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Kagan's Abortion Distortion

cpwill

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wonder if this will even have any bearings on the hearings. my bet is that - since Democrats tend to care more about the politics of the nominee - the answer to that question is sadly no.

When President Obama promised in his inaugural address to “restore science to its rightful place,” he never explained what that rightful place would be. Documents recently released in connection with the Supreme Court nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan suggest an answer: wherever it can best be used to skew political debate and judicial outcomes.

The documents involved date from the Clinton White House. They show Miss Kagan’s willingness to manipulate medical science to fit the Democratic party’s political agenda on the hot-button issue of abortion. As such, they reflect poorly on both the author and the president who nominated her to the Supreme Court.

There is no better example of this distortion of science than the language the United States Supreme Court cited in striking down Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth abortion in 2000. This language purported to come from a “select panel” of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a supposedly nonpartisan physicians’ group. ACOG declared that the partial-birth-abortion procedure “may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman.” The Court relied on the ACOG statement as a key example of medical opinion supporting the abortion method...

In other words, what medical science has pronounced, let no court dare question. The problem is that the critical language of the ACOG statement was not drafted by scientists and doctors. Rather, it was inserted into ACOG’s policy statement at the suggestion of then–Clinton White House policy adviser Elena Kagan.

The task force’s initial draft statement did not include the statement that the controversial abortion procedure “might be” the best method “in a particular circumstance.” Instead, it said that the select ACOG panel “could identify no circumstances under which this procedure . . . would be the only option to save the life or preserve the health of the woman.”
...

Miss Kagan, then a deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, already knew ACOG’s stance as a result of a July 1996 meeting at the White House, at which ACOG representatives told administration officials — according to a Kagan memorandum [PDF] — that “in the vast majority of cases, selection of the partial birth procedure is not necessary to avert serious adverse consequences to a woman’s health.”

Upon receiving the task force’s draft statement, Kagan noted in another internal memorandum [PDF] that the draft ACOG formulation “would be a disaster — not the less so (in fact, the more so) because ACOG continues to oppose the legislation.” Any expression of doubt by a leading medical body about the efficacy of the procedure would severely undermine the case against the ban....
 
NRO? What a surprise.
 
failure to address the point from Boo, who prefers an ad sourcinem to deal with an embarrassing truth?

what a surprise.
 
failure to address the point from Boo, who prefers an ad sourcinem to deal with an embarrassing truth?

what a surprise.

I am going to have to agree with Boo on this one. If someone linked a daily kos or huffington post article to support their claim, there would also be cries of foul.
 
When men start having babies I will listen to them. In the meantime I would rather let the ones bearing the child decide what is good for them.

It's like women deciding if it is ok for men to have vasectomies.
 
failure to address the point from Boo, who prefers an ad sourcinem to deal with an embarrassing truth?

what a surprise.

What point? That Kagan made a recommended language change on a document? Oh lordy, hang her!
 
I am going to have to agree with Boo on this one. If someone linked a daily kos or huffington post article to support their claim, there would also be cries of foul.

I further agree. If you want to build an argument based upon something from fringe sources, that is ok, as long as you have cites the include more objective and more generally accepted mainstream sources. Please don't build an argument citing only a fringe source (left or right) as your only back-up. People on this forum should be forced to read things outside of their comfort zone.

If you are only getting your news from the NRO, or FOX or MSNBC or Huffington Post, and that is all you wish to post, then spend your time posting on those websites as arguing with those positions is just like shouting down the other guys on those channels; no one is learning anything. What a waste of time. If on the other hand, you want to do the research (which means leaving those respective websites) to support those positions and then state them in you own words, then you add value here (no matter how wrong you are, conservatives [just kidding]).

As for Kagan, see is going to be confirmed with minimal (and only for the record) objection. The right dodged a bullet here and Obama showed weakness in not nominating a truly liberal judge. Clearly her politics are left of center, but they are also right of Stevens... so its a net right victory for those keeping score. You should be happy and move on.... its kind of like holding the other team to a field goal,
 
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wonder if this will even have any bearings on the hearings. my bet is that - since Democrats tend to care more about the politics of the nominee - the answer to that question is sadly no.

When President Obama promised in his inaugural address to “restore science to its rightful place,” he never explained what that rightful place would be. Documents recently released in connection with the Supreme Court nomination of Solicitor General Elena Kagan suggest an answer: wherever it can best be used to skew political debate and judicial outcomes.

The documents involved date from the Clinton White House. They show Miss Kagan’s willingness to manipulate medical science to fit the Democratic party’s political agenda on the hot-button issue of abortion. As such, they reflect poorly on both the author and the president who nominated her to the Supreme Court.

There is no better example of this distortion of science than the language the United States Supreme Court cited in striking down Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth abortion in 2000. This language purported to come from a “select panel” of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a supposedly nonpartisan physicians’ group. ACOG declared that the partial-birth-abortion procedure “may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman.” The Court relied on the ACOG statement as a key example of medical opinion supporting the abortion method...

In other words, what medical science has pronounced, let no court dare question. The problem is that the critical language of the ACOG statement was not drafted by scientists and doctors. Rather, it was inserted into ACOG’s policy statement at the suggestion of then–Clinton White House policy adviser Elena Kagan.

The task force’s initial draft statement did not include the statement that the controversial abortion procedure “might be” the best method “in a particular circumstance.” Instead, it said that the select ACOG panel “could identify no circumstances under which this procedure . . . would be the only option to save the life or preserve the health of the woman.”
...

Miss Kagan, then a deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy, already knew ACOG’s stance as a result of a July 1996 meeting at the White House, at which ACOG representatives told administration officials — according to a Kagan memorandum [PDF] — that “in the vast majority of cases, selection of the partial birth procedure is not necessary to avert serious adverse consequences to a woman’s health.”

Upon receiving the task force’s draft statement, Kagan noted in another internal memorandum [PDF] that the draft ACOG formulation “would be a disaster — not the less so (in fact, the more so) because ACOG continues to oppose the legislation.” Any expression of doubt by a leading medical body about the efficacy of the procedure would severely undermine the case against the ban....

non issue. both wordings are essentially saying the same thing. it's true that in a vast majortiy of cases partial birth abortion is not necessary, which is why they are so rarely performed. however, kagan's wording did not contradict that. "may be the best procedure" doesn't negate that it's not the only procedure.
 
megapropman said:
I am going to have to agree with Boo on this one. If someone linked a daily kos or huffington post article to support their claim, there would also be cries of foul.

if it was simply an opinion piece you would have a point; however, what is at issue here is not who is reporting (although NRO isn't comparable to Daily Kos or Huffington - though Townhall would be. NatRev is closer to a Newsweek equivalent), it is what they are reporting.

if any of you are actually able to address the memo's in question, and Kagan's apparent willingness to twist science in order to further her political agenda (oh but we promise she would never do such a thing with the law!), as opposed to attempting to raise strawmen, then i would be interested in hearing it.

that you can't is telling.
 
liblady said:
both wordings are essentially saying the same thing

they certainly are not.

try the following on for size:

"I can't think of a single good reason why we should have invaded Iraq"
v
"There are some good reasons why we should have invaded Iraq."

I would say those are rather markedly different statements.
 
if it was simply an opinion piece you would have a point; however, what is at issue here is not who is reporting (although NRO isn't comparable to Daily Kos or Huffington - though Townhall would be. NatRev is closer to a Newsweek equivalent), it is what they are reporting.

if any of you are actually able to address the memo's in question, and Kagan's apparent willingness to twist science in order to further her political agenda (oh but we promise she would never do such a thing with the law!), as opposed to attempting to raise strawmen, then i would be interested in hearing it.

that you can't is telling.

Its not that I cannot. I don't know if I can or not as I have not looked at the source material. Also, I disagree with what you see as the value of the media outlet. Its just a partisan hack outlet like media matters and as such, its not worth discussing.
 
failure to address the point from Boo, who prefers an ad sourcinem to deal with an embarrassing truth?

what a surprise.

Where the source can't be trusted, there is no issue to address. Use an accurate source (if you can), and I'll gadly contibute.
 
Oh how sad. I never saw how anyone could support partial birth abortions no matter how pro-abortion you were. Why would it be anymore dangerous to the mother to give birth to a live baby rather than a dead one?
Kagan gets more frightening all the time. Can't wait til she rules it's consitutional when Congress requires me to eat fruits and vegetables daily and when it's ok to ban books.
 
Oh how sad. I never saw how anyone could support partial birth abortions no matter how pro-abortion you were. Why would it be anymore dangerous to the mother to give birth to a live baby rather than a dead one?
Kagan gets more frightening all the time. Can't wait til she rules it's consitutional when Congress requires me to eat fruits and vegetables daily and when it's ok to ban books.

This of course starts with an assumption that the article is accurate, which it has a history of not being. So, you can't trust it on that. So, before we can go on, we really need to know what her postition really is.
 
Can't wait til she rules it's consitutional when Congress requires me to eat fruits and vegetables daily and when it's ok to ban books.

q3681604.jpg
 
I know what I heard from her mouth.
 
they certainly are not.

try the following on for size:

"I can't think of a single good reason why we should have invaded Iraq"
v
"There are some good reasons why we should have invaded Iraq."

I would say those are rather markedly different statements.

what don't you understand about "in a particular circumstance"?
 
She admitted the memo was in her handwriting but never actually admitted she wrote it. My source is Kagan's own words.
 
they certainly are not.

try the following on for size:

"I can't think of a single good reason why we should have invaded Iraq"
v
"There are some good reasons why we should have invaded Iraq."

I would say those are rather markedly different statements.

You are acting like she said those things in the same sentence. Maybe she was misconstrued like the republican's apology to BP.
 
She admitted the memo was in her handwriting but never actually admitted she wrote it. My source is Kagan's own words.

Barbbtx once said that he thinks the moon is made out of cheese. My source is his own words.

(you seem to not really understand what a "source" is)
 
Boo said:
Where the source can't be trusted, there is no issue to address. Use an accurate source (if you can), and I'll gadly contibute.

:roll: your evidence that these memos are not part of Kagan's legal documentary history?

You are acting like she said those things in the same sentence

:fail: do you even read the stuff, or do you just do your "NRO" shtick?

Kagan didn't say both. She said that the first is a problem for us, so we need to cut it out of the report and replace it with the latter.

you know, sort of like the Obama administration did with it's experts "recommending" the six-month moratorium?

Maybe she was misconstrued like the republican's apology to BP.

no, that guy is just an idiot who says stupid things. sort of like joe biden, except not nearly as abysmally wrong-headed.
 
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Barbbtx once said that he thinks the moon is made out of cheese. My source is his own words.

(you seem to not really understand what a "source" is)

Huh? My friend sends me a birthday card. It is signed in her handwriting. She's says, "did you get my card?" I say "Yea, but I'll have to check with another source for more evidence that it's really from you."
 
Barbbtx said:
She admitted the memo was in her handwriting but never actually admitted she wrote it. My source is Kagan's own words

Sorry Barb. as a conservative, you cannot be trusted to quote a source, and therefore obviously not only did Kagan never say that, but Kagan probably does not exist.
 
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