Posted on 01/15/2004 6:43:45 PM PST by nickcarraway
Pro-choice leader and senator trade compliments By
WASHINGTON — Nearing the end of her long career as maybe the nation's best-known abortion rights advocate, Kate Michelman — president of NARAL Pro Choice America — was asked Monday which of her opponents she respects the most.
"Sen. (Orrin) Hatch," she said with only minor hesitation during questions from the audience after a speech to the National Press Club.
She said the Utahn, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, "is a thorn in my little side when it comes to judicial nominations."
But, she added, "he and I have had long years of conversation and respect each other's positions. . . . I don't want to characterize all of those who oppose a woman's right to choose as despicable people. They aren't. They're wrong — absolutely wrong."
Michelman added, "As I always tell Sen. Hatch, I don't know why, but I always have this hope that someday a light bulb is going to go off in his little soul."
While praise, such as it is, from a nemesis may have surprised Hatch, he returned the compliments to Michelman through his spokeswoman, Margarita Tapia.
She said, "Sen. Hatch respects everyone who sincerely believes in their position — even if he disagrees with them. He does have a lot of respect for Kate Michelman. She is one who has been courteous and kind — even when she disagrees with him."
Michelman announced she will soon take emeritus status at NARAL (formerly called the National Abortion Rights Action League) after leading it for 20 years, and used a luncheon speech Monday to say the upcoming presidential race is key to the future of abortion rights.
During a question-and-answer period afterward, Michelman was also asked if she agrees with Hatch that abortion (largely because of pushing by NARAL) has become a "litmus test" by liberals for federal judicial nominees — and if it should be.
Michelman said ensuring that "a nominee's views on whether the Constitution protects a woman's right to privacy and freedom of choice . . . is a constitutional question and test, not a litmus test. But it is a legitimate question."
She adds that the legal right to abortion is the "cornerstone of our equality" for women. "I think it is absolutely legitimate (to ask nominees), and I am sorry that Sen. Hatch has a problem with it."
Tapia, however, said, "Sen. Hatch does not believe there should be any single litmus test against any judicial nominee who is otherwise qualified because if we start picking individual litmus tests, then there will be two sides demanding exclusion on a never-ending set of issues."
Michelman said her group plans extensive work to try to defeat President Bush this year. She said a switch by maybe just one of nine justices on the Supreme Court may be enough to reverse the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion on demand. She worries Bush will seek to find someone to do just that.
"And we are likely to have not just one vacancy, not just two, but maybe even three — perhaps even more — in the next four or five years" as justices age. Bush has not yet had the opportunity to appoint anyone to the high court, and the two nominees appointed by former President Clinton are considered pro-choice on abortion.
"The last time we went this long without a vacancy on the court, James Monroe lived in the White House," she said.
She added, "Every candidate on the Democratic side is pro-choice."
Michelman said the election will likely determine for years "under what circumstances do we bring children into the world, and who makes the choice. Should children be brought in by choice, or under the heavy hand of government compulsion."
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 15, 2004
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In one of her final interviews as the president of the national pro-abortion lobbying organization NARAL, Kate Michelman this week named pro-life Senator Orrin Hatch as one of her opponents that she respects the most.
After a speech at the National Press Club, Michelman didn't hesitate when naming Hatch in response to a reporter's question.
"Senator Hatch is a thorn in my little side when it comes to judicial nominations," Michelman explained. But "he and I have had long years of conversation and respect each other's positions. . . .
She went on to describe all pro-life advocates.
"I don't want to characterize all of those who oppose a woman's right to choose as despicable people. They aren't. They're wrong — absolutely wrong."
Michelman added, "As I always tell Sen. Hatch, I don't know why, but I always have this hope that someday a light bulb is going to go off in his little soul."
A spokesman for Hatch returned the praise.
According to the Deseret News, Margarita Tapia, a Hatch spokesman, said, "Sen. Hatch respects everyone who sincerely believes in their position — even if he disagrees with them. He does have a lot of respect for Kate Michelman. She is one who has been courteous and kind — even when she disagrees with him."
Though Hatch is a longtime pro-life leader in Congress on abortion issues, part of the reason for Michelman's remarks could be his support for embryonic stem cell research.
Hatch has upset the pro-life community by co-sponsoring a "clone and kill" bill that would allow researchers to clone human embryos only to kill them shortly thereafter in order to obtain their stem cells. The Hatch bill, co-sponsored by pro-abortion California senator Diane Feinstein, faces strong opposition from pro-life organizations.
Michelman, one of the most recognizable pro-abortion leaders, will be stepping down as president of NARAL next spring after heading the national abortion advocacy group for 18 years.
She is staying on through the spring in order to lead a national pro-abortion march next April.
Michelman plans to leave the organization in order to care for her ill husband. She also says she wants to spend more time focusing on defeating President George. W. Bush in the 2004 elections.
Pro-life groups often remember a Michelman gaffe in a February 1994 interview with a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer, when she said, "We think abortion is a bad thing."
When later asked about the quote in a Congressional hearing, Michelman denied having said it. However, the interview was tape-recorded and the reporter stood by her story.
Hell can't be hot enough.
Gee, what an honor.
And I would hope the same happens to Kate Michelman.
Now, when it comes to granting illegals some kind of amnesty, he is a real dork and I have let him know (to no avail). The state's senators have a thing about never answering constituent letters. It's frustrating. The best way to get their attention is to visit their local offices and rant to the staff for a while.
LOL. Michelman would unleash the hounds of hell itself. If Hatch ever stole candy from the Safeway when he was 6, it would be in the New York Times.
Notice how the ghoul calls the victims 'children'? Notice how she defends the indefensible, 'infanticide as a woman's right' AFTER she has willingly engaged in the behavior that begets pregnancy? Obviously, it isn't about the female children, slaughter them indescriminately on the altar of choice; it's about empowering already alive lusters for power via the legalization of god-like right to murder without legal consequence. And women like Michelman don't give a damn about the 'women too weak to stride through the slaughter with unfettered consciences or resist psychological harm.'
In a by-gone era, people like Michelman and her hench-ghouls would be pariahs for their serial killing defense. Today, because the American sovereigns are dumbed-down and preoccupied with bread and circuses, these demonic servants of child sacrifice are given heroic status ... dripping in the blood of the innocent, but heroes to the dnc and the hedonistic, self aggrandizers who seek to avoid consequences.
Oddly enough, Hatch and Michelman are in agreement on one or two major life issues. Hatch believes an embryo or fetus isn't a human being unless in a woman's body, so he is pushing for legalization of clone and kill research ... Michelman believes Hatch is a great spokesperson for that level of dehumanization, she can handle the other levels of same.
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