Democrats Lobbied to Oppose Pro-Abortion Elena Kagan as GOP Opposes Her
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
July 14, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Democrats who face tough re-election campaigns and might be inclined to oppose the nomination of pro-abortion Solicitor general Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court are facing more pressure to oppose her confirmation. This comes as more Republican senators announce they will oppose her bid.
Curt Levey, executive director of the Committee for Justice told Politico, “There’s definitely the potential to get a few Democrats — certainly much more so than last time."
That means senators like Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas and Ben Nelson of Nebraska are facing some intense pressure and lobbying to vote no as are Jon Tester of Montana, Mark Begich of Alaska and Jim Webb of Virginia.
“For those running in red states in a Republican year, the motivation is obvious. I think even for those running in 2012, it’s something of a motivation,” Levey told the political news web site. The issues on which [Kagan] is vulnerable — abortion, the military, gay rights — are kind of 80-20 issues in these senators’ states.”
Lincoln and Nelson are facing television ads in their state asking voters to contact them to oppose Kagan, and pro-life Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, the lone Republican to hint he may support Kagan, is seeing television commercials in South Carolina as well.
Politico indicates the ads are coming from the Judicial Action Group, Move America Forward and the Tea Party Express. While those ads are small buys, the NRA may come into play with a multi-million dollar television campaign of its own against Kagan.
“We’re looking at targeted advertising as well,” NRA official Chris Cox said. “I can tell you we are communicating our strong opposition to Republicans and Democrats. … We think [Kagan] is deserving of a filibuster.”
Meanwhile, Democrats are hoping they can pick off Graham as well as Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Scott Brown of Massachusetts, three abortion advocates like Kagan.
Republicans hoped to be able to pick up Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana but she has confirmed she will support Kagan.
Today, Senator John Thune, a pro-life Republican from South Dakota, announced he will also oppose Kagan’s nomination.
“After meeting with Solicitor General Kagan and after careful deliberation, I cannot support her confirmation to the Supreme Court. While Ms. Kagan’s background in academia is impressive, I have deep reservations about her ability to serve on the nation’s highest court with impartiality," he said in a statement.
"Kagan’s lack of judicial and courtroom experience, combined with her partisan political background, leads me to question her ability to separate her personal political beliefs from her duty of objectivity while on the bench. While judicial experience is not a prerequisite for serving on the Supreme Court, a record of impartiality throughout a career is an important factor to consider, especially when concerns are raised about a nominee’s partisan past," Thune continued.
The potential Republican presidential candidate added, “Throughout her career, Ms. Kagan has shown a strong commitment to a far left ideological belief system. We have only her word—and nothing else—to indicate that she will apply the law to the facts, and not her ideology to the law. For these reasons, I do not believe Ms. Kagan meets the standard to serve on the Supreme Court, and I cannot support her confirmation."
During questioning at the hearings, lawmakers questioned Kagan on memos she wrote during the Clinton administration “manipulating” the opinions of two medical groups that had said partial-birth abortions are never medically necessary for women.
Kagan also sought to influence the American Medical Association and get the AMA to revise its opinion that partial-birth abortions provide no medical benefit for women.
Senators asked Kagan about the memos during Judiciary Committee hearings and she explained her actions away by saying she wanted to help ACOG form a more accurate opinion.
After citing her role in lobbying the medical organizations, the Times says senators need to keep this in mind when they vote.
The memos are important because the Supreme Court initially relied on the opinion of the medical groups to overturn a state ban on partial-birth abortions that had no health exception.
Later, the Supreme Court reversed itself and said a national partial-birth abortion ban was constitutional and no health exception is necessary.
Pro-life groups have described Elena Kagan as the stereotypical judicial activist and abortion advocate.
She clerked for pro-abortion Justice Thurgood Marshall, whom she lauded, and her writings dating back to her college days are filled with accolades for judges who took the law into their hands and twisted it for a desired outcome rather than relying on the people through their elected officials.
Kagan helped Bill Clinton defend his veto of a partial-birth abortion ban — the gruesome abortion procedure when a baby is birthed halfway and then jabbed in the head with medical scissors, killing him or her. She helped Clinton find political cover for his decision to keep those abortions legal.
Kagan went as far as advocating that the Clinton administration not only ignore but manipulate the opinion of a national medical group that said there was never any medical justification for killing unborn children halfway out of the birth canal.
Kagan has also lauded human cloning and assisted suicide and we can expect those gruesome practices to expand if she becomes the next Supreme Court justice.
Related web sites:
Petition Against Kagan – https://www.iopposekagan.com
Facebook: Stop Kagan
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