Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor in conversations with senators has indicated her support for Roe v. Wade, even if she has not explicitly stated that she supports abortion rights, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. According to the AP/Yahoo! News, Sotomayor is “following a timehonored tradition” among nominees of assuring senators that she will not aim to impose a certain agenda, while also avoiding firm commitments on how she might rule on certain issues such as abortion rights if they come before the court. In questioning Sotomayor, senators hope to obtain assurances that she will honor certain precedents, such as Roe, which allows them to justify their votes for her to their constituents, the AP/Yahoo! News reports. Doug Kendall of the Constitutional Accountability Center said, “Theres always a bit of a parlor game that develops in terms of what precisely words said by nominees mean.”

Because Sotomayor has never directly ruled on the key issues in Roe, advocates on both sides of the abortionrights debate have speculated over her views on constitutional privacy rights. White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs has said that President Obama and Sotomayor discussed her “views on unenumerated rights in the Constitution and the theory of settled law.” The AP/Yahoo! News reports that Gibbs comments indicate that Sotomayor would be unlikely to overturn Roe, which supporters consider “settled law.” Sens. Dianne Feinstein (DCalif.) and Benjamin Cardin (DMd.), both of whom support abortion rights, said they spoke with Sotomayor about her position during private meetings and were pleased with her answers. Feinstein said that Sotomayor is “a woman who is wellsteeped in the law and wellsteeped in precedent, and I believe that she has a real respect for precedent.” Sen. Jim DeMint (RS.C.), an opponent of abortion rights, said that when he privately asked Sotomayor whether she believed a fetus should have any constitutional rights, she responded that she had never considered the issue (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Yahoo! News, 6/18).

Reprinted with kind permission from nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Womens Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Womens Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families, published by The Advisory Board Company.

© 2009 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.