Pro-life leaders 'deeply' troubled by Kagan confirmation

Washington D.C., Aug 5, 2010 / 14:18 pm

After Solicitor General Elena Kagan was confirmed on Thursday as the next U.S. Supreme Court Justice, pro-life groups reacted to the move, with one calling it “deeply troubling.”

Fifty-year-old New York native Elena Kagan was confirmed by the Senate on Aug. 5 by a 63-37 vote which prevented a last minute delay or filibuster by Republican senators.

Kagan's lack of experience as a judge as well as her questionable stance on abortion has been a source of concern for pro-life leaders, many of whom reacted to the news on Thursday with alarm.

“Elena Kagan will emerge as one of the Supreme Court’s most agenda-driven, reliably pro-abortion Justices,” Dr. Charmaine Yoest, President & CEO of Americans United for Life Action said.

Commenting on what she believes to be a lack of thoroughness on the part of the Senate in evaluating Kagan, Yoest said that it “is deeply troubling that the Senate voted to confirm Ms. Kagan without fully investigating her role in manipulating medical evidence during the partial-birth abortion debate in 1996-97.”

“The American people want fair and impartial judges, and Justice Kagan’s negative impact will be felt for decades to come,” she asserted.

Adding to the criticism on Thursday was Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser who called Kagan's confirmation “tragic.”

“Today the Senate confirmed to the highest court a candidate without judicial experience and with a concerning history of promoting a pro-abortion agenda over the rule of law and the Constitution,” Dannenfelser said. “From the outset of the Senate hearings, the SBA List called upon Senators to hold Elena Kagan to the standard of interpreting the Constitution, as opposed to advancing a personal ideological preference.”

“Her confirmation is tragic news for women, the unborn and the American pro-life majority,” the SBA List president added.

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins also commented on Aug. 5, saying that "Elena Kagan will bring a radical judicial philosophy and a history of sharp-edged political maneuvering to the nation's highest legal bench.

"She has shown repeatedly that she will do exactly what she says a judge should not - creatively reinterpret the written text of the Constitution according to her own convictions,” Perkins asserted.

Kagan is slated to be sworn into her lifetime position as the nation's 122th Supreme Court Justice this Saturday.