Biden to nominate an anti-abortion Republican to be a lifetime federal judge 5 days after he vowed to protect abortion rights

• Biden plans to nominate an anti-abortion lawyer to a Kentucky federal judgeship, Gov. Andy Beshear confirmed.
• Last week Biden said he would fight for abortion rights in light of the Roe v. Wade decision.

President Joe Biden has agreed to nominate an anti-abortion lawyer to a lifetime federal judiciary appointment in Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear confirmed at a Thursday press conference.

The news of the plan to nominate the attorney Chad Meredith comes less than a week after Biden said he would use all of his "appropriate lawful powers" to reverse the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Rep. John Yarmuth, a Democrat, and other unnamed officials told the Louisville Courier-Journal that Meredith's nomination was pending. Yarmuth's office told Insider that the White House had informed him of the nomination.

Meredith, who is currently the solicitor general to Kentucky's attorney general, Daniel Cameron, has a record of defending Republican cases that opponents say are designed to obstruct access to abortion, the Courier-Journal reported.

Beshear, Kentucky's Democratic governor, said Thursday that the White House told informed his office of the move "late last week."

"My understanding right now is that [the nomination] has not been submitted, which I hope means in the very least it's on pause," he said at a press conference.

"If the president makes that nomination, it is indefensible," Beshear added.

Yarmuth told the paper that he strongly opposes Meredith's nomination and said that he believed it's part of a deal with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

"Given that a judicial position isn't currently open on the Eastern District Court, it's clear that this is part of some larger deal on judicial nominations between the president and Mitch McConnell," Yarmuth told the paper.

McConnell has already had an outsize influence on judicial appointments, saying on Wednesday that his moves that led to a conservative-majority Supreme Court were his most "consequential" decisions ever, Bloomberg reported.

The White House and McConnell's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The White House told the Courier-Journal that it does not comment on judicial appointments.

Appointing Meredith would likely spark intense condemnation from progressive Democrats.

On the day the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe was handed down, Biden said: "I will do all in my power to protect a woman's right in states where they will face the consequences of today's decision."

But the White House has stayed firmly within an established political playbook out of fear of legal risk and further national polarization ahead of November's midterms, Reuters reported, citing unnamed sources.

More than 30 Senate Democrats called on Biden to take "bold action" in response, Reuters reported, while progressive Democrats such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez urged him to take more radical moves such as expanding the Supreme Court.

Meredith is a contributor to the conservative Federalist Society, to which recent anti-abortion Supreme Court appointees Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh have strong ties.

Meredith defended a 2017 Kentucky abortion law that requires abortion-providing doctors to conduct an ultrasound on patients and describe the image, as well as playing the sounds made by the fetus' developing heart, the Courier-Journal reported.

He also defended an attempt by then-Gov. Matt Bevin to enact a safety law that opponents said was designed to shut down the state's only full-time abortion clinic in 2017, the paper reported.

Meredith did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.