More than three dozen national and state pro-life leaders sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee leadership expressing their deep concern over President Biden’s pick of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to fill the seat of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.
The effort was spearheaded by the Susan B. Anthony List, an Arlington, Virginia-based pro-life organization, and their letter was addressed to Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Signed by 39 pro-life activists, the letter disclosed that “Jackson’s record speaks loudly of the type of justice she would be on the Supreme Court. She has been handpicked by a pro-abortion president to satisfy the pressure campaign from pro-abortion, progressive activists.”
And given the testimony offered by Jackson during this week’s confirmation hearings, they have every reason to be alarmed. Here are a few highlights:
- Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, read a disturbing quote in which Jackson expressed sympathy for child predators.
- Jackson claimed she was lenient on one particular child predator because he had numerous “diplomas and certificates.”
- Jackson refused to say whether she regrets the lenient sentences she gave to child pornographers.
- She did, however, admit to one regret: that Republicans were asking her questions about her lenient sentencing record on convicted child predators.
- She was asked whether unborn children can feel pain at 20 weeks of gestation. She replied, “I Don’t Know.”
- Similarly, When Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., asked when life begins, Jackson said, “Um… I Don’t Know.”
The horrific brutality of abortion was best illustrated by Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican who discussed Stenberg vs. Carhart, a 1999 Supreme Court case in which Justice Breyer wrote the opinion at a time when Jackson was his law clerk.
“This is a case where the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a Nebraska law prohibiting partial-birth abortions in the absence of circumstances where the baby posed a threat to the life of the mother,” Lee said.
“To be clear, they prohibited a procedure where an abortionist causes an unborn baby to be partially delivered by the mother, and the abortionist intentionally kills the baby outside the womb by puncturing its skull with scissors, and then collapsing the skull.”
Lee concluded, “This is gruesome.”
Afterward, far-left journalist Aaron Rupar, who had been posting clips of the proceedings, said he would pass on this one.
“Mike Lee is now graphically detailing abortion procedures,” he tweeted. “I’ll spare you the clip.” Of course he did.
The blurring of lines between sex and gender apparently infected Judge Jackson. She could offer no definition for the word “woman,” claiming “I’m not a biologist.”
Jackson couldn’t even say if she believes there are differences between men and women.
Constitutional lawyer Jenna Ellis, who’s also special counsel for the Thomas More Society, called that response “less-than-transparent” and possibly “even violating the constitutional process for confirmation,” which should disqualify her from consideration.
SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser expressed concern over a Jackson ascension to the high court, given that it heard oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in December, which challenges the constitutionality of a Mississippi law banning abortions at or above 15 weeks of gestation, except in rare circumstances.
“With the Court’s decision in Dobbs expected this summer, the stakes have never been higher,” she said.
Although Jackson replacing Breyer wouldn’t change the vote on Dobbs, at age 51 she’d likely be an influence on the court for decades.
Justice Sam Alito is 71; Justice Clarence Thomas, who was recently hospitalized, is 73. Alito and Thomas are arguably the court’s two most reliably conservative voices.
Furthermore, while the republic can weather activist judges, it can’t survive a Supreme Court comprised of activist justices.
Ironically Jackson’s hearings took place in the midst of Lent — the interval between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, and when pro-life activists take part in “40 Days For Life.” This is a time of prayer and fasting for the victims of abortion, as well as non-confrontational prayer vigils outside abortion clinics.
The letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee addressed Jackson’s assessment of such demonstrations.
It said “she portrayed pro-life sidewalk counselors as a ‘hostile, noisy crowd of in-your-face protesters.’ However, offering life-affirming support or prayer outside of a clinic is not ‘harassment’ and to insist that offering an alternative to abortion is ‘indisputably harmful to a medical patient’s physical well-being’ is the height of absurdity.”
The late Indian nonviolent political activist Mahatma Gandhi once observed that “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
One would be hard pressed to imagine anyone more vulnerable than the precious life growing and resting peacefully within the mother’s womb.
