practice, you made your views on pro life in the pro life movement
very clear.
And in fact, you attacked pro life women, and this was in a brief
that you wrote. You described them and I'm quoting
Hostel, noisy crowd of in your face protesters.
End quote
and you advocated against the women's First Amendment right to express
their sincerely held views.
Regarding the sanctity of each individual life.
And I'm a pro life woman.
79% of the American women support restrictions of
some type on abortion.
And so I find it incredibly
Concerning that someone who is nominated to a position with life
tenure on the Supreme Court holes such a hostile view.
Toward a view that is held as a mainstream belief that every
life is worth protecting. So
How do you justify that incendiary rhetoric against pro life
women?
Thank you, Senator. The brief that you're referring to, um, was a
brief that I filed on behalf of clients.
Who were clients of my law firm. This is in. I believe goodness,
1999 or 2000. Maybe 2000 or 2000 and one um, I was
and associate at a law firm.
And I had appellate experience because I had just finished my Supreme
Court lock clerk position.
Um, and in the context of my law firm, um I was asked to work on
a brief concerning a buffer zone issue.
In Massachusetts. At the time, there were laws protecting women
who wanted to enter clinics and there was a First Amendment question
about
The degree to which there had to be room around them to enter the
clinic. Right? And I understand all of that. I'm asking about the
rhetoric.
Senator. I drafted a brief along with the partners in my law firm
who reviewed it, and we filed it on behalf of our client. Okay in
in in
To advance our clients arguments that they wanted to make in the
case.
Let me ask you this when you go to church and knowing their pro life,
women there, do you look at them.
Thinking of them in that way that they're noisy hostel in your face.
The do you think of them? Do you think of pro life women like me?
That way, Senator That was a statement in a brief made okay, an argument
for my client. It's not the way that I think of characterized people.
All right. Thank you for the clarification.
On on that, because I think even zealous advocacy doesn't allow
that type of rhetoric on a free speech issue. You know, Roe v. Wade.
Let's talk a little bit about that is come up touch today.
In my opinion, that was an awful act of judicial activism, and it's
cost the lives of over 63 million unborn Children and nearly 50 years
later, this shameful ruling remains binding precedent, but the battle
Is being fought in the courts and as you know, and as we discussed
when we visited, the Supreme Court is reconsidering whether the Constitution
Protects the right to an abortion in Dobbs.
And if you're confirmed, you will be in a position to apply the court
decision in Dobbs. Whatever that decision is going to be.
And you've talked about following precedent and what the court decides.
So do you commit to respecting the court's decision if it rules that
Roe was wrongly decided?
And that's the issue of abortion should be sent back to the states.
Senator. Whatever the Supreme Court decides in, Dobbs will be the
president of the Supreme Court. It will be, uh,
Worthy of respect in the sense that it is the precedent and, um I
commit to treating it as I would any other precedent of there's one
other thing, one of the central issues
And the Dobbs case is about the cut whether the Constitution protects
the right to an abortion. So let's talk about that.
Can you explain to me on a constitutional basis, the court's decision
in Roe and where is abortion protected?
In the Constitution.
Senator, Um, Abortion is a right that the Supreme
Court has recognized. Um in the
Um, is one of the kinds of rights that is an enumerated? Um, it is
in that same category of rights that the Supreme Court is recognized.
But the text of the Constitution does not mention abortion.
That is true. That is true. That is correct. So you agree that the
Constitution does not mention the right to an abortion and yet
Through one of the most brazen acts of judicial activism. Our Supreme
Court created the right through Rovi Wade. This is why
Americans. This is why so many women that I've talked to are really