Elena Kagan’s partial birth abortion distortion

Shannen Coffin dropped a bombshell on the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings, bringing to light the fact that Kagan manipulated the findings of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) to get a partial-birth abortion ban overturned. Basically, what we know now is that ACOG stated that partial-birth abortion “may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman.” It turns out that the original opinion of ACOG was the exact opposite, and the revised language in the panel findings was written by Elena Kagan herself, to help make the case for partial-birth abortion. ACOG is supposedly a nonpartisan physicians’ group, but clearly, they were convinced to push a pro-abortion agenda.

Yuval Levin sums up the Kagan controversy:

It seems that the most important statement in the famous position paper of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists—a 1996 document that was central to the case of partial-birth-abortion defenders for the subsequent decade and played a major role in a number of court cases and political battles—was drafted not by an impartial committee of physicians, as both ACOG and the pro-abortion lobby claimed for years, but by Elena Kagan, who was then the deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy.

Kagan saw ACOG’s original paper, which did not include the claim that partial-birth abortion “may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman,” but, on the contrary, said that ACOG “could identify no circumstances under which this procedure . . . would be the only option to save the life or preserve the health of the woman.” She wrote a memo to two White House colleagues noting that this language would be “a disaster” for the cause of partial-birth abortion, and she then set out to do something about it. In notes released by the White House it now looks as though Kagan herself—a senior Clinton White House staffer with no medical background—proposed the “may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman” language, and sent it to ACOG, which then included that language in its final statement.

Ed Morrissey actually has a screen shot of the edits Kagan made in her own handwriting:

Kagan did eventually reluctantly admit that the handwriting in the memo is hers when questioned by Orrin Hatch.

Orrin Hatch raised the question bluntly: “Did you write that memo?” After some dancing around, Kagan finally admitted, “The document is certainly in my handwriting,” but then said that what she was trying to do was to make sure the document from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists accurately reflected their views.

As Stacy McCain pointed out, that reasoning is questionable. Why would ACOG need to be coordinating their statement with the White House before it was released if there was not a pro-abortion agenda being advanced? Elena Kagan wasn’t trying to make sure it accurately reflected ACOG’s views, she was making sure they didn’t do harm to the abortion movement. ACOG originally couldn’t identify a single set of circumstances where partial-birth abortion was medically necessary (sorry, abortion fanatics, hate to say I told you so, but… ), and Kagan wouldn’t accept that. She lied, ACOG went along with it, and science and medicine were grossly distorted. This is a huge scientific deception, and she should be held accountable.

This incident shows that she clearly is not fit to serve on the Supreme Court. It has now been proved that Elena Kagan is willing to undermine the truth, lie, and manipulate the truth in order to advance her own agenda. It shouldn’t make a difference whether or not the issue at play is abortion. Elena Kagan is clearly willing to lie and misrepresent the truth, and that’s unacceptable in a Supreme Court justice. Unacceptable.

The language she wrote was the specific language cited by the Supreme Court in their ruling to overturn the partial-birth abortion ban. The ruling was made on a lie, because Elena Kagan didn’t like the politically inconvenient fact that there is no medical reason to ever perform a partial-birth abortion. ACOG acknowledged this themselves in a supposedly objective panel, and Kagan didn’t like the truth. So she lied. She lied to the Supreme Court, and so did ACOG. Shouldn’t she be brought up on charges of perjury now? She committed intentional fraud. She does not deserve to sit on the Supreme Court. This is someone who lets radical left-wing ideology make her decisions for her, regardless of what the truth is or what the facts are. Kagan was willing to lie and distort the truth so that full-term infants can be pulled out of the womb feet first, have their brains sucked out, and then their skulls crushed. It’s despicable. She not only ignored evidence, she covered it up and then changed it to what she wanted it to be. I’m repeating myself, I know, but this woman is not fit to serve on the Supreme Court.

Republicans, you now have a golden excuse to filibuster. Don’t let the opportunity pass you by, because this woman (who has no judicial experience, by the way) is not fit to be a Supreme Court justice. (To add to the evidence that she is unfit to serve, it has now come to light that she also lied to the Supreme Court in a 9/11 case!)

Powerline has a must-read on the Elena Kagan abortion distortion. The only good thing about this is that at least now we have incontrovertible proof of just how far abortion fanatics are willing to go, of how willing to lie about scientific truth they are, to push forward their agenda of death.

Others reporting:
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Confederate Yankee
Riehl World View
Weasel Zippers
Pundit and Pundette