Josh Welle Says SCOTUS Nominee Kavanaugh Would Help Representative Chris Smith Roll Back Women’s Rights

EATONTOWN, N.J.—Josh Welle, who is running to represent New Jersey’s 4th District in Congress, said that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s record shows he will support the rollback on women’s healthcare rights that Representative Chris Smith has sought for decades.

“Brett Kavanaugh is the type of nominee that Chris Smith has been waiting for—one who has supported limiting access to health services and letting employers deny birth control for women,” Welle said.

Kavanaugh, a member of the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, was part of a three-judge panel that temporarily delayed letting a pregnant immigrant teen have access to an abortion in Texas. The full Circuit Court later granted the teenager’s right to seek an abortion, with Kavanaugh dissenting.

Welle also pointed out that in a separate case, Kavanaugh called for making it easier for employers to deny coverage for contraception to their employees, even though Kavanaugh acknowledged the “compelling” interest in giving women access to birth control.

Based on Kavanaugh’s judicial decisions, Welle said Kavanaugh could be expected to limit access to health services, including birth control, despite acknowledging that the Supreme Court long ago granted women these rights. These tactics are familiar to Chris Smith, who has strategically attached anti-abortion policies  to “must pass” legislation.  In 2017, Smith sponsored legislation to ban all federal funding for abortion for poor women, except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment to the life of the mother.

“Chris Smith has spent his career trying to roll back the rights for mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters,” Welle said. “I call on Chris Smith to come clean with voters now—tell us what rights you will work to strip away if you have a Supreme Court willing to reverse a precedent that has been in place for two generations.”

Welle is also concerned that a more conservative court threatens equal rights for gay and lesbian Americans. “Rulings that expanded rights to our LGBT community are more recent, but they are no less important and no less in Chris Smith’s sites,” he said.

Voters in the Fourth District should not re-elect a member of Congress singularly focused on denying women access to healthcare. Said Welle, “The only thing more dangerous to women’s health than Chris Smith, is Chris Smith backed by a Supreme Court ready to do his bidding.”

Josh Welle is an Annapolis graduate, Afghanistan veteran, Commander in the Navy Reserve, and former founder of a technology company. He was raised in Wall Township and is a Democratic candidate for New Jersey’s 4th Congressional District competing to unseat 37-year incumbent Chris Smith. He lives with his wife, Angela, in Monmouth County, New Jersey.