"Most people, in fact, react this way," he wrote in 2001 of the reaction of horror to such instructions. He contrasted this horror of members of the public and the medical community with the "smug" dismissal by some bioethicists of that disgust as "the yuck factor."
He noted that "while abortion remains a vexing question for most Americans, the principle conceded with legal abortion has led to clearly undesired moral consequences."
In the same Jan. 15, 2001 edition of the Dartmouth Review, Menashi also wrote an editorial entitled "The College on the Pill," addressing attempts to provide the "morning-after pill" to undergraduates despite it being a prescription medication.
Sen. Feinstein asked Menashi "on what basis" he considered the morning-after pill to be an abortifacient. Menashi had quoted from sources in his editorial including a letter circulated by the American Life League and signed by 106 medical doctors which argued that it could function as an abortifacient.
Menashi answered that his editorial "did not reach that conclusion" that it was an abortifacient, but rather explained the "conflict over definition" of the pill.
The consideration of Menashi's confirmation comes after other judicial nominees of the Trump administration have faced questions from senators over abortion.
In July, the Senate voted to confirm William Shaw Stickman IV, nominated for the U.S. District Court of the Western District of Pennsylvania, and Jeffrey Brown, tapped to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, after both nominees were listed by Planned Parenthood as abortion opponents. Both nominees were also questioned by senators over their opinions on abortion and the Roe decision.
In 2018, nominee Brian Buescher was grilled by Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) over his membership in the Knights of Columbus.
In late July, Buescher was confirmed by the Senate as a U.S. District Court judge for Nebraska.