John Roberts.

Regardless of a scarcity of violence noticed at these protests, the White Home criticized them, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying President Joe Biden “strongly believes within the Constitutional proper to protest” however “that ought to by no means embrace violence, threats, or vandalism.”

“Judges carry out an extremely vital operate in our society, they usually should be capable of do their jobs with out concern for his or her private security,” Psaki mentioned.

The Girls’s Well being Safety Act, which handed within the Home in September, is scheduled to be voted on by the Senate on Wednesday. The invoice goals to guard abortion entry on the federal degree, even when Roe v. Wade is overturned.

Regardless of her fame as a reasonable Republican in favor of abortion rights, Collins has mentioned she’s going to vote towards the invoice. On Thursday, she instructed CNN she opposed it as a result of she believes the invoice would not “defend the suitable of a Catholic hospital to not carry out abortions.”

Although Collins has beforehand proclaimed her assist of Roe v. Wade, this may not be the primary time her vote didn’t replicate these views. She voted to substantiate Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court docket in 2018, telling 60 Minutes she “couldn’t vote for a choose who had demonstrated hostility to Roe v. Wade,” and was happy by his responses on the difficulty throughout his affirmation listening to.

However Kavanaugh — in addition to Justice Neil Gorsuch, who Collins additionally voted to substantiate — did, in truth, vote in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade, in accordance with the leaked draft ruling that has ignited abortion rights protests nationwide.

“If this leaked draft opinion is the ultimate choice and this reporting is correct, it could be utterly inconsistent with what Gorsuch and Kavanaugh mentioned of their hearings and in our conferences in my workplace,” Collins mentioned in an announcement following the leak.