by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 24, 2004
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Leading abortion advocate Kate
Michelman yesterday kicked off her nationwide campaign to mobilize pro-abortion
voters behind Democratic nominee John Kerry. The effort is an attempt
to defeat President Bush in November, thereby preventing him from nominating
pro-life judges to the Supreme Court.
"If
Bush is given the opportunity, he will appoint right-wing Justices to
the Supreme Court who will turn the clock back on our hard-won rights
and freedoms," said Michelman, the former president of NARAL.
Michelman, who stepped down as the head of one of the largest pro-abortion groups to stump for Kerry, started her cross-country campaign on Thursday with press conferences in New Hampshire and Maine, two battleground states.
She also met with about 20 pro-abortion students at the University of New Hampshire Thursday night.
In the coming weeks, Michelman will take her “Save the Court Tour” to stops in Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and New Jersey. The tour is sponsored by the Democratic National Committee and DNC chairman Terry McAuliffe selected Michelman to direct it.
Michelman says the next president will have the opportunity to appoint two or three new judges to the Supreme Court. The current court favors the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion by a 6-3 margin and two pro-life judges could swing the court to a 5-4 majority favoring Roe's reversal.
Despite that reality, Michelman continued what pro-life groups call a "scare tactic" designed to turn out pro-abortion voters.
"We're one vote away on the Supreme Court from losing our right to choose," she erroneously told the UNH students.
Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg are among the four most likely retirees during the next presidential term.
Rehnquist opposes abortion and was one of the two dissenters in the Roe case. The other three have support Roe and keeping partial-birth abortions legal.
Michelman described Kerry as a man "deeply
committed" to abortion. Kerry has vowed only to select judges who
back abortion.
