Mier's and abortion

[julialnyc]

snipped...
Little is known publicly about Miers' position on abortion, an issue of surpassing importance to outside groups on both ends of the political spectrum.

When delegates to a national American Bar Association convention adopted a position in favor of abortion rights in 1992, she worked as head of the Texas state bar to force a reconsideration of the issue by submitting it to a referendum by the 360,000-membership. "This issue has brought on tremendous divisiveness and loss of membership..." she said in early 1993.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_SCOTUS?SITE=WIMAD&SECTION=HOME

[Theres-a]

1. Good catch nt

[julialnyc]

2. I was questioning whether she was a fundie

until I found that!

[julialnyc]

3. Miers Led Bid to Revisit Abortion Stance

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1180010&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

snipped..

As president of the Texas State Bar in 1993, Harriet Miers urged the national American Bar Association to put the abortion issue to a referendum of the group's full membership. She questioned at the time whether the ABA should "be trying to speak for the entire legal community" on an issue that she said "has brought on tremendous divisiveness" within the ABA.

Miers was among a group of lawyers from the Texas bar and elsewhere who had argued that the ABA should have a neutral stance on abortion.

The ABA's policy-making body overwhelmingly rejected the Texas lawyers' group's 1993 proposal to put the issue to a referendum by mail of the ABA's then-roster of about 360,000 members.

"Our current position (in favor of abortion rights) has no meaning unless it is endorsed in fact by the membership," Miers said at the time.

The ABA's position, adopted in 1992, endorses the basic outlines of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling that women may choose to have an abortion without state interference prior to the point at which a fetus could live outside the womb, and after that point if the woman's life or health were threatened by the pregnancy.

Although Miers' personal view of abortion was not explicit in 1993, Leonard Leo, a White House adviser on Supreme Court nominations highlighted her efforts as part of the reason that "conservatives should be very happy with this selection."

[julialnyc]

4. more

http://www.slingshot.org/?p=124