Trump's Supreme Court nominee is an insult to Senator Tammy Duckworth

SCREEN CAPTURE / NBC

Sen. Tammy Duckworth (in wheelchair) brought her infant daughter to the floor of the U.S. Senate.

There are plenty of reasons to vote against placing Amy Coney Barrett on the U.S. Supreme Court but for Sen. Tammy Duckworth, her opposition is deeply personal.

In her 50s, the Illinois senator gave birth to the first of her two daughters. For both of children, she used in vitro fertilization, or IVF, to help her conceive.

She was the first senator to give birth while in office and was the first senator allowed to bring her newborn to the floor of the Senate.

On Oct. 2, she wrote a letter to her Senate colleagues describing  ultra-conservative Barrett as someone who "appears to believe that my daughters shouldn't even exist" and says, "I write to each of you today, and especially to my Republican colleagues who cooed and cuddled Maile when she first visited the Capitol, in hopes that you will fully consider the very real impact your vote on this unprecedented nomination could have on those Americans hoping to start families of their own."

Duckworth's letter was responding to media reports last week that Barrett and her husband, Jesse, had signed an anti-abortion ad in 2006 in the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune from an organization known then as St. Joseph County Right to Life, which became part of Right to Life Michiana, which supports criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortion, and for doctors who discard embryos as part of IVF treatments, said Executive Director Jackie Appleman to NPR.

Among the positions the group has taken is criminal penalties for doctors who perform abortion, and for doctors who discard embryos as part of IVF treatments.

"Whether embryos are implanted in the woman and then selectively reduced or it's done in a petri dish and then discarded, you're still ending a new human life at that point and we do oppose that," Appleman told The Guardian.

"Judge Barrett's willingness to associate her name to such an organization is is, disqualifying, and frankly, insulting to every parent, hopeful parent or would-be parent who has struggled to start a family," Duckworth wrote in her letter. 

"I hope you will join me in speaking out for every American family who has struggled with infertility by opposing this confirmation," Duckworth concluded.