Pro-Life Attorneys: Legal Brief Points to Sonia Sotomayor’s Pro-Abortion Views
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 9, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The big question regarding the nomination of appeals court Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court is whether she will uphold the Roe v. Wade case that allowed virtually unlimited abortions. A prominent pro-life attorney says he thinks a legal brief from a group Sotomayor supported provides some direction.
Leading pro-abortion groups have been moderately supportive of Sotomayor’s nomination and President Barack Obama, along with members of the Senate who back abortion, have said they are comfortable with Sotomayor’s abortion views.
Once piece of evidence they cite is a legal brief the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund submitted to the Supreme Court as it considered the case Webster v. Reproductive Health Services in 1989.
Now called Latino Justice, the group’s legal papers urged support for Roe and abortion and it argued that Hispanic women would be discriminated against if the Supreme Court overturned Roe and abortion were prohibited. The brief claimed women would resort to illegal abortions should that happen.
Although Sotomayor did not author the brief, she served on the organization’s board of directors form 1980 to 1992 and, presumably, knew about the brief and did not apparently lodge any objections to it or to her organization promoting abortion.
“Judge Sotomayor has avoided abortion decisions while she was on the bench," Americans United for Life Fellow Patrick Nagorski says. "However, she was a leading member of the PRDF when it filed this amicus brief with the Supreme Court."
Clarke Forsythe, the senior legal counsel for the pro-life group, says the legal brief is a pro-abortion smoking gun of sorts.
“Now we know why President Obama said that Judge Sotomayor shared his view of ‘the Constitution’ and why the White House reassured pro-abortion organizations," he said. "If Judge Sotomayor holds the position that she signed onto via the PRDF’s brief, then, if an abortion-related case comes up on the docket, it will lead to her reading the Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA) into the Constitution by judicial interpretation."
The brief also argued that any laws requiring abortions to be performed in hospitals would preclude abortions for poor women and women of color.
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