WASHINGTON — President Obama's nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court has provoked concern from abortion rights advocates, who say they have seen no evidence that she supports upholding Roe vs. Wade.
Unlike most finalists for the high court opening, Sotomayor has never ruled on the issue. And in her only abortion-related decision, she did not come down the way activists would have liked.
In 2002, Sotomayor rejected a challenge to President George W. Bush's so-called Mexico City policy, which required foreign groups receiving U.S. funds to pledge that they would not support or promote abortion.
Sotomayor spoke for a three-judge panel that upheld the policy as constitutional. The government "is free to favor the antiabortion position over the pro-choice position and can do so with public funds," she said.
"I simply don't know Judge Sotomayor's view on Roe vs. Wade. I will be very concerned if the question is not asked and answered during the Senate hearings," Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said Wednesday. "So far, no one has been able to give us an assurance of her views."
While that key segment of Obama's constituency was expressing concern, a leading Senate Republican indicated Wednesday that a filibuster against the nominee was unlikely. "I don't sense a filibuster in the works," Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) told CNN.
Still, GOP staffers were starting to go through hundreds of Sotomayor's decisions, looking for issues that might score political points or even derail her nomination.
Northup said she would be surprised if Obama, who as a candidate spoke in favor of abortion rights, selected a justice who did not feel the same way. "But other presidents have been surprised before," she said, pointing to Justice David H. Souter.
Souter, whom Sotomayor would replace on the court, was nominated in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. Although Souter had a limited judicial record, Republicans at the time said they were confident that he was a conservative and an opponent of Roe. In 1992, however, Souter upheld a woman's right to abortion in a 5-4 ruling -- an ideological split over the issue that remains on today's court.
The White House added to the concerns of abortion rights advocates, saying that the president did not discuss the issue with Sotomayor before her nomination.
