Abortion battle looms after Bush names new top court pick
2 hours, 11 minutes ago
US politics veered towards a battleground charred by past fights over abortion, after President George W. Bush goaded Democrats by picking a judge with solid conservative credentials for the Supreme Court.
Samuel Alito's nomination on Monday fanned immediate concern among liberals, but sparked joy among religious conservative groups keen to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.
If confirmed, Alito will take the seat of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has sometimes provided the deciding vote on the nine-person court to limit the state's power to restrict access to abortion.
Alito's opponents and supporters have already concluded his long paper trail of past judgments on the bench will see him back the conservative position on several key test cases on abortion expected to soon come before the Court.
"We are trusting that we are now on the fast-track to derailing Roe v Wade as the law of the land," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue, an anti-abortion group.
Another conservative group, Catholic Priests for Life, acknowledged some senators would challenge Alito's nomination on the grounds that it threatened "so-called 'abortion rights.'"
"But the American people are already deciding that their Constitution does not permit dismembering children," said Frank Pavone, the group's national director.
An issue that turns elections, frames political careers and cleaves US society, abortion has powered decades of trench warfare in the US courts, occasionally erupting into national view.
It is an issue that powers so called 'pro-life' groups on the conservative, and often religious right, and also rallies liberals proclaiming a 'woman's right to choose' and individual rights.
Alito has alarmed the latter since he was a judge of the Third Circuit, where he issued a sole dissenting opinion in a Pennsylvania case known as Planned Parenthood v Casey.
He argued the majority on the bench was wrong to strike down a legal requirement that women notify their husbands before having an abortion.
Planned Parenthood, a family planning organization, reacted to Alito's nomination by branding that dissent a "callous disregard of battered women" who in theory could have been forced to tell abusive spouses about abortions.
Alito's "confirmation would radically transform the Supreme Court and create a direct threat to the health and safety of American women," the group said.
The pro-choice National Organisation for Women (NOW) also pledged to oppose the nomination over abortion.
"If Alito is confirmed by the US Senate, many of our fundamental rights will be at great risk," NOW president Kim Gandy warned.
Conservative leaders have often used abortion as a political 'wedge' issue, to rally sympathetic voters, and castigate liberals, as right-of-center thought has risen to dominate US politics over 20 years.
But conservatives have fumed that despite placing standard bearers in the White House and atop Congress, they have never seized control of the Supreme Court, and a chance to overturn Roe v Wade.
Opinion surveys show that a plurality of Americans, usually around 60 percent, oppose overturning Roe v Wade, though partisans on both sides cite data supporting their particular view.
Anti-abortion activists argue the practice is not just cruel, and should be unlawful -- but is inconsistent with the founding ideals of the United States, and the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Conservatives argue that because the country is a Republic, legislators, and not judges should decide issues such as abortion.
Other opponents think Roe v Wade was improperly decided, quarrelling with legal reasoning that banning abortion would infringe privacy rights enshrined in the Constitution. The court wields enormous influence over American life as the final arbiter of the Constitution and the ultimate court of appeal, and has the power to reshape American life for decades.
I hope that this doesn't lead to taking away womens' hard-won freedoms.
