Durbin: Pro-Life Stance Would "Disqualify" Roberts

NewsMax.com reports on "Catholic" Senator Dick Durbin's pro-abortion litmus test:

The Senate's number two Democrat said Sunday that if Judge John Roberts doesn't recognize that the Constitution's right to privacy covers the Roe vs Wade abortion decision, it would "disqualify" him from serving on the Supreme Court.

Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" if President Bush had "the same right" to appoint pro-life justices that President Clinton had to appoint pro-choice justices, Durbin at first insisted, "I'm not looking for a litmus test."

"As important as reproductive rights and women's rights are, I just basically want to know that if the next case involving privacy and personal freedom came up, what he believes," the Illinois Democrat claimed.

Asked, however, what he would do if Roberts "said he did not see a right to privacy in the Constitution," Durbin told MTP host Tim Russert: "I wouldn't vote for him. That would disqualify him in my mind."

Asked whether he intended to question Roberts directly about his position on Roe vs Wade, Durbin said, "I'm going to get very specific. But I've had an experience with him before. He didn't get very specific in his answers when he was up for the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals."

My Comments:
"The Senate's number two Democrat" shows that he's full of "number two" every time he refers to himself as a "Catholic". You can't be both Catholic and pro-abortion, Senator.

Furthermore, NewsMax is mistaken in describing the stance that would "disqualify" Roberts in Durbin's eyes as "Pro-Life". As Will Bloomfield (citing Ed Whelan) points out on his blog, Thoughts from the Right, when one does "not see a right to privacy in the Constitution," that is a moderate position based on a strict reading of the Constitution, not a "Pro-Life" position, which would find in the Constitution a "right to life" protecting the unborn.

So, between the two extremes - Durbin's position on the one hand that finds an absolute constitutional right to abortion under all circumstances, and the pro-life position on the other hand that finds an absolute constitutional right to life for the unborn - the view that the Constitution simply does not address the issue of abortion is the middle-of-the-road position.