Pro-Life Groups Maintain Cautious Approach on Harriet Miers Pick

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Oct 5, 2005   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

Pro-Life Groups Maintain Cautious Approach on Harriet Miers Pick Email this article
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 5, 2005

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Pro-life groups are continuing to take a cautiously optimistic approach to President Bush’s selection of Harriet Miers to replace outgoing pro-abortion Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Early reports that make it appear Miers is pro-life are reassuring for some pro-life advocates, but others are still reserving judgment until they know more about the woman who could replace a key vote on the high court.

The view of David O’Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee is one held by many pro-life leaders. He’s not yet satisfied he can rally around Miers but he trusts President Bush based on his past pro-life performance.

"President Bush has an excellent record of appointing judges who recognize the proper role of the courts, which is to interpret the law according to its actual text, and not to legislate from the bench," O’Steen said. "We believe that Harriet Miers is another nominee who will abide by the text and history of the Constitution."

Tony Perkins, president of the Washington-based Family Research Council, took a similar wait-and-see attitude. He urged "American families to wait and see if the confidence we have always placed in the president’s commitment is justified by his selection.”

Dr. James Dobson, the nationally renown leader of Focus on the Family, took the same road and said Bush "pledged emphatically during his campaign to appoint judges who will
interpret the law rather than create it."

"President Bush’s appointments to the federal bench appear to have been remarkably consistent with that stated philosophy," Dobson explained. "Based on the information known generally about Harriet Miers, and President Bush’s personal knowledge of her, we believe that she will not prove to be a lone exception."

Other pro-life organizations are already on the Miers bandwagon, thanks to initial reports showing her to be a solid pro-life advocate.

"I trust that she will be an excellent addition to the high court and all Americans will be proud of her," said Roberta Combs, president of the Christian Coalition, said.

New reports indicate Miers led a fight to overturn the American Bar Association’s pro-abortion stance, she gave money to a Texas pro-life group and attended a couple of pro-life dinners, she attends a pro-life evangelical Christian church, and her former campaign manager and a pro-life Texas Supreme Court judge have said she is strongly pro-life.