Potential Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Nominee Jennifer Granholm at White House
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 18, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a potential Supreme Court nominee for pro-abortion President Barack Obama, will be at the White House on Tuesday. Although Obama administration officials say she will be present for an unrelated event, Granholm is on the president’s high court short list.
Granholm is a former federal prosecutor and Michigan attorney general and, although it is not certain if she will meet with Obama about the Supreme Court vacancy, she is one of the potential nominees.
Granholm, if nominated, would potentially replace retiring pro-abortion Justice David Souter.
The Michigan governor is also strongly supportive of abortion and has been a thorn in the side of pro-life advocates in the industrial Midwest state.
In June 2008, Granholm vetoed a ban on partial-birth abortions for a second time.
She claimed the bill needed a health exception even though the Supreme Court had already upheld a federal ban saying such an exception was unnecessary. In fact, physicians groups had indicated that late-term abortions pose problems for women’s health and there is no reason to ever do the disputed abortion procedure to protect the health of women.
In October 2003, Governor Granholm vetoed Senate Bill 395, the "Legal Birth Definition Act," which sought to prohibit partial-birth abortion by granting full legal status to the child as soon as any part of his or her body emerges from the mother.
In 2004, Granholm vetoed another pro-life bill that would have strengthened the state’s parental consent law.
The measure would have set guidelines for granting a judicial waiver to allow a minor to seek an abortion without notifying her parents, including the level of her maturity, circumstances of her pregnancy, and how many abortions she has had previously. A judge would also be prohibited from granting a waiver to a minor who has already been denied one by another judge, eliminating "judge shopping" that pro-life leaders say has been taking place.
Granholm has also opposed legislation that would require abortion businesses to allow women considering an abortion to see ultrasound footage of their unborn child.
The Michigan governor has also maintained close ties with pro-abortion groups and was the keynote speaker at a pro-abortion rally at the state capital in April 2006.
Granholm has also upset pro-life advocates by supporting embryonic stem cell research and she came under fire for using the state’s web site to lobby for funding of it.
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