Prolifers: Thanks for the Votes; We’ll See You Again in Four Years
When Roe v. Wade (legalizing abortion nationwide) was upheld by the Supreme Court in Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992), three justices wrote the joint opinion saying that legal abortion is a matter of stare decisis — that is, upholding precedent, upholding settled law. The three who wrote that opinion were Justices Sandra Day O’Connor (appointed by Reagan), Anthony Kennedy (appointed by Reagan), and David Souter (appointed by Bush Sr.).
George W. Bush (Bush Jr.) said in several interviews before his inauguration in 2000 that Roe is “settled law.” Bush said he would not have a “litmus test” on abortion for his judicial nominees (just as Reagan and Bush Sr. said they would not). Nonetheless, prolifers voted in droves for Bush in 2004.
In a New Oxford Note (Jan. 2005, p. 19), we said: “We’d like to be proved wrong, but we believe that the Republicans will never outlaw abortion or insure that Roe v. Wade is reversed.”
However, neoconservative Fr. Frank Pavone, the National Director of Priests for Life, was campaigning for Bush in 2004, and he said at the 32nd-annual March for Life in 2005 that “I am very confident the President is going to nominate very prolife justices.”
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