Earlier this week, Republican senator Susan Collins claimed to be shocked and dismayed at the draft opinion indicating the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade. Specifically, the Maine lawmaker was beside herself at the idea that Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch had misled her about their positions on the landmark ruling during their Supreme Court confirmations. Collins, you see, was one of the only people on the planet—along with her colleague Lisa Murkowski— who thought that the two conservative justices, nominated by a president who vowed to exclusively appoint judges who would overturn Roe, would not, in fact, overturn Roe. (While the votes could change, Politico reported that Gorsuch and Kavanaugh had preliminarily agreed with the majority to strike down the 1973 decision after hearing oral arguments last December.) “If this leaked draft opinion is the final decision and this reporting is accurate, it would be completely inconsistent with what Justice Gorsuch and Justice Kavanaugh said in their hearings and in our meetings in my office,” Collins said in a statement.

Given how angry the lawmaker was about having apparently been lied to, how much she supposedly cares about preserving the right to an abortion, and how the whole thing blew up in her face so embarrassingly, you might think she’d be doing everything in her power right now to prevent such a right from being axed. But you would be very wrong!

In addition to saying Tuesday that she would not support abolishing the filibuster to allow the Senate to pass legislation codifying Roe v. Wade ASAP, Collins declared on Thursday that she would vote “no” on the Women’s Health Protection Act, which would establish the statutory right to an abortion and is expected to be voted on by lawmakers next week. Why? According to Collins, it just recognizes too many rights for pregnant people. “It supersedes all other federal and state laws, including the conscience protections that are in the Affordable Care Act,” she told reporters when asked about her support of the bill, adding: “It doesn’t protect the right of a Catholic hospital to not perform abortions. That right has been enshrined in law for a long time.”

Incidentally, according to Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, Collins’s claims about what the bill would do—and her excuse for not voting for it—are completely unfounded. “Some are saying that this legislation would tell hospitals—certain religious hospitals—that they have to perform abortions,” he said at a press conference without referring to Collins by name. “That is simply not true. This bill simply gives providers the statutory right to provide abortion care without medically unnecessary restrictions. That’s plain and simple. So this rumor is false.”

Obviously, the larger issue here is the question of how Collins continues to get away with claiming to be pro-choice while refusing to support measures to enshrine reproductive rights into law. While she and Murkowski are sponsoring their own bill called the Reproductive Choice Act, it is much more narrow than the the Women’s Health Protection Act, and Democrats, according to The Washington Post, believe it contains loopholes that would allow states like Mississippi to ban abortion after 15 weeks. As Slate’s Christina Cauterucci wrote on Wednesday: “To Collins, the dissolution of the precedent that has saved countless lives and allowed generations of women to pursue lives, careers, and parenthood on their own terms was never going to be an urgent human rights crisis, a worst-case scenario worth setting aside one’s personal interests to avoid. It will be, for her, a fleeting disappointment. Or at least the affectation of one.”

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Texas governor Greg Abbott now threatening to boot children of undocumented immigrants from public schools

This is where Republicans are at right now. Per the Austin American-Statesman:

Governor Greg Abbott said Wednesday that Texas would consider challenging a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision requiring states to offer free public education to all children, including those of undocumented immigrants. “Texas already long ago sued the federal government about having to incur the costs of the education program, in a case called Plyler versus Doe,” Abbott said, speaking during an appearance on The Joe Pags Show, a conservative radio talk show. “And the Supreme Court ruled against us on the issue.… I think we will resurrect that case and challenge this issue again, because the expenses are extraordinary and the times are different than when Plyler versus Doe was issued many decades ago.”

Apparently in a one-sided war against against any children he perceives as different, in February, Abbott issued an executive order directing the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate any parents who allow their minor kids to receive gender-affirming care for child abuse. Last month, he launched a stunt in protest of Joe Biden’s apparently too humane immigration policies that led to an eight-mile backup of commercial trucks and hit supply chains and businesses.

Donald Trump Jr. is extremely concerned about the Supreme Court leak

But giant tax breaks for massive corporations? Ooo, the senator from Kentucky loves himself some a that

Elsewhere!

White House scrambles for ways to protect abortion (Washington Post)

Abortion pills by mail are hard to stop, but officials in red states are trying (Washington Post)

Goldman Sachs, JPM weigh abortion travel expense coverage for staff (Reuters)

Elon Musk got a huge tax break selling $8.5 billion in Tesla shares (NYP)

Kansas senator demands TV rating update so parents can shield kids from LGBTQ characters (Kansas Star)

Russians steal vast amounts of Ukrainian grain and equipment, threatening this year’s harvest (CNN)

Death Toll During Pandemic Far Exceeds Countries’ Reported Totals, WHO Says (NYT)

Karine Jean-Pierre Is Named White House Press Secretary (NYT)