Throughout his three days of testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump’s nominee to succeed the late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court, was hammered by Democrats over his potential view on the Roe v. Wade decision.
Americans United for Life Staff Counsel Deanna Wallace, who observed—gavel to gavel—the confirmation hearings, weighed in on the issue. She noted:
Roe v. Wade is a case study in judicial overreach, and it is important that the conversation surrounding this controversial case includes the many legal, medical and scientific truths that have been long ignored by a Court determined to legislate from the bench.
Throughout yesterday’s hearings, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee returned again and again to the flawed Roe v. Wade decision, with Democratic senators arguing that it is ‘settled law’ that must be upheld at all costs. But the truth is that the shaky legal foundation upon which abortion rests has been crumbling for years.
Instead of basing the continuing existence of Roe v. Wade on established legal principles or precedent, a plurality of justices in Planned Parenthood v. Casey invented a societal ‘reliance interest’ under which women had supposedly come to rely on the availability of abortion in order to secure their places in society, as well as their legal and financial rights. Importantly, both jurists and legal scholars have repeatedly discredited this novel and misogynistic theory. Women do not rely upon abortion to be successful and productive members of our society—they rely on their talents, hard work and determination. The reality is that abortion harms women both physically and psychologically, damage that the Supreme Court has enabled in recent years by refusing to hold the abortion industry to common sense health and safety standards.”
The discussion today reminds us once again, that Roe v. Wade is not settled law, and abortion is not safe.
Click here to read AUL’s and Wallace’s day-by-day analyses of the confirmation hearings.
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