Voters Oppose Pro-Abortion Elena Kagan Nomination, Say Confirmation Likely
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 26, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — More American voters say they have an unfavorable view of pro-abortion Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan than a favorable one. But a new Rasmussen Reports poll shows they also believe it likely that the Senate will vote to confirm President Barack Obama’s second pro-abortion pick for the high court.
The survey, released today, shows 41% of U.S. voters now hold a favorable opinion of Kagan but 47% view her unfavorably, up from 43% a week ago and 39% just after President Obama announced her nomination.
With Senate hearings on Kagan’s nomination set to begin June 28, 36% of voters now favor her confirmation, but 39% are opposed. One-out-of-four (25%) are undecided.
Opinion is moving away from Kagan as, in the previous two surveys, voters have been tied over the question of confirmation. Two weeks ago, 33% said Kagan should be confirmed, 33% disagreed, and 34% were undecided. Last week, 39% supported Kagan’s confirmation, while 39% were opposed and 22% were not sure.
The results show 15 percent have a very favorable view of the Supreme Court nominee while 23 percent regard her very unfavorably.
This, too, marks a shift from the first survey when Kagan’s very unfavorable rating stood at 18 percent and her very favorable rating stood at 17 percent.
Pollster Scott Rasmussen noted that Kagan’s numbers aren’t near as good as those of pro-abortion nominee Sonia Sotomayor.
"By comparison, the president’s first Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, maintained favorables around 50% through the first three surveys following her selection, with unfavorables falling to 40%," he said.
He also says voters believe Kagan will be confirmed by the Senate despite their opposition to her nomination.
"Still, 87% believe it is at least somewhat likely than Kagan will be confirmed, up four points from a week ago and five points from the week she was nominated. This now includes 55% who say her confirmation is Very Likely," he said.
According to the poll, 48 percent view Kagan as ideologically liberal, while 30% say she is a moderate. Only four percent see her as conservative, but 18% more are not sure. This marks little change from a week ago.
"Sixty-seven percent (67%) of Democrats now view Kagan favorably, while 72% of Republicans and 53% of voters not affiliated with either party regard the nominee unfavorably. Unaffiliateds, in particular, have a more negative view of Kagan this week," Rasmussen indicated.
"Yet while Democrats predictably support her confirmation and GOP voters equally predictably oppose it, unaffiliated voters are more narrowly divided: 27% support confirmation, 40% oppose it, but 33% are undecided," he said the poll showed.
Kagan has a very clear pro-abortion record heading into that process, including recent information showing she donated to pro-abortion groups with ties to the Emily’s List organization that endorses pro-abortion candidates with the most extreme position favoring taxpayer funded abortions.
Obama’s nominee also wrote a memo during the Clinton adminsitration providing him political cover for his veto of a bill banning partial-birth abortions. She attacked pro-life advocates in a 1980 essay and has a history of working for pro-abortion judges and politicians.
Kagan, a former Harvard Law dean, is an ardent abortion advocate who, at 50, would leave a pro-abortion legacy for Obama on the Supreme Court for decades to come.
"Elena Kagan has strong ties to abortion-advocacy organizations and expressed admiration for activist judges who have worked to advance social policy rather than to impartially interpret the law," Charmaine Yoest, the president of Americans United for Life, told LifeNews.com.
She said her group would "oppose President Obama’s attempt to reshape the Court as an activist, pro-abortion institution through which unelected judges will work to impose an out-of-the-mainstream social agenda upon the American people."
Yoest called Kagan "an ardent abortion supporter" who fulfills Obama’s pledge to nominate a justice who strongly supports abortion.
Kagan has publicly and repeatedly criticized federal regulations that prohibited recipients of Title X family planning funds, taxpayer dollars, from counseling women to get abortions — arguing they amounted to the subsidization of "anti-abortion" speech.
She has spent most of her career in academia and government — in part as a legal counsel in the administration of pro-abortion President Bill Clinton –and prior to becoming the attorney for the Obama administration before the Supreme Court. Kagan was Associate Counsel to President Bill Clinton and Deputy Assistant to him for domestic policy — which, under Clinton, advocated abortion.
LifeNews.com spoke with Wendy Wright, the president of Concerned Women for America, before the nomination.
Kagan was credited by the ACLU with “shaping Clinton’s policy on hate crimes," Wright noted.
"The Clinton Administration treated pro-life activists like violent criminals, creating a task force in the Department of Justice and a grand jury to investigate peaceful pro-lifers. This raises serious concerns that she shares the hostile view that religious beliefs are a form of ‘hate,’" she said.
Kagan has also come under criticism from Marjorie Dannenfelser, the president of the pro-life women’s group Susan B. Anthony List.
She told LifeNews.com previously, "In the past Kagan has been a strong supporter of the pro-abortion agenda. She has vigorously opposed the de-funding of taxpayer-funded clinics which promote abortions, despite the fact that a majority of Americans do not want their tax dollars to fund abortion providers."
Kagan’s nomination confirmed the suspicion of many political observers that Obama decided to go with a radical left-wing nominee while Democrats control the Senate with a huge advantage that is expected to deteriorate after the November elections.
Related web sites:
Americans United for Life – https://www.AUL.org
Petition Against Kagan – https://www.iopposekagan.com
Facebook: Stop Kagan
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