Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D., N.Y.) said Thursday the upcoming fight over President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee was about whether the country would "criminalize women."
"This is a battle line that has been drawn that literally will put women's lives at risk, that undermines our civil rights, our human rights," Gillibrand said at a rally in Washington. "This is a line that's been drawn about whether we are going to criminalize women, whether we are going to be arresting women for making decisions about their bodies."
Trump is preparing to nominate a justice to replace the retiring Anthony Kennedy, a Ronald Reagan appointee who was considered a "swing vote" on the Court. After Trump's appointment of Neil Gorsuch last year, Democrats fret that a fifth conservative judge on the Court could put the right to abortion at risk.
While Republicans control the Senate 51-49, Democrats hope to block the pick. In arguing their case, Democrats have emphasized that Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the United States, could be in jeopardy.
Other 2020 contenders spoke at the rally as well. Sen. Cory Booker (D., N.J.) likened the efforts to stop a conservative justice to abolition, suffrage and civil rights, saying the U.S. was a history of achieving the "impossible." Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) said Trump was not a "king" and any nominee had to go through the U.S. Senate.