Ten Republicans Join Democrats to Back Pro-Abortion Obama AG Nominee Loretta Lynch

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Apr 23, 2015   |   2:19PM   |   Washington, DC

Ten Republicans today joined Senate Democrats to approve the nomination of pro-abortion Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch. The Senate has had Lynch’s nomination pending for weeks but it has been held up because Senate Democrats were filibustering a bill that helps sex trafficking victims because they want funds in it to pay for abortions.

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.

The Senate, by a 56-43 vote, confirmed Loretta Lynch to become the 83rd attorney general and first African-American woman to the position.

Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Thad Cochran (Miss.), Susan Collins (Maine), Jeff Flake (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), Ron Johnson (Wis.), Mark Kirk (Ill.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) joined Senate Democrats in approving her nomination.

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.” She defended the pro-abortion position against the ban saying the definition of a “living fetus” is “hopelessly vague.”

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.

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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.”

“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