Abortion supporters are today proclaiming that President Bush "gave into the demands of his far-right base" in selecting Judge Samuel Alito as his Supreme Court nominee.   They bemoan that the President failed to nominate a "moderate" but instead found someone to please "right-wing extremists."  If such a charge had any merit, then President Clinton should have been accused of moving the court to the left when he selected Ruth Bader Ginsburg to replace Byron White.  Recall that Byron White voted against the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.  I am sure Ginsburg was described as a "moderate" at that time, even though her background made it clear that she fully supported "abortion rights" and other left-wing causes.

 

Moderation must be in the eye of the beholder.  When over 75% of the nation agrees with parental notification laws, so parents will learn about their teenage daughters' plans to get an abortion before it happens, who is moderate and who is extreme?  Planned Parenthood, NARAL Pro-Choice America (NARAL), and National Organization for Women (NOW) all oppose parental notification laws, such as the pending Proposition 73 referendum in California.  Many U.S. Senators who support "abortion rights" also oppose parental notification laws. 

 

Beyond that, most abortion supporters also oppose any form of requirements to provide information on the risks of abortion to women, often called "informed consent" or "women's right to know" laws.  They claim that such information is simply "scare tactics" to prevent women from exercising their "right to abortion."  Is providing information about the risks of heart surgery simply a scare tactic to prevent the patient from spending Medicaid money to have their heart repaired?  I doubt very many people would look at it that way.  Providing information about risks is standard medical practice.  Who is being extreme on this issue?

 

Organizations that support abortion and Senators who take their position accuse nominees such as Judge Samuel Alito of being “out of the mainstream.”   Who is out of the mainstream when over 75% of the nation supports the opposite position on issues that abortion supporters view as serious and immediate threats to the "right to abortion"?

 

In the real world, a significant majority support parental notification, informed consent for women, a ban on partial birth abortion, and even significant restrictions to reduce abortion on demand.  Most citizens do not agree with abortion on demand for all nine months of pregnancy.  That is the true result of the Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton rulings handed down on January 22, 1973.

 

One can only conclude that the vast majority of opposition to Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court will be generated by left-wing extremists from Planned Parenthood, NARAL, NOW, and other radical groups who oppose a truly moderate candidate.   The majority of Americans will strongly support a nominee who will preserve our Constitutional rights to life, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and the protection of marriage.  Senators who oppose Judge Samuel Alito will prove that they are the ones out of the mainstream.