Newly released documents show that US Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers pledged support in 1989 for a constitutional amendment that would ban abortions except when necessary to save the life of the mother.
Miers' position on abortion has been the source of intense speculation in Washington and could determine whether she would be confirmed by the Senate -- and, ultimately, whether the US' top court shifts to the right.
She made her views known in a questionnaire completed when she was a candidate for the Dallas city council in Texas. The White House submitted it on Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is expected to hold hearings on her Supreme Court nomination next month. The one-page questionnaire was filled out and unsigned, but the Bush administration affirmed its authenticity.
In the questionnaire, Miers also signaled her support for the overall agenda of the Texans United for Life anti-abortion group, agreeing that she would support legislation to restrict abortions should the Supreme Court rule that states could ban abortions and would participate in "pro-life rallies and events."
Abortion is one of the most divisive issues in US society. It hangs over Miers' nomination because she would succeed retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has voted to uphold abortion rights. An anti-abortion justice could tip the court's balance, leading it to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision guaranteeing abortion rights.
In the court's latest case involving abortion, the justices ruled on Monday against an anti-abortion governor and said his state must let a pregnant prison inmate terminate her pregnancy. All nine justices, including US President George W. Bush's first Supreme Court selection, Chief Justice John Roberts, voted to let the woman have an abortion.
Bush's nomination of Miers has been sharply criticized by conservatives, who had wanted a candidate clearly opposed to abortion and aligned with them on other issues. In rare criticism from Bush's political base, some have depicted her as a crony of the president who lacks the credentials to sit on the high court.
It is not clear whether the 1989 questionnaire will ease their misgivings. A major Democrat who supports abortion rights, Senator Dianne Feinstein, said it shows Miers opposes Roe v. Wade.
"This raises very serious concerns about her ability to fairly apply the law without bias in this regard. It will be my intention to question her very carefully about these issues," said Feinstein, who is the only woman on the Judiciary Committee.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
JOINT EFFORTS: The three countries have been strengthening an alliance and pressing efforts to bolster deterrence against Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea The US, Japan and the Philippines on Friday staged joint naval drills to boost crisis readiness off a disputed South China Sea shoal as a Chinese military ship kept watch from a distance. The Chinese frigate attempted to get closer to the waters, where the warships and aircraft from the three allied countries were undertaking maneuvers off the Scarborough Shoal — also known as Huangyan Island (黃岩島) and claimed by Taiwan and China — in an unsettling moment but it was warned by a Philippine frigate by radio and kept away. “There was a time when they attempted to maneuver
RSS