Augusta, Maine – New reporting from Maine Beacon reveals that after helping pave the way for the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Susan Collins has skipped every Senate HELP Committee hearing focused on abortion and reproductive health.

Collins has failed to attend hearings examining the fallout of the Dobbs decision, including the growing barriers to abortion care and the impact abortion bans have had on women’s health across the country.

The reporting also shows that she has missed more than half of all possible HELP Committee meetings during her current term. Between 2021 and March 2026, she did not attend 67 of 125 possible HELP Committee and relevant subcommittee hearings.

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Maine Beacon: Susan Collins skipped every Senate health committee hearing on abortion after Dobbs

By Channa Steinmetz

May 20, 2026

• Sen. Susan Collins has not attended any Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee meetings focused on abortion or reproductive healthcare after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, according to committee hearing reports. During the same period, Collins has highlighted her voting record, saying in a 2025 statement that “the people of Maine deserve a Senator who shows up to represent them every day.”

• Collins’ missed hearings included a July 2022 hearing titled “Reproductive Care in a Post-Roe America: Barriers, Challenges, and Threats to Women’s Health” and a June 2024 hearing examining how abortion bans created what lawmakers described as a “health care nightmare” across the country.

• Back in 2018, Collins voted to pave the way for the Dobbs decision by confirming Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. At the time, she said she believed that he would not play a role in overturning Roe v. Wade, which he did just a few years later.

• Collins has also missed more than half of all possible HELP Committee meetings during her current term. Between 2021 and March 2026, she did not attend 67 of 125 possible HELP Committee and relevant subcommittee hearings.

• Among the hearings Collins skipped were a 2024 hearing on the medical debt crisis in America, a 2023 hearing on the childcare crisis and a 2025 hearing focused on lowering healthcare costs.

• Collins additionally missed nearly half of HELP hearings related to healthcare issues more broadly, including hearings on substance use disorder treatment, diabetes and obesity.