During the confirmation hearings of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) was pointed and direct as he asserted that the judge's personal views on abortion were open for consideration:
And, of course, you have made statements expressing your view that the, quote, "Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion," unquote. In fact, you said in 1985, that you "personally believe very strongly" this is true.LifeNews reports that as a leading abortion advocate on the committee, Schumer called Judge Alito's views "quite extreme" and, referring to pro-life groups, he claimed President Bush nominated Alito to placate the "placate the extreme right wing."You also spoke, while in the Justice Department, of, quote, "the opportunity to advance the goals of bringing about the eventual overruling of Roe v. Wade."
It should not be surprising that these statements will bring a searching inquiry, as many of my colleagues have already suggested.
So we'll ask you: Do you still personally believe very strongly that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion?
