Pro-Abortion Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg Skips Red Mass Over Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 6, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The Catholic "Red Mass" is a tradition for members of the Supreme Court on the Sunday before they open their session every October. Six justices found a way to attend the event — and Justice Clarence Thomas would have come if not for a wedding — but not pro-abortion Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The Red Mass has been celebrated since 1953 at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington.
Named for the red vestments the celebrants wear, the service is meant to invoke guidance from God for the jurists to make good decisions.
Ginsburg once attended the traditional event but quit going to it because of abortion.
She once confessed to author Abigail Pogrebin in her mid-2000s book "Stars of David: Prominent Jews Talk About Being Jewish" that she no longer attends because she doesn’t want to be reminded of how she supports abortion.
"Before every session, there’s a Red Mass," Ginsburg said. "And the justices get invitations from the cardinal to attend that. And a good number of the justices show up every year. I went one year, and I will never go again, because this sermon was outrageously anti-abortion."
As pro-life advocates would hope for with an audience that can determine the fate of the lives of millions of women and unborn children, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston, Texas gave a homily that presented the pro-life message.
He called on attorneys to be a voice for all clients, including those who have not been born.
“They are poor and wealthy, confused and lucid, polite and impolite,” he said. “In some cases, the clients are voiceless, for they lack influence; in others they are literally voiceless, not yet with tongues and even without names, and require our most careful attention and radical support."
Ginsburg’s decision not to attend comes after criticism she endured this summer for her comments about the Roe v. Wade abortion case that appeared racist.
In an interview with the New York Times, Ginsburg says she once supported Roe for population control reasons targeting minorities.
"Reproductive choice has to be straightened out. There will never be a woman of means without choice anymore. That just seems to me so obvious," she says.
Reporter Emily Bazelon then asks Ginsburg a question about what she means and Ginsburg responds that the 1980 Harris v. McRae ruling upholding the Hyde amendment, which prohibits federal taxpayer funding of abortions, surprised her.
"Frankly I had thought that at the time Roe was decided, there was concern about population growth and particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too many of. So that Roe was going to be then set up for Medicaid funding for abortion. Which some people felt would risk coercing women into having abortions when they didn’t really want them. But when the court decided McRae, the case came out the other way. And then I realized that my perception of it had been altogether wrong," Ginsburg said.
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