President Trump has checked off one of his campaign promises to oppose abortion with his nomination of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, conservative groups said Tuesday night.
Abortion foes warmly embraced Gorsuch, who sits on the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, noting that he was on their side in one of the highest-profile legal challenges to Obamacare.
Gorsuch sided with Hobby Lobby and Little Sisters of the Poor in their challenges to a requirement from the Obama administration to provide birth control in employee health plans. The Hobby Lobby case eventually landed at the Supreme Court, which said the administration must better exempt it from covering contraception
Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony List, also pointed to a book by Gorsuch about assisted suicide, where he wrote that the intentional taking of human life is “always wrong.”
“Judge Gorsuch is a distinguished jurist with a strong record of protecting life and religious liberty,” Dannenfelser said.
Other groups more generally applauded Gorsuch’s past rulings, indicating he adheres to a stricter interpretation of the Constitution. Clarke Forsythe, acting president of Americans United for Life, said Gorsuch will be a fitting replacement for former Justice Antonin Scalia, the conservative justice he’d replace.
“The record of Neil Gorsuch demonstrates a similar dedication to constitutional originalism,” Forsythe said.
Abortion rights groups didn’t explicitly condemn Trump’s pick but warned they need more information.
“Given President Trump’s promise to appoint a Supreme Court justice that would seek to overturn Roe v. Wade, we need to know whether Judge Gorsuch would do just that,” said Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights.
