No, the far-right organization Amy Coney Barrett is a part of didn’t inspire The Handmaid’s Tale, but they still literally did call women “handmaids” while men were “heads,” and they teach that a man is the head of the family, while the wife submits to his authority.

This is a group that kicks out anyone who is openly LGBT. This is a group that does not believe women and men should have equal power, equal authority, and equal rights. This is an extreme anti-equality organization that Amy Coney Barrett was voluntarily a member of.

Pointing this out is not attacking her faith. Most Catholics are not, in fact, members of People of Praise, and POP has stated many times that it’s not a church (nor a cult). Membership in an organization that is steadfastly opposed to gender equality and LGBT rights is a choice.

Amy Coney Barrett can believe whatever she wants, for whatever reasons she wants. But if one of the things she believes is that women should not have equal power, rights, and authority as men, then she should not be on the Supreme Court. It’s that simple.

Lots of people being like, “well this isn’t far-right, it’s what the Catholic Church teaches!” Indeed it is, and the church and some of what it teaches is pretty sexist. Lots of institutions are. But lots of people who engage with those institutions ignore the bigoted stuff.

Every person of faith makes some choices about what to follow, what to prioritize, and what to ignore. I know we try to pretend that’s not true but it absolutely is. Lots of Catholics choose to lean away from the sexist and homophobic stuff and embrace other aspects of faith.

For example, Catholics use birth control and have abortions at roughly the same rate as the general population (so do Evangelicals). Many Catholics reject the “man is the head / woman submits to his authority” model.

Amy Coney Barrett embraces views that are antithetical to basic values of equality before the law. She has brought those views into her work. The problem isn’t that her discriminatory views are rooted in a particular interpretation of her faith; the problem is the discrimination.

If the issue really were that progressives and Democrats are anti-Catholic, Sonia Sotomayor would not be on the bench.