Kagan Dupes U.S. Supreme Court On Partial-Birth Abortion, Denies Role

Dozens of pro-life organizations are asking Congress for a probe into testimony made by Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, suggesting that she may have lied to senators during her confirmation hearings.

A letter created by Americans United for Life Action and signed by at least 30 state, national and legal organizations asks for "an investigation into discrepancies between Kagan's testimony before Congress and written documentation of her undue influence on medical organizations while advising President William J. Clinton on partial-birth abortion legislation."

The letter cites memos authored by Kagan and released by the Clinton presidential library prior to the confirmation hearings.

In advising President Clinton on his veto of a partial-birth abortion ban in 1997, Kagan issued a memo to Clinton citing a key American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists statement as "the most reliable opinion" on the medical necessity of partial-birth abortion. That same statement was relied upon by both thepresident and the Supreme Court in justifying opposition to the partial-birth abortion ban.

When asked during her confirmation hearings about any possible, undue influence over the content of the ACOG statement, Kagan testified that "there was no way in which I would have or could have intervened with ACOG … to get it to change its medical views on the question."

Far from not "intervening," however, the released memos and other evidence show Kagan directly rewrote a critical portion of the ACOG statement to contradict the organization's expert panel and shape the ACOG findings – and ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings – to match the president's pro-abortion politics.

In a June 22, 1996, memo, Kagan admitted that her meeting with the ACOG was "something of a revelation," for she learned that "in the vast majority of cases, selection of the partial-birth procedure is not necessary to avert serious adverse consequences to a woman's health."

In a Dec. 14 memo of that year, Kagan summarized the official ACOG report released in October as a "disaster," for it stated that "a select panel convened by 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," a resounding blow to the president's position.

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