Congressmen Request Justice's Abstention After Pro-Abortion Ties Revealed
by Fred Jackson, Rusty Pugh, and Jenni Parker
March 26, 2004
(AgapePress) - A group of Republican congressmen is calling on U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to recuse herself from all abortion-related cases because of her ties to a left-wing feminist group. Meanwhile, that same group's founding organization is one of several defending a Utah woman whose baby died because she refused a procedure that doctors say would have saved her unborn child's life.Congressmen Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania and Dave Weldon of Florida are among a group of Republican representatives that have written Ginsburg in the wake of her recent speech to a women's legal group. Their letter notes that the Internet home page of the NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund highlights the speaking engagement and has photographs of Ginsburg standing next to the president of the organization.
The lawmakers' letter points out to the justice that NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund, which was established in 1970 by the founders of the National Organization for Women, is commonly known to engage in lobbying on behalf of pro-abortion activists. NOW Legal Defense regularly submits briefs to the Supreme Court on a variety of cases.
The GOP congressmen say both the court's code of conduct and federal law caution jurists about involvement in activities that cast doubt on impartiality, and they say Ginsburg should therefore remove herself from any cases related to the abortion issue.
Such conflicts of interest on the high court are troubling, not only to lawmakers, but to citizens concerned about sanctity-of-life and civil rights issues. A spokesman for a leading pro-life group warns that if society fails to protect the most basic civil right of all -- the right to be born -- then feminists and pro-abortion groups will continue to demand the so-called "right" to kill unborn children.
Joe Giganti of American Life League says the "sleeping conscience" of the United States needs to be awakened, and a recent case involving a pregnant woman's fatal choice could be just the "smelling salts" to make that happen.
When doctors advised Melissa Ann Rowland, who was pregnant with twins, that one of her babies would die unless she underwent a Caesarian section, she reportedly told a nurse that she would sooner lose the baby than have a scar. The 28-year-old refused the procedure, and one of the twins she delivered was stillborn.
Afterward, when Salt Lake City officials charged the woman with murder, several pro-abortion groups rushed to her defense. The National Organization for Women, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Planned Parenthood have all come out in support of Rowland, calling the charge against her "a backdoor effort to undermine abortion rights."
Joe Giganti says these groups claim to support civil rights, but ignore those humans whose rights need protecting the most. He says it is ridiculous for pro-abortion activists to claim that an unborn child's death, when it is the result of the mother's choice, is not murder. "I mean, this is completely absurd. What we are looking at is a civil rights struggle for the ultimate civil right, which is the right to life," he says.
The American Life League spokesman warns that groups like these, if they get their way, could go on advocating the killing of children for convenience, with disastrous societal consequences. He feels that pro-life forces dare not let up in the battle to defend the right of the preborn to live.
"If that right is not defended, and if the intrinsic value and dignity of the human person is not respected," Giganti says, "you will continue to see groups that can openly advocate for the taking of innocent human beings' lives, and this be protected by law."
Giganti says life is not arbitrary, and pro-life advocates understand that. But, he says it is no surprise that pro-abortion and "pro-choice" feminist groups continue to push for death -- because that is their agenda.
