Report: Elena Kagan Has History of Working for Pro-Abortion Judges, Politicians
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 17, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new report issued from a national pro-life organization shows Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has a history of working for pro-abortion judges and politicians. Released today, a memo from Americans United for Life provides more ammunition for pro-life lawmakers to oppose her nomination.
Most political observers know Kagan worked for the Clinton administration, where she wrote a memo helping provide him political cover for vetoing the partial-birth abortion ban.
They also know she worked for pro-abortion Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. But the AUL memo digs much deeper.
The first year after Kagan graduated from law school, she clerked for federal Judge Abner Mikva, who, during an interview, stated his strong support for abortion and twisting jurisprudence to advocate it.
“I think judges tend to be too separate from the political process and the body politic,” Judge Mikva said in an interview. [1] “I support the result of Roe v. Wade. When I was a member of the state legislature, I was introducing proposals to make Illinois law approximate what Roe v. Wade later on did…And then, to my pleasant surprise, the Supreme Court came down with [a decision that] preempted the whole political process.”
In 1988, Kagan worked as a researcher for the presidential campaign of pro-abortion candidate Michael Dukakis.
“Dukakis was one of the most outspoken pro-abortion politicians of his time. Three years before Roe v. Wade, he introduced a bill in the Massachusetts House to repeal that state’s then strongly pro-life laws,” AUL said in its memo. [2]
Then, during the summer of 1993, Kagan worked as special counsel to then-Senator Joe Biden, who backs abortion, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Kagan worked to help Biden secure passage of a vote for the confirmation of pro-abortion Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Biden believes the Constitution offers an “inherent right to privacy” and “strongly supports Roe v. Wade.” [3]
During a 2007 Democratic primary debate, when asked whether he would have a specific litmus test question on Roe for Supreme Court nominees, Biden stated: “I would make sure that the people I sent to be nominated for the Supreme Court shared my values; and understood that there is a right to privacy in the United States Constitution. That’s why I led the fight to defeat Bork, Roberts, Alito, and Thomas.” [4]
As has been discussed, from 1995-1999, Kagan worked for President Bill Clinton as Associate Counsel to the President, and then Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council.
“Clinton vetoed the Partial Birth Abortion Ban passed by Congress not once, but twice; reversed the Mexico City Policy, allowing federal funding to go to groups that perform or promote abortion, and supported the Freedom of Choice Act (codifying Roe and Doe into federal statutory law),” AUL notes.
In working for Marshall, a justice Kagan has called “the greatest lawyer of the 20th century,” [5] Kagan clerked for what AUL calls “a strong abortion rights supporter while on the Bench.”
In Beal v. Doe, which involved the disbursement of federal funding to abortion clinics, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Social Security Act did not require the funding of nontherapeutic abortions as a condition of participation in the Medicaid program.
AUL notes Justice Marshall disagreed with the majority’s holding: “The right of every woman to choose whether to bear a child is, as Roe v. Wade held, of fundamental importance. An unwanted child may be disruptive and destructive of the life of any woman…” [6]
Marshall eventually called forcing taxpayers to pay for abortions ““a vital constitutional right.” [7]
And finally, in serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, Kagan has helped the man AUL calls “one of the most pro-abortion presidents in our nation’s history.”
Americans United for Life concludes its memo, saying, “Kagan has worked for, and is close friends with, two of the most pro-abortion presidents in American history, as well as other pro-abortion politicians.”
“As Senator Boxer stated, we do have every reason to believe Kagan will bring the same radical pro-abortion worldview to the Supreme Court,” AUL concluded.
[1] See https://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people/Mikva/mikva-con4.html
[2] See https://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-08-13/news/8801230321_1_abortion-unborn-dukakis
[3] See https://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Joe_Biden_Abortion.htm.
[4] Id.
[5] Erick Lichtblau, “Potential Justice’s Appeal May be Too Bipartisan,” April 17, 2009, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/us/17kagan.html?ref=global-home
[6] Beal v. Doe, 432 U.S. 454, 458 (1977).
[7] Id. at 461.
Relatd web sites:
Americans United for Life – https://www.aul.org
Petition Against Kagan – https://www.iopposekagan.com
Facebook: Stop Kagan
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