Abortion dominates O’Connor hearing

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O’Connor also parried, without providing a substantive answer, Denton’s solicitation for her views on the legality of discriminating against homosexuals. Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt, who appointed O’Connor to her current judicial post, endorsed her nomination. He told the committee she is a “splendid” example of “a new generation of state and local leaders .” Representatives from women’s rights groups and the American Bar Association, as well as Phoenix Mayor Margaret Hance, also were called to the witness table to urge approval of O’Connor’s nomination. But two physician witnesses, Carolyn Gerster of Phoenix and J.C. Wilkie of New York City, voiced their opposition based on the abortion issue. “I wish with all my heart that I could support the nomination of this fellow Arizonan,” said Gerster, a vice president of the National Right to Life Committee. But she said that O’Connor’s record as a member of the Arizona Senate is one “consistently supportive of legalized abortion.” Wilkie, president of the National Right to Life Committee, said that those people who do not recognize the constitutional rights of fetuses are “not qilalified to sit on the federal courts.” O’Connor spent most of Thursday establishing that she shares the views of many conservatives . But the committee has yet to find out – even though most of its members appear anxious to know – if she will be a truly conservative Supreme Court justice.