Taking the podium in a room full of cheering conservatives this week, a beglittered Amy Coney Barrett cracked a quick joke about her life since helping to decimate abortion access across the United States.
“It’s really nice to have a lot of noise made not by protesters outside of my house,” she quipped.
The Supreme Court justice was last to speak Thursday evening at Washington’s Union Station, which hosted the Federalist Society’s 2022 National Lawyers Convention.
Her snide remark elicited laughter and, reportedly, a standing ovation from a fawning crowd.
Protesters have shown up periodically at Barrett’s Virginia home after she and other conservative justices voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide, in the 2022 case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The decision swiftly set back reproductive health care access in vast swaths of the country, as Republican lawmakers sprung at the chance to enact increasingly harsh abortion bans.
One of Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s neighbors, flanked by two small children, screams at activists to tell them they are going to hell on June 18. (Photo: Nathan Howard via Getty Images)
In May, after a draft of the Dobbs decision was leaked, activists staged a “Handmaid’s Tale” – themed demonstration in Barrett’s neighborhood. A column of protesters dressed in long crimson robes and white bonnets marched past her house. At least one person held a sign that read, “We did not elect People of Praise” ― a reference to the small, ultraconservative Christian group in which Barrett served as a “handmaid,” according to an investigation by The Washington Post.
Protesters were seen in late June ― after the decision was handed down ― carrying loudspeakers and signs bearing messages such as “reproductive rights are human rights” and “liar” alongside a drawing of Barrett’s face.
In this week’s midterm election, voters favored Democrats more widely than political observers had expected; many attribute the turnout to public anger over the Supreme Court’s abortion decision.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
