Barack Obama Names Pro-Abortion Activist Elena Kagan to Supreme Court

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 10, 2010   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Barack Obama Names Pro-Abortion Activist Elena Kagan to Supreme Court

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 10
, 2010

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — President Barack Obama named pro-abortion Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court today to replace retiring pro-abortion Justice John Paul Stevens. Kagan, if confirmed by the Senate, would join the current 5-4 majority that has kept Roe v. Wade and 52 million abortions in place.

Kagan, a former Harvard Law dean, is an ardent abortion advocate who, at 50, would leave a pro-abortion legacy for Obama on the Supreme Court for decades to come.

Leading pro-life advocates immediately responded with comments and analysis showing Kagan’s pro-abortion credentials and saying they will urge senators to oppose her nomination.

"Elena Kagan has strong ties to abortion-advocacy organizations and expressed admiration for activist judges who have worked to advance social policy rather than to impartially interpret the law," Charmaine Yoest, the president of Americans United for Life, told LifeNews.com.

She said her group would "oppose President Obama’s attempt to reshape the Court as an activist, pro-abortion institution through which unelected judges will work to impose an out-of-the-mainstream social agenda upon the American people."

Yoest called Kagan "an ardent abortion supporter" who fulfills Obama’s pledge to nominate a justice who strongly supports abortion.

Kagan has publicly and repeatedly criticized federal regulations that prohibited recipients of Title X family planning funds, taxpayer dollars, from counseling women to get abortions — arguing they amounted to the subsidization of "anti-abortion" speech.

She has spent most of her career in academia and government — in part as a legal counsel in the administration of pro-abortion President Bill Clinton –and prior to becoming the attorney for the Obama administration before the Supreme Court. Kagan was Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton and Deputy Assistant to him for domestic policy — which, under Clinton, advocated abortion.

LifeNews.com spoke with Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America, before the nomination.

Kagan was credited by the ACLU with “shaping Clinton’s policy on hate crimes," Wright noted.

"The Clinton Administration treated pro-life activists like violent criminals, creating a task force in the Department of Justice and a grand jury to investigate peaceful pro-lifers. This raises serious concerns that she shares the hostile view that religious beliefs are a form of ‘hate,’" she said.

Kagan has also come under criticism from Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the pro-life women’s group Susan B. Anthony List.

She told LifeNews.com previously, "In the past Kagan has been a strong supporter of the pro-abortion agenda. She has vigorously opposed the de-funding of taxpayer-funded clinics which promote abortions, despite the fact that a majority of Americans do not want their tax dollars to fund abortion providers."

Catholic Families for America also weighed in against the nomination, citing "grave concerns" about her promotion of abortion as well as a "dangerous internationalism" that has become fashionable among leftist jurists.

"Naming someone who has been so actively hostile to traditional marriage and to the unborn lays bare the president’s pro-abortion, anti-family agenda, in spite of what he says to the contrary," Dr. Kevin Roberts, executive director of CFA, told LifeNews.com.

Kagan’s nomination confirmed the suspicion of many political observers that Obama decided to go with a radical left-wing nominee while Democrats control the Senate with a huge advantage that is expected to deteriorate after the November elections.

Related web sites:
Petition Against Kagan – https://www.iopposekagan.com
Facebook: Stop Kagan

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