Kavanaugh's Confirmation Traumatized American Women, Study Shows—And May Have Made Them Less Safe

More than six months after Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed by the U.S. Senate, a new study shows how women and men were affected by revelations that the judge had been accused of sexual assault.

The non-partisan research firm PerryUndem surveyed about 1,300 people from across the country, finding that more Americans believe Kavanaugh’s accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, than did directly after the hearings—and that most believe Kavanaugh lied under oath about the alleged assault.

One in four women told the company that watching the hearings in September had caused them to re-experience past trauma. The number was larger for Latin American women, at one in three.

And 36 percent of women said they related personally to Blasey Ford’s testimony, in which she described Kavanaugh forcefully holding her down on a bed at a party.

Like the 2018 midterm elections—in which Democrats took control of the U.S. House—the study debunks the prediction put forward by Republicans, including President Donald Trump, after Kavanaugh’s confirmation that voters would turn against Democrats.

“Ultimately, PerryUndem concludes that the Kavanaugh hearings may actually have helped Democrats more than Republicans, noting that ‘feeling unfavorably toward Justice Kavanaugh motivated people to vote for the Democratic candidate for U.S. House of Representatives—above and beyond typical factors, such as party affiliation,'” wrote Irin Carmon at The Cut.