WASHINGTON,D.C.–Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) took part in a Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday about a “Post-Roe America” and abortion access. On Wednesday, it was his wife’s turn. Erin Hawley, a lawyer at the Alliance Defending Freedom, testified on the same issue as a Republican witness at a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing. 

“We need to come alongside women and support them, we need to provide them with the resources that are necessary for them and their children to survive. The Dobbs decision is not only a legal victory, but it is a rallying cry, we must become a culture that values life that values women's lives,” Erin Hawley testified

In her role as an attorney with the Alliance, a conservative legal organization, Erin Hawley worked on lawsuit that became the basis for the Supreme Court’s decision last month in the case of Dobbs vs. Jackson which ending the constitutional right to an abortion.

“Erin was central to that effort, absolutely central, and I'm really, really proud of her,” Sen. Hawley said in an exclusive interview with Spectrum News. 

 “She was counseled in Mississippi in this case. So, she worked with Mississippi, wrote the briefs at the Supreme Court with Mississippi and was right there shaping strategy. They asked for her to come and join their team for this case, specifically. And so that is really what has been the focus of her legal practice for the last year has been this case and serving as counsel to Mississippi, the Supreme Court for this case.

The senator, who has served as Missouri attorney general, added that abortion rights was a topic discussed frequently in their household. He said he and his wife celebrated the Supreme Court’s decision revoking a woman’s right to an abortion by taking their family out to dinner. 

“I sat my boys down, my 9-year-old, my 7-year-old later that evening and I tried to explain to them in a way they'd understand. I was like, you know, there's been a big decision at the Supreme Court today. That's our nation's highest court and mommy was absolutely critical to this and it's a great decision, that rights a terrible wrong, that was done almost 50 years ago. I said, this is something that Mama will always be remembered for. I mean, this is she is part of this decision forever and then we celebrated by going out as a family for Mexican food,” Hawley said. 

The majority of testimony Erin Hawley provided at the House hearing was solicited by Republican members of the committee. She was the only conservative witness to testify alongside five people called by Democrats, including a Michigan state senator and member of the Georgia House of Representatives. Conservative Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) was among those who questioned Erin  Hawley.

“Ms. Hawley did the Dobbs decision shut down abortions completely nationwide?” Biggs asked. 

“The Dobbs decision returned to the states the authority, finally, to be able to protect life. In 1973, a majority of men on the Supreme Court declared that no matter how compelling a state’s interest was in protecting life, no matter what we learned about a baby’s development -  state’s could not protect that life until 22 weeks. With the Dobbs’ decision, a decision of judicial modesty 

the people and their elected representatives get to make that choice,” Hawley responded. 

The Hawleys’ ties to the Supreme Court don’t stop with the Dobbs case. The two met in 2007 when they both clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts. However, Roberts did not sign on to the majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito overturning Roe vs. Wade. Instead he filed an opinion in which he agreed with the majority’s ruling to uphold Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban but he disagreed that Roe needed to be overturned in the process.