McConnell: State pro-life bills could 'pick away' at Roe v. Wade

Washington D.C., Jun 6, 2019 / 13:30 pm

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said June 6 that the U.S. Senate might soon have an opportunity to vote "on some kind of legislation related to Planned Parenthood."

During an interview with EWTN Pro-Life Weekly, the Kentucky Republican said that there have been "some encouraging decisions already in recent months related to state prohibitions against funding of Planned Parenthood."

"And I've noticed how a lot of the judges that we have already confirmed just in the last two and a half years have voted in these cases," McConnell said.

Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider and receives more than $500 million dollars in taxpayer funds each year.

McConnell was recently awarded the Susan B. Anthony List's 2019 Distinguished Leader Award at its 12th annual Campaign for Life Gala.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said his "vision and courage have been critical to the successful confirmation of two outstanding Supreme Court justices and more than 100 federal court judges nominated by President Trump."

McConnell told EWTN that his decision not to fill the vacancy created by the 2016 death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia during the Obama administration "the single biggest decision I made in my career."

"That led to the opportunity for President Trump to make a selection-I think he did a great job in picking Neil Gorsuch-and we of course had a second Supreme Court justice, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, that became incredibly contentious," he said. "But I think the American people understood that everybody is entitled to the presumption of innocence, and we were able to work our way through that."

McConnell said the circuit courts are "immensely important" as well.

"We've done 41 circuit court judges, young men and women who believe in the quaint notion that maybe a judge ought to follow the law rather than his own-his or her own-personal opinion," McConnell said.

"In fact, Justice Scalia used to say you're not a very good judge if you're not occasionally uncomfortable with the outcome you reach, because it's not your personal opinion, it's what the law seems to require."

"So, these young men and women will be on the U.S. circuit courts-remember, these are lifetime appointments-for a very long time. I think it's the single biggest contribution we made to changing America in the future," he continued.

Ensuring that judges are committed to the rule of law rather than their own personal opinion will benefit the pro-life movement, McConnell argued.

"I think an awful lot of the abortion-related decisions have been by activist judges who sort of followed their personal opinion as opposed to what the law might seem to dictate," he said.

"And there are a variety of different pieces of state legislation that would begin to try to define, legislatively, this whole process of giving birth in such a way, that it better identifies, now that science has become our ally, when life actually begins."

McConnell added that pro-life bills passed by state legislatures and working their way through the court system might create "an opportunity to begin to pick away at Roe v. Wade."