Though she is a Republican, Collins is in favor of abortion rights and was seen as one of the GOP swing voters who could have voted against the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh, one of the court’s conservative justices and a nominee of former President Donald Trump. While commenting on her decision to ultimately vote for Kavanaugh around that time, Collins said that he told her he viewed Roe v. Wade as a “settled law” and deeply rooted precedent.

But Kavanaugh voted with the majority in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that led to Roe being overturned.

Frustration and outrage with Collins’ confirmation vote for Kavanaugh was evident on social media Friday.

One user, @lapetiteemily, tweeted that Collins better “spare us her deep concerns.”

Another tweet from @AclomaxAllen on Friday said conservatives “can thank the gullibility of Senator Susan Collins for this horrible decision.”

Twitter user @evale72 wrote that Collins “really nailed it when she said Justices she voted for wouldn’t overturn Roe.”

“You know who I bet is very concerned right now is Susan Collins,” tweeted @KenTremendous.

Though she did not refer to Collins by name, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said, while delivering remarks Friday, that answers are needed from her colleagues in the Senate, particularly those “who voted for these justices under the claim and the guise that this would not happen.”

“What will they do as a consequence of this decision?” she asked.

In a statement shared with Newsweek shortly after the draft SCOTUS opinion was leaked in May, Collins wrote: “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. Obviously, we won’t know each Justice’s decision and reasoning until the Supreme Court officially announces its opinion in this case.”

As referenced in her statement, Collins also voted for the confirmation of conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, another Trump nominee. Gorsuch did say in his Senate confirmation hearings that he viewed Roe as a “precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court,” according to the Poynter Institute’s PolitiFact fact-checking project.

He also said that Roe was “reaffirmed” with the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision, which was also overturned in the Supreme Court opinion on Friday. But Gorsuch declined to say whether he thought the court’s initial ruling on Roe v. Wade was correct.

Collins said in a statement Friday that the Supreme Court “has abandoned a fifty-year precedent at a time that the country is desperate for stability.”

“Throwing out a precedent overnight that the country has relied upon for half a century is not conservative,” her statement read. “It is a sudden and radical jolt to the country that will lead to political chaos, anger, and a further loss of confidence in our government.”

“This decision is inconsistent with what Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said in their testimony and their meetings with me, where they both were insistent on the importance of supporting long-standing precedents that the country has relied upon,” Collins added.

She noted that she and Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski had introduced legislation earlier in the year to codify the abortion rights established under Roe and Casey. Collins said that she was also working with Democratic Senator Tim Kaine to codify Roe, Casey and two other Supreme Court decisions—Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt and Griswold v. Connecticut.

“Our goal with this legislation is to do what the Court should have done—provide the consistency in our abortion laws that Americans have relied upon for 50 years,” Collins wrote.

​​Updated 6/24/22, 4:50 p.m. ET: This story was updated with a remarks from Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.