Roundup: Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearings Begin Today

Sotomayor's Confirmation Hearings Begin Today
With Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings starting today, a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. announced new poll results showing that 47 percent of Americans want her to be confirmed and 40 percent oppose her confirmation, the Boston Globe reports. The survey's results also showed that most Americans expect a big fight over Sotomayor's confirmation, but they still expect her to be confirmed in the end.

To encourage support for Sotomayor, Vice President Joe Biden e-mailed the supporters of Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America urging them to call their senators, write letters to local newspapers and show their support for Judge Sonia Sotomayor, according to the Boston Globe.

In the e-mail Biden said, "Judge Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings begin Monday, and that means we're one step closer to getting her on the Supreme Court."
According to the article, the e-mail also said:

"Since President Obama nominated her back in May, Judge Sotomayor's brilliance and unique legal qualifications have stood strong against fierce scrutiny. Law enforcement officials have praised her tough-mindedness and experience as a prosecutor and trial judge, and just this week she earned the highest possible rating from the American Bar Association. There's no doubt -- the President picked the right person for the job.

Next week, the Senate hearings will once again focus the press on this historic nomination, and those who are desperate to play politics with the President's nominee will see this as their last, best chance. Your support for Judge Sotomayor at this critical step will make a big difference."

Although many women's groups were happy when Obama picked Sotomayor for the Supreme Court, they have not spent much time rallying for her confirmation. An AP article said that because of the few rulings she made on abortion, many pro-choice advocates are not willing to support her. Other groups have waited to support her until they know more about her record.

Melody Drnach, the vice president of the National Organization of Women, spoke to AP regarding Sotomayor.

"'We're doing everything we can do in terms of supporting her,'" Drnach said, adding that the group will soon step up its efforts behind the scenes, counting votes for Sotomayor and lobbying if necessary to get senators to support her. The group's D.C. chapter plans a rally Monday outside the confirmation hearings."

The New York Times reported that at the hearings senators will questions about abortion, race, gay rights and foreign law, but Sotomayor is not expected to answer most of them. Instead she will stick the norm of avoiding answers to questions regarding specific legal issues, but will praise certain Supreme Court decisions.

"Here is the basic script: the nominee is expected to praise Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 decision barring segregation in public schools; endorse a constitutional right to privacy without saying whether it extends to abortion; and deplore cases like Dred Scott, the 1857 decision that said black people could be property but not citizens, and Korematsu v. United States, the 1944 decision endorsing internment camps for people of Japanese ancestry during World War II."

According to NYT, Sotomayor has spent much of the past week preparing for the hearings with Obama administration lawyers, being coached on how to answer questions, and looking over briefing books and cases she reviewed as a judge.

FDA One Step Approved by FDA

For the first time ever, women can prevent unintended pregnancy after unprotected sex with one pill in one dose, according to a press release.

The Plan B One pill will be available over-the-counter at pharmacies for women 17 years or older, but with a prescription for girls under age 17.

In the press release, Kelli Conlin, President of the National Institute for Reproductive Health, said, "This is a great day for women's reproductive health...With Plan B One-Step, women can now take steps to prevent unintended pregnancy with just one pill in one dose."

It also said:

"Emergency Contraception (EC), also known as the "morning after pill," is a safe and effective way to prevent pregnancy after unprotected sex or the failure of other birth control methods. When used within 5 days (120 hours) of unprotected sex or birth control failure, EC can significantly reduce the risk of unintended pregnancy. EC is most effective when taken as soon as possible after unprotected sex or the failure of other birth control methods."

 

Spanish Abortion Reform Causes Controversy

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's Socialist prime minister, has again upset the country's mostly-Catholic population. After legalizing gay marriage and implementing fast-track divorce, he proposes to let 16-year-old girls get abortion without their parents' consent, according to a Taiwan News article.

One Spanish cardinal, Antonio Canizares, who works at the Vatican said abortion is worse than the sexual and other forms of child abuse by religious orders.

It says:

"Under the current law, Spanish women can in theory go to jail for getting an abortion outside certain strict limits _ up to week 12 in case of rape and week 22 if the fetus is malformed. But abortion is in effect widely available because women can assert mental distress as sole grounds for having an abortion, regardless of how late the pregnancy is."

OTHER NEWS TO NOTE:

July 12: Houston Chronicle: What to watch for at Sotomayor hearing

July 12: Nyasa Times: Obstetric fistula acute in Malawi, experts call for help

July 12: Christian Post: Survey: More Americans Adopting Pro-Life Perspective

July 12: Cincinnati Enquirer: Embryo dispute detailed in lawsuit

July 13: Guardian: Universal family planning access

July 12: Catholic.net: Vatican: Church Teaching on Abortion Unchanged

July 12: ABC 7 WJLA: Pro-life Activists Protest Sotomayor Confirmation

July 11: The Hour: Time for Democrats to Take a Stand on Abortion

July 11: Daily KOS: When Pro-Life Politics Comes Home to Roost.

July 1: ProWomanProLife:Sex, marriage and Meatloaf

July 12: Daily Press: New law allows cooperative adoptions

July 11: Moderate Voice: When Pro-Choice Meets Pro-Business

July 11: Feminists for Choice: Senate Pushes Forward a Permanent Ban on the Global Gag Rule

July 12: Times of India:Azad favours late marriages to curb population growth

July 12: Steamboat Pilot: Lisa Baker: Planned Parenthood is not the answer

July 10: NYTimes: Does Obama Have a Friend in the Vatican?

July 12: Concord Monitor: (Letter) Pro-life, pro-health

July 12: AP: Spain liberalizing, but teen abortion hits a nerve

July 11: Times Georgian: Haralson County official aids passing of state law allowing embryo adoption

July 11: Salt Lake Tribune: Legal experts from left and right weigh in on Sotomayor

July 11: Examiner: Should Evangelicals stop using contraceptives?

July 11: Birmingham Post: Pope pressures Obama over abortion

July 11: Beliefnet: Obama and the Pope - on abortion

July 12: Telegraph: What the hell did Ruth Bader Ginsburg mean when she linked abortion and eugenics?

July 11: Catholic News Agency: Readers shouldn't ignore new encyclical's pro-life content, Bill Donohue says

July 11: Times of India: TSRDS holds workshop on birth control

July 10: LifeSiteNews: Men's Advice Website Column Tells Men How To Coerce Their Girlfriends To Abort

July 11: OneNewsNow: Film features history of pro-abortion violence

July 11: PR NewsWire: Sonia Sotomayor and Abortion: Pro-Life Protests at Supreme Court and Elsewhere Against Sotomayor July 11-14; Catholics Beg D.C. Archbishop Wuerl to Withhold Communion from Catholic Senators Who Vote for Sotomayor

July 11: Inside Catholic: Making Babies: A Very Different Look at Natural Family Planning

July 11: Empire Chronicles:86% of Americans want abortion restrictions

July 11: Ocala: Can a Democrat be a good Catholic?

July 11: NYTimes: Path to Supreme Court: Speak Capably, Say Little

July 11: Times of India: Public awareness on family planning schemes needed: Azad

July 11: Metro Catholic:New Study Confirms that Pres. Obama's DC Policy Will Increase Abortions Says Dr. Alveda King

July 11: Middletown Journal:Adoption programs on state chopping block

July 11: ABS CBN: Lack of political will linked to RP's high maternal mortality

July 10: HuffPo: A Crisis of Deception: Crisis Pregnancy Centers, A Special Report

July 10: Politico: Barack Obama has first meeting with Pope Benedict XVI

July 11: Pocono Record: Address crisis by investing in women

July 10: Truthout: Committee Votes to Reverse Global Gag Rule

July 10: Alliance Alert: Michigan:Legislative bills endanger conscience, promote abortion and contraception

July 10: Catholic News Agency: CDF issues clarification on 'therapeutic' abortion after Brazil incident

July 10: Feminist Majority: Irish Women Challenge Abortion Ban

July 10: Baptist Press: The public health plan: a pro-life non-starter

July 10: AP: Women's groups quiet on Sotomayor

July 9: Moderate Voice:A Win for Patients' Rights on Contraception

July 10: Daily Mirror: Scientists would be better off researching birth control, rather than infertility problems

July 10: HuffPo: Finding Optimism on World Population Day

July 10: CommonDream.org:NARAL Pro-Choice America Praises House Subcommittee for Eliminating Funding for Failed 'Abstinence-Only' Program

July 10: Ghana News: Government urged to resource family planning programmes

July 10: ScienceBlogs: Microbiology and Abortion

July 10: Christian Science Monitor: Sustainable population, minus the control

July 10: Boston Globe: Americans divided on Sotomayor, expect fireworks

July 9: San Francisco Gate: Change cuts infections linked to abortion pill

July 9: Psychology Today: Adoption, Superman and the Primal Wound

July 10: Philadelphia Inquirer:A loss for abortion opponents