ATLANTA — A Georgia House representative is defending a controversial tweet he posted just hours after the announcement that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died.
Ginsburg died Friday at age 87.
Rep. Doug Collins is running for U.S. Senate. The Republican tweeted Friday night that Ginsburg’s defense of abortion laws led to the deaths of more than 30 million unborn children.
“RIP to the more than 30 million innocent babies that have been murdered during the decades that Ruth Bader Ginsburg defended pro-abortion laws. With @realDonaldTrump nominating a replacement that values human life, generations of unborn children have a chance to live,” Collins wrote.
The congressman is standing by his comments.
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Channel 2 Anchor Justin Wilfon caught up with Collins at a rally in Hall County, where he said he will never back down when it comes to his pro-life stance.
“I will never back on life. It’s very personal for me. The truth was about being honest about where we’re going and what the president’s going to do,” Collins said. Sometimes in life, there’s just polite, and there’s just the truth. That was the truth."
Collins said Ginsburg’s legacy as a pro-choice defender has been something he has fought his whole life against. He said he hopes Trump will appoint someone who overturns Roe vs. Wade, which protects women’s rights to choose to have an abortion.
“For me it was about focusing on what is ahead in this seat that I believe the President needs to fill, and fill quickly.”
Wilfon asked Collins if he felt like his reaction would seem to some people as if he was celebrating Ginsburg’s death.
“There was nowhere in there where I was celebrating a death,” Collins said. “I was making a statement.”
Collins is running against Kelly Loeffler and several Democrats for Senate, including Dr. Raphael Warnock. Warnock condemned the tweet Saturday night.
“We have disagreements about these issues, but there’s no place in American politics for this kind of disrespectful speech literally hours after the death of an extraordinary public servant," Warnock said.
Loeffler tweeted that her prayers were with the family, and said that the president has the right to pick a new justice before the election that will protect the right to life.
Warnock said any talk of a new justice should wait until after the election.
Mitch McConnell should be held to the standard that he set in 2016 when he said that -- we were then several months away from an election -- that the American people should get a chance to weigh in," Warnock said.
Collins disagreed.
“I think they need to get it done and get it done before the election,” Collins said.
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