Politics

Democrat calls Kagan abortion memo ‘troubling’

3:50 PM 05/18/2010

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WASHINGTON — A senior House Democrat says senators should fully question Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan to make sure she supports abortion rights.

New York Rep. Louise Slaughter leads the House Pro-Choice Caucus. Slaughter views as “troubling” — her word — a 1997 memo Kagan wrote urging then- President Bill Clinton to back a ban on late-term abortions.

Slaughter wrote to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy and the panel’s ranking Republican, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, on Tuesday.

She said the lack of a judicial record for Kagan, who has never been a judge, makes it imperative that the committee scrutinize her abortion views.

Kagan was a domestic policy adviser to Clinton when she wrote the memo Slaughter cited.

Tags: Abortion, Bill Clinton, Elena Kagan, Jeff Sessions, Patrick Leahy, Politics, United States

shepmoors

It is troubling that the fact that Kagan came out against late term abortions is troubling to the aptly named Slaughter. Even if you are pro-choice I don’t see how you can justify late term abortion.
doncicciofitipaldi

I am an atheist and obviously don’t believe in “life begins at inception” nonsense, but late term abortions (except when the life of the mother is in jeopardy) is equivalent to killing an unborn baby and it is wrong. It should not be allowed. If you took too long to make up your mind, sorry, you’re gonna have to raise your baby or give it up for adoption.
oeno

Really? It would seem that a ban on late-term abortions would fall right in line with the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision. I don’t know which is more disturbing. The fact that Slaughter seems completely unaware of that decision or the fact that she has no say in deciding on Kagan, as she is only a Representative and not a Senator.
- patrick
  
  further, it casts additional light on the big dark lie that supporting abortion is not a litmus test for garnering approval. I hope they do hold hearings on that to expose this lie to all.
freerangecheese

I’m pretty sure this Kagan person stars as a UPS driver on “King of Queens”.
Spalding

The media never mentions that “abortion is troubling” memo.
- oeno
  
  I’m sorry. Didn’t this memo from Slaughter just come to light today, with several primaries taking all of the oxygen out of the room? I know that Kagan’s memo came out last week and I thought it was in keeping with the Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision (or is it Casey v. Planned Parenthood? Been years since I read the decision).