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Militant Pro-Abortionist
Withdraws Her Name from
Consideration to Head Office of
Legal Counsel
Part Two of Two By Dave Andrusko Lost in the shuffle Friday of the news of the retirements of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens and Congressman Bart Stupak was the withdrawal of militant pro-abortionist Dawn Johnsen. Johnsen, a seasoned veteran of the Abortion Establishment, was pro-abortion President Barack Obama's choice to head one of the most important legal positions in the federal Executive Branch -- the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel-- AAG-OLC. In her letter to Obama removing her name from consideration, Johnsen wrote, "Unfortunately, my nomination has met with lengthy delays and political opposition that… prevent [the Office of Legal Counsel] from functioning at full strength." But resistance from the pro-life community began and ended with a track record only Planned Parenthood could love. In opposing Johnsen, NRLC wrote the following.
"Dawn Johnsen has a long history as a pro-abortion strategist, propagandist, and litigator, including about five years as legal director for NARAL, as well as work on behalf of the ACLU and Abortion Rights Mobilization. Throughout her career, Johnsen has expressed her opposition to all limitations on abortion in vivid terms, and she has often criticized courts for being, in her view, insufficiently expansive in their application of pro-abortion legal doctrine. "For example, Johnsen has criticized the Supreme Court rulings that upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, the Hyde Amendment that prohibits the use of federal Medicaid funds for abortion, and others. Moreover, Johnsen was the lead author of a brief that claimed that limits on abortion constitute 'reducing pregnant women to no more than fetal containers,' and she has stated that 'progressives must not portray all abortions as tragedies.'" "Johnsen's career as a pro-abortion ideologue suggests that if confirmed as AAG-OLC, she would use this office to impose highly ideological constructions on existing statutes dealing with abortion and other right-to-life concerns." If you want evidence, just read some of her speeches. "A Progressive Agenda for Women's Reproductive Health and Liberty on Roe v. Wade's Thirty-Fifth Anniversary," for example, is a portal into the mind of a genuine zealot. (See http://www.acslaw.org/files/Johnsen%20Issue%20Brief_01_08_0.pdf). Anything that applies even the gentlest brake to the abortion-on-demand juggernaut raises her ire--the Hyde Amendment, or the decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the ban on partial-birth abortion, or even government funding for crisis pregnancy centers. But there's much, much more. As NARAL's legal director, Johnsen wrote a brief for a 1989 Supreme Court case, arguing that statutes that limit access to abortion are "disturbing suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the Thirteenth Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service"--a.k.a. pregnant women are reduced "to no more than fetal containers," according to Johnsen's brief in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services. Even a pro-abortionist, such as Hillary Clinton, who opposes legal limits on abortion, is thrown off of Johnsen's Island if (as Clinton did) she also expresses the hope that the day would come when legal access to abortion "does not ever have to be exercised or only in very rare circumstances." This violates Johnsen's doctrine (as expressed in "A Progressive Agenda for Women's Reproductive Health and Liberty on Roe v. Wade's Thirty-Fifth Anniversary") that "progressives must resist the temptation to portray all abortions as tragedies." Johnsen's nomination was delayed for over a year before she withdrew. A possible successor has not yet been announced. Please send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. And be sure to read www.nationalrighttolifenews.org. |
