Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards on Wednesday voiced her support of President Obama’s nomination to the Supreme Court, federal appeals court Judge Merrick Garland.
“Judge Garland is an intelligent, highly accomplished judge who has secured bipartisan support in his previous appointments,” Ms. Richards said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said hearings will not be held on whether to confirm Obama’s nominee. But Ms. Richards said the upper chamber is obliged by the Constitution to hold a vote.
“Now that the president has upheld his constitutional duty, it is time for the Senate to uphold theirs,” she said. “The American people deserve a full court and a justice appointed by the president they elected for four years — not three. It is time for the Senate to do their job and give Judge Garland a fair hearing and up or down vote.”
It is no surprise that pro-choice advocates are in favor of Judge Gardner as the nominee. In 2005, he said the recently released papers of former Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun — who authored the infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion — are a “great gift to the country.”
Clark Forsythe, senior counsel and acting president of Americans United for Life, called Judge Garland a “pro-abortion pick.” He said the next president should fill the vacancy on the bench of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.
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“Judge Merrick Garland is President Obama’s pro-abortion pick to tempt some Republicans to act now to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court,” Mr. Forsythe said in a statement. “The President’s commitment to unrestricted, unmonitored and taxpayer funded abortion is well known.”
“The voters need to weigh in on the direction of the nation’s most powerful court, and given the reality that the Supreme Court has set itself up as the nation’s ’Abortion Control Board’ in its sweeping Roe v. Wade decision, it is time to let the people have a voice,” he said.
After Wednesday’s Rose Garden ceremony announcing Judge Garland as the nominee, Ms. Richards was spotted by several reporters entering the White House, where the president was hosting a reception for Women’s History Month.
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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