Byron York
Washington Examiner
6/30/2010
12:50 PM EDT:
Before the Senate Judiciary Committee a short time ago, Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan appeared reluctant to admit that she wrote a 1996 Clinton White House memo aimed at altering a key medical group’s opinion of whether partial birth abortion is medically necessary. The memo, reported yesterday by National Review, has caused a stir in conservative circles because it appeared that Kagan, then a White House policy aide, put words in the medical group’s mouth in order to soften its position on the controversial procedure. But when Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch brought the subject up with Kagan, he had a hard time getting her to admit that she did, in fact, write the document in question.
“Did you write that memo?” Hatch asked.
“Senator, with respect,” Kagan began, “I don’t think that that’s what happened — ”
“Did you write that memo?”
“I’m sorry — the memo which is?”
“The memo that caused them to go back to the language of ‘medically necessary,’ which was the big issue to begin with — ”
“Yes, well, I’ve seen the document — ”
“But did you write it?”
“The document is certainly in my handwriting.”
Although Kagan later explained her thinking in the memo — she said she was only trying to help the medical group express its true opinion — and it was clear that she did write the memo, she looked slippery in her attempt to avoid openly admitting that she did so. That won’t sit well with skeptical senators.
* * * * * * *
Verum Serum has video: Hatch Questions Kagan on Partial Birth Abortion Memo
“…Note that this isn’t merely support for partial birth abortion, which is despicable in its own right. This is someone using their government position to try and invent a reason for the law to protect this gruesome practice even after the doctors with expertise say they can envision no case where it would be necessary.
“Kagan is an extremist on this issue. She is not within the mainstream of the country or her party. Until now I have accepted that she will be confirmed, thinking her no worse than the other liberals on the court. Now I wish it were possible to block her nomination. In short, she should go down in flames over this. We do not need enthusiastic fans of infanticide on the Supreme Court.”
From RedState.com, Kagan made up “scientific facts” regarding partial birth abortion
In 2000 the Supreme Court struck down Nebraska’s PBA ban, citing a statement from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists that PBA might be the best choice for a woman under certain circumstances. That statement was also used later to fight against a federal PBA ban signed by Bush. We now find out that the ACOG didn’t come up with that language – just the opposite initially in fact – Elena Kagan just made it up and it got inserted into the final report.
Shannen Coffin was a Deputy AG under Bush who was involved in defending the federal PBA ban. Yesterday he wrote this piece for NRO, which today Powerline is calling a possible smoking gun.
The initial ACOG report said there was no situation under which PBA would be the only option. Kagan knew ACOG’s position that PBA was almost never necessary would be a disaster to the abortion on demand crowd, so she came up with language that made it sound like a perfectly reasonable choice. That language was inserted into the final report and then used as a club in future court cases.
As Mr Coffin sums it up…
Miss Kagan’s decision to override a scientific finding with her own calculated distortion in order to protect access to the most despicable of abortion procedures seriously twisted the judicial process. One must question whether her nomination to the Court would have the same effect.…
At GatewayPundit, Radical Elena Kagan Pushed 2nd Group to OK Gruesome Partial Birth Abortion Procedure
During partial birth abortion babies are pulled feet-first from the womb and stabbed through the back of the skull.
This disgusting technique is never a necessary medical procedure.
But, Barack Obama’s Supreme Court pick Elena Kagan not only promoted it and lied about it with one medical group, she tried to push the American Medical Association to approve of the gruesome procedure.
Life News reported:
The pressure on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has jumped this week thanks to a memo she wrote during the Clinton administration showing her pressuring a medical group to change its position on partial-birth abortion. Now, new files indicated Kagan also pressured a second group…
Follow each of the links to read the complete articles on these blogs.
All indications this evening are that Elena Kagan will be confirmed by the Senate.
