In Senate hearing O’Connor defends abortion vote

WASHINGTON (AP) – Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Cormor said today she is opposed to abortion but that her personal views would not control her votes on the nation’s highest court. “My own view in the area of abortion is that I’m opposed to it,” O’Cormor told the Senate Judiciary Committee. But she emphasized her belief that judges should not let personal feelings dictate their decisions on constitutional issues. O’Connor, the first woman ever nominated to the Supreme Court, sought to explain and defend votes she cast while a member of the Arizona Senate from 1969 to 1975 which have been interpreted by political conservatives as “proabortion.” She portrayed those votes as not true reflections on abortion, itself, but on tangential legislative concerns. In response to other committee questions, O’Connor attempted to enhance her image as a judicial conservative. “I do well understand the difference between legislating and judging. . . . As a judge, it is not my function to develop social policy by means of making the law,” she said. O’Connor has been a state appeals court judge in Arizona since 1979, and was a state trial judge the previous four years. “I do not believe it is the function of the judiciary to step in and change the law because the times or social mores have changed,” she said. O’Connor promised the senators that, if confirmed as the 102nd member in the high court’s 191-year history, her job will be “one of interpreting and applying the law, not making it.” Keeping