WASHINGTON, July 14, 2009
Sotomayor: Abortion Law Is "Settled"
Supreme Court Nominee Called Roe vs. Wade a Settled Precedent, But Did Not Say If She Agrees With Ruling
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As her confirmation hearings continue, Sonia Sotomayor said the Supreme Court's abortion law is "settled" but did not state whether she agrees. (CBS)
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Photo Essay Sotomayor Takes the Stand The Senate confirmation hearings begin for President Obama's Supreme Court nominee
The federal appeals court judge was asked at her confirmation hearing Tuesday to state how she felt about the landmark Roe versus Wade ruling legalizing abortion in 1973.
Sotomayor told the Senate Judiciary Committee that "there is a right of privacy. The court has found it in various places in the Constitution." She said this right is stated in the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure and in the 14th Amendment guaranteeing equal protection of the law. She declined to say pointblank if she agreed with the high court's precedent on this volatile issue.
Sotomayor said she believes that decision is settled precedent that was reaffirmed by the High Court in the 1992 Planned Parenthood vs. Casey decision that struck down a Pennsylvania statute that required married women notify her husband of her decision.
"The court's decision in Planned Parenthood vs. Casey reaffirmed the court holding of Roe. That is the precedent of the court and settled in terms of the holding of the court."
As is customary, Senators will not outright ask Sotomayor for her opinion about abortion and whether she believes in it. But Senators like Kohl are looking to gauge how the nominee feels about precedent set in previous hot button Supreme Court cases.
"As I said Casey reaffirmed the holding in Roe. That is the supreme court's settled interpretation of what the core holding is and its reaffirmance of it."
Answering a question later from Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Sotomayor said that "all precedents of the Supreme Court I consider settled law," subject to the possibility of subsequent reversal, such as when the court last month renounced a previous precedent in a reverse discrimination case. It ruled 5-4 on the side of white firefighters from New Haven, Conn., who challenged a decision by the city to discard the results of an employee test in which they fared better than minorities who took the examination.
Sotomayor Explains "Wise Latina" Comment
Live Video and Analysis of the hearing
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Michelle Obama tells how her role as the First Lady has changed her perspective.
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See all 48 CommentsModern moms often kill their unborn to apease themselves and its called progression and rights. Same backwards thinking, different time!
Perhaps the GOP need to stop blaming the "liberal judges" and start blaming the Lawyers failed to present stronger cases than those 'liberal lawyers'.
Rulings in the end aren't about what is right or wrong or what is just......it is about the law of the land and deciding that their rulings follow the law of the land.
The Pro-Lifers would be better off trying to stack the tables full of pro-life politicians to try and amend the constitution. I don't see that happening any time soon.
But lets say abortion is outlawed. Will that actually stop them from happening? Probably not. Only now it will be a black market which will only promote another crime sector. And what do you charge the mothers with that have/attempt to have an abortion? Will we start tossing female teenagers in jail? What about the ones who got them pregnant? Do they get off scott free?
Do we start setting aside more and more money each year for welfare those that surely will then need it?
What I'm getting at is that there are consequences for a reversal on this.
I find it odd that Republicans love to legislate morality (fascism) and then worry about socialism from Obama. If you dont want socialism, stop promoting fascism. They go hand-in-hand.
But you,"RIGHT TO LIFERS", always bring it up when abortion is on the table.
You people already killed on Dr. this year, tone it down.
The child at that late a stage is not viable and the mother is at risk for you right to lifers I have an answer put you money where your mouth is.
Supprot a law that you will pay for all of the children from the moment of birth until they finish school. We do not know who would not have an abortion so you must pay for them all. They way to do this is you sign a contrat and send it to the IRS they send you a special 1040 that sates how much you owe. That way we can make you idiots pay for it. Do that and I will support you if not don't open your pie hole I have had enough of you morons.
But what about other conficting issues. Like its "a woman's body" when it comes abortion, but that same body is govt property when the woman consents to particpate in prostitution or pornography. Then suddenly that woman is a "victim" of exploitation or slavery by the same people who promoate abortion rights.
Anyway, it is now a violation of federal law to engage in prostitution overseas even if it is legal in the country your engaging in. And we think we have more freedoms.
PostalOneToo, prostitution is illegal under federal law and in most states too. So if the govt prohibits a woman from engaging in it, then they must claim ownership her body....the same body that they legally allow to get an abortion. Understand the double standard now?
What would have changed if you knew she was aborting to be with the other guy. Would you have somehow been older and wiser, ready to raise a child? What would you have done?
30 years later you are still bitter and angry and you want to use that as a vehicle to take something away from people that you had access to and freedom to make a choice. Taking that away will not change your life or take back your choice. Your story doesn't even indicate that you regret you choice on an individual and emotional level. Its all about what she did to you. Take responsibility for your own actions and choices.
What choice does the unborn have?
Furthermore, if our parents had found out this all would have turned out differently as we were still minors at the first pregnancy, so I am also for informing the parents of any minors who are pregnant.
As for you judging me, you don't know me and wasn't there at the time, and yes I am bitter and angry, and find myself against abortion today.
As for regret, I thought at the time it was the right thing to do, but we'd raise kids later...I only regret meeting her and falling in love with trailer trash.
Maybe you didn't understand my statement, It was quite possible I was never the father of any of the aborted children, let me assure you I'd a been a good parent. So shove that responsiblity krap where it doesn't shine.
"take something away from people that you had access to and freedom to make a choice" you say....
I would prefer that access never existed and as for the freedom to make a choice, the choice to bed down is the question, not abortion.
My story not indicating regrets and emotion is devoid because of the time I have had to understand the treachery as a victim.
Judge yourself.
My experience is but one of many out there that need to be heard, and I disagree it is very relevant since legal abortion was new and controversal at the time.
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And that is exactly what makes abortion such a cruel, inhumane, barbaric practice.
Decent humans always want to help future generations develop to be all they can be.
Only selfish bloodthirsty ghouls without a conscience think up excuses to kill their young, or support the decision to allows others to do it.
You say you would have been a good father, I'm not saying you wouldn't have been. You chose not to be, that is the responsibility I'm refering to. That and the fact that you blame everyone else.
You wish the choice had never been there. Why? Because you made a choice that you regret? Its called free will. People do it everyday of their lives. You want to take that away for your own selfish martyrdom. If you can't handle the consequences, so be it. That's where I'm also saying take responsibility. You aren't a victim any more than anyone else who makes choices and has relationships. You victimize yourself everytime you tell this story as some sort of justification for the results of your life.
You are laughable, the life you regret isn't even the one that you participated in ENDING. Its your own life and choices you regret and you parade it around as some sort of validation for altering a law that once again affects millions.
Finally, to make it clear. I am not in this instance stating or infering my support or lack thereof for this law. I am responding to you reasoning to make it go away.
I no longer prescribe to abortion rights.
It's a personal story I have to tell,
Once long ago in a far away Galaxy, I fell in love with a young beautiful girl.
I thought she was in love with me as much. I was wrong.
In the time we had been together, she got pregnant.
As we were way too young to raise a child, I agreed to an abortion when she took me to meet some people at a place called Planned Parenthood.
We were in high school at the time going into our senior year.
Apparently she got pregnant again the following summer and she supposedly had a spontaneous abortion in the toilet...(it sickens me to think of it even today), she explained that it was way to young a fetus to be alive and we went home for care. She refused to go to the doctor.
Then later that year I busted her with another man, so the wedding was off, and she eloped with him after defaming my good name as a woman beater because I shoved her away while going for the man's throat.
He was at least a few years older than me and apparently had all the things necessary like 3 years of college, a good paying job, and was from a rich family...all a man should have to marry...So I was left high and dry.....
Years later I found out from her best friend that she had been cheating on me for a year and she was pregnant when she left me. She aborted the baby to marry the jerk.
Needless to say that I was devastated because of it, while I was recovering from life altering surgery....
For that reason I no longer support the so called right to choose.
I will never support it again.
That was 30 years ago....I recently seen them...He wound up in a wheelchair for life, somehow he got into an accident.
She has to clean his krap for as long as she is with him now.
I have never found love since.
Thats' my story, and I'd repeat it anytime I hear about abortion rights.
She was a drama queen.
And yeah violence at the time seemed quite appropriate. I didn't get the chance to hit him, if it wasn't for the football team that stood between us as he ran away like the coward he was then and was when I saw his lame azz years later in a wheelchair crying his heart out.
I dont want your sympathy, just an understanding that some things come at too high a price. One is abusing your so called rights. The other, ***** like her.
But yes, this swiffer just isn't cutting it. ;)
No? I have a swiffer right here but I may need some help.
Even Constitutional Amendments have been repealed. 50 million have died since Roe v Wade, and no just society can ever allow such a holocaust to continue. It is just a matter of time before the tide turns.
That said isn't that what the GOP have wanted is for them not to make law but to decide what the written law is about.
That could only mean to most of us that the GOP wants it to be their law but not the law of the land.
Sorry no sale.
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