Justice Amy Coney Barrett Says Her Kids Have Faced Backlash from the Dobbs Decision

Supreme Court Jus­tice Amy Coney Bar­rett has revealed that the impact of the Court’s con­tro­ver­sial 2022 rul­ing over­turn­ing Roe v. Wade has extend­ed beyond the legal and polit­i­cal are­nas — reach­ing direct­ly into her own home.

Speak­ing pub­licly, Bar­rett shared that her sev­en chil­dren have faced per­son­al back­lash in the after­math of Dobbs v. Jack­son Women’s Health Orga­ni­za­tion, the land­mark deci­sion that end­ed near­ly 50 years of fed­er­al con­sti­tu­tion­al pro­tec­tion for abor­tion rights.

Fam­i­ly in the Spot­light
Bar­rett, a moth­er of sev­en, not­ed that the hos­til­i­ty toward the Court’s rul­ing has often spilled over into her children’s lives. From peers to acquain­tances, her kids have report­ed­ly been sub­ject­ed to harsh words and treat­ment because of her role in the case. “My chil­dren have had to with­stand crit­i­cism from peo­ple in their lives,” Bar­rett admit­ted, acknowl­edg­ing the heavy per­son­al toll.

The Bur­den of a Divi­sive Rul­ing
The Dobbs deci­sion was one of the most polar­iz­ing in mod­ern U.S. his­to­ry. While it was cel­e­brat­ed by pro-life advo­cates as a long-await­ed vic­to­ry, it also sparked nation­wide protests, fierce polit­i­cal debates, and deep divi­sions across com­mu­ni­ties. For Barrett’s fam­i­ly, the decision’s fall­out under­scored how the lives of jus­tices — and their loved ones — are inex­tri­ca­bly tied to the con­se­quences of their rul­ings.

A Jus­tice Under Scruti­ny
Since her appoint­ment to the Court in 2020, Bar­rett has faced intense scruti­ny, with crit­ics point­ing to her con­ser­v­a­tive Catholic faith and past writ­ings as indi­ca­tions of how she might rule on abor­tion. Her deci­sive vote in Dobbs cement­ed her role in one of the most con­se­quen­tial judi­cial shifts in decades.

Yet while she is no stranger to pub­lic crit­i­cism her­self, Bar­rett empha­sized that it has been far more dif­fi­cult to watch her chil­dren bear the brunt of the back­lash.

Bal­anc­ing Pub­lic Duty and Pri­vate Life
The justice’s remarks high­light the unique chal­lenges of serv­ing on the nation’s high­est court. For Bar­rett, it has meant not only shoul­der­ing the respon­si­bil­i­ty of con­sti­tu­tion­al inter­pre­ta­tion but also nav­i­gat­ing the deeply per­son­al effects of deci­sions that rip­ple through Amer­i­can soci­ety.

As debates over abor­tion con­tin­ue to play out in state leg­is­la­tures and courts across the coun­try, Barrett’s acknowl­edg­ment of her family’s strug­gles serves as a reminder that behind every rul­ing are human beings — both those affect­ed by the laws, and the fam­i­lies of those who make them.