An upcoming vote on pro-abortion President Barack Obama’s Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch that was once thought to be a runaway vote for the nominee appears as if it will be incredibly close.
According to a new Politico report, its projection is that Lynch will win nomination on a 50-50 tie with pro-abortion Vice President Joe Biden casting the deciding vote. With that in mind, pro-life advocates may have a chance to swing another vote or two into the no column and derail her nomination.
The report mentions swing votes, including Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
Just days before her nomination as attorney general goes to the Senate floor, Loretta Lynch is stubbornly stuck right around 50 votes — suggesting a confirmation fight the Obama administration once seemed certain to win with relative ease will go down to the wire.
Barring an 11th-hour surprise, Lynch is likely to be confirmed. But with four GOP senators currently backing her along with unanimous support from Senate Democrats, Lynch would secure the bare minimum required to be installed as the nation’s top cop – as long as senators hauled in Vice President Joe Biden to break a tie.
Several Republican senators who could have been potential “yes” votes are signaling ahead of the confirmation vote that that they will instead vote against her…. Republican Sen. Dean Heller said in an interview that he is “leaning no” on the confirmation vote expected next week.
The confirmation showdown is set for next week. Senate Majority Leader McConnell hasn’t indicated how he will vote, though two members of his leadership team – Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn of Texas and Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt, the fifth-ranking Republican – are confirmed “no” votes.
Senate Republicans who are backing her are Orrin Hatch of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan Collins of Maine.
Lynch is the nominee to replace pro-abortion Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder, who is pro-abortion and who used his post in the Obama administration to target pro-life people, announced in September he would step down from his position when a replacement has been confirmed.
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Lynch admitted to pro-life Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina that she once signed onto a brief the Planned Parenthood abortion business submitted in its legal battle to overturn the Congressional ban on partial-birth abortions. The Supreme Court eventually sided against Planned Parenthood and upheld the ban on the gruesome abortion procedure.
Lynch signed on to an amicus brief in the Partial Birth Abortion case before the Supreme Court where she served as an amici in favor of Planned Parenthood. She argued that the ban against the killing of partially born children was “unconstitutionally vague and threatens the integrity of the criminal justice system.”
On April 18, 2007, the Supreme Court announced its opinion in Gonzales v. Carhart, holding that the federal Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act was constitutional. The ban has stopped as many as 15,000 such abortions.
Casey Mattox of Alliance Defending Freedom,previously wrote at LifeNews that “The Gonzales decision held that the federal ban on partial-birth abortions, except where necessary to save a woman’s life, was facially constitutional – meaning that generally speaking the ban was constitutionally sound. Opponents of the ban, including Planned Parenthood and their allies, had argued strenuously that the law was unconstitutional because it lacked a “health” exception.”
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“Hours after the decision, Planned Parenthood was still warning of its imminent negative impact on women’s health,” he said. “Over five years later, Justice Ginsburg and the nation still wait. Although women’s health was allegedly immediately harmed by the decision, we have not yet seen an as-applied challenge on behalf of one of these women, nor have we seen even one documented story of a woman whose health was impacted by the unavailability of a partial-birth abortion.”
Lynch, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, is in her second stint as U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, appointed by President Obama in 2010 and also serving in the same post from 1999 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. She will face full confirmation in the Senate, where Republicans are in control.
Lynch would be the second woman to serve as attorney general and the second African-American to hold the post.
ACTION: Contact your senators at https://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and urge a No vote on Lynch’s nomination.
