Americans Expect Pro-Abortion Elena Kagan Will be Confirmed for Supreme Court
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 31, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The latest Rasmussen Reports poll shows the percentage of Americans who say they believe pro-abortion nominee Elena Kagan will be confirmed by the Senate for the open Supreme Court spot has risen. The numbers are going up despite strong opposition to her nomination.
The Rasmussen survey found ratings for Kagan have fallen over the first three surveys since Obama announced her nomination.
Some 41% of U.S. voters now hold a favorable opinion of Kagan but 47% view her unfavorably. Just 36 percent now favor Kagan’s confirmation, down from 36 percent in the last poll.
Yet, 87 percent of voters now say the pro-abortion nominee is at least somewhat likely to be confirmed, up four points from a week earlier and five points from the week she was nominated.
That figures is the same percentage as those who thought Obama’s first nominee, pro-abortion Sonia Sotomayor, would be confirmed, and higher than the percents of voters who believed Bush’s nominees Samuel Alito and John Roberts would be confirmed.
Scott Rasmussen explains why: "Historically, for all recent nominees except Alito, the longer a nominee is in the confirmation process and the more that is known about them, the lower their level of public support. That’s one reason why, while Republicans were more willing to take their time, Democrats pushed for an early confirmation hearing for Sotomayor and are doing the same for Kagan."
That expected confirmation of Kagan doesn’t mean Americans support her.
"Most voters believe it is fair for a U.S. senator to oppose an otherwise qualified court nominee because of disagreements over ideology or judicial philosophy. Those disagreements will be on display in the weeks ahead," Rasmussen said.
Senate Judiciary Committee hearings are set to begin June 28 for Kagan even though Republicans and pro-life advocates want that delayed so more papers can be obtained about her time in the Clinton administration.
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:
Petition Against Kagan – https://www.iopposekagan.com
Facebook: Stop Kagan
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