NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–Christian conservatives have a very good chance of seeing Roe v. Wade overturned if a pro-life president wins the White House this fall, two attorneys prominent in pro-family legal battles said March 10.
The comments by Liberty Counsel chairman Mathew Staver and Alliance Defense Fund chief counsel Benjamin Bull came during a panel discussion at the National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville, Tenn. The five-member panel covered a host of topics, including the ramifications of the general election.
“We are one breath away at the United States Supreme Court — one breath, one vote away — from overturning Roe v. Wade and stopping the killing of 1.5 million children every single year and stopping the slaughter of 50 million children since 1973,” Staver said.
Both Staver and Bull said their comments were made as private citizens and not as representatives of their organization.
“If the election goes the Christian conservative way, we have a chance of overturning Roe v. Wade — a very strong chance,” Bull said. “… We really can’t paint a picture bleak enough to what it’s going to look like [legally] if [Barack] Obama’s in the White House.”
The court’s two oldest and two of its most liberal members, 87-year-old John Paul Stevens and 74-year-old Ruth Bader Ginsburg, support Roe v. Wade. Ginsburg, who will turn 75 Saturday, “is a cancer survivor and in very poor health and has to be helped in and out of her chair at times,” Bull said. Additionally, Bull said, 68-year-old Justice David Souter — who also supports Roe — has talked about retiring to his New Hampshire home, and 72-year-old Justice Antonin Scalia — a conservative who opposes Roe — has talked about retirement.
John McCain is pro-life on abortion, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pro-choice.
“The question you have to ask yourself,” Staver said, “is this, ‘Would you want a Bill Clinton serving on the United States Supreme Court? Would you want a Hillary Clinton serving on the United States Supreme Court?’ If you don’t want somebody like that, then vote accordingly. [If Barack Obama wins or Hillary Clinton wins the presidency] we would lose the court not only on abortion but on marriage and on speech issues … possibly for the rest of my life. So I think that is very critical.”
Staver noted that Obama, when an Illinois legislator, opposed the Induced Infant Liability Act, which would have required medical attention be given to late-term babies who survived abortions. An Obama administration, Staver said, “would cataclysmically … change the social underpinnings of this country.”
Scalia and Justice Clarence Thomas are on record as opposing Roe, and pro-lifers are cautiously optimistic that Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts — both nominees of President Bush — would vote to overturn Roe if given the chance. Five votes are required for a majority on the nine-member court.
On a different issue, panelist Janet Parshall also said that presumptive Republican nominee John McCain — whose success as the nominee has concerned some Christian leaders — led the charge last year to remove an amendment to the defense authorization bill that would have expanded hate crimes protections to homosexuals and transgendered individuals.
“When it was all said and done, we finally got the amendment stripped on the House side by Duncan Hunter and the hero on the Senate side was John McCain,” Parshall said. “He was the one who got it off on the Senate side.”
On other issues:
— Parshall said McCain told a gathering of conservative leaders that he “absolutely” would work against bringing back the Fairness Doctrine, a former Federal Communications Commission law that governed broadcast content. She quoted McCain as saying he would do “everything in my power” to make sure it does not pass. Some Democrats in Congress support it.
— Staver and Bull said they believe the California Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on “gay marriage” will be a 4-3 split one way or the other, although they said they couldn’t predict which side would win. A ruling is expected within three months.
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Michael Foust is an assistant editor of Baptist Press.
