Washington, DC – Pro-abortion members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, mostly Democrats, are planning to oppose another of President Bush's judicial nominees who opposes abortion.
The Senate Judiciary Committee may soon address President Bush's nomination of Texas Supreme Court Justice Priscilla Owen, a Texas judge who opposes abortion, to a seat on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. The anticipated battle over Owen's nomination would mark the first confrontation between Senate Democrats and the White House over pro-life judicial nominees since Democrats on the committee banded together last month to defeat the nomination of pro-life Judge Charles Pickering of Mississippi, who was nominated to a seat on the same federal court as Owen.
Described by the New York Times as a “member of the conservative wing of a conservative state supreme court,” Owen was one of three justices who dissented in a March 2000 Texas Supreme Court decision that nullified the state's parental notification law and allowed minors to receive an abortion with a judicial bypass. Owen felt the abortion was not in the minor's best interests.
Pro-abortion Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has promised to hold a confirmation hearing for Owen this year, and the hearing will likely bring the abortion debate into play once again.
Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, said that pro-abortion groups would “strongly oppose” Owen's nomination, adding, “We regard her as someone who exemplifies the most extreme hostility to reproductive rights of any of the nominees that President Bush has named.”
Pro-abortion Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said that by opposing Pickering's nomination last month, Democrats had hoped to send a “message to the White House that Bush should stop trying to stack the courts with conservatives.” However, Alberto Gonzales, the White House counsel, said last week that Bush would not “change his approach to choosing judicial nominees” as a result of Democratic opposition.
Gonzales described Owen as “superbly qualified to serve on the 5th Circuit” and “extremely bright, extraordinarily dedicated and very principled.”
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(This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
