O’Connor Heads Home; Confirmation Expected. ‘Support Very Encouraging’

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Sandra D. O’Connor talked about abortion with staunch anti-abortion senators and ended up telling at l~ast one of them her views on the controversial subject are the same as President Reagan’s. The Arizona jurist met Friday with Sens. John East, R-N.C., and Gordon Humphrey, R-N.H., who asked her if published reports that her abortion views are the same as the president’s were true. ”She said, ‘Yes,”‘ Humphrey told reporters. REAGAN BAS said he considers abortion “murder.” As California governor he signed a law which permitted large numbers of abortions, but later said that was because abortion proponents found loopholes allowing abortions even when the woman’s life was not in danger. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., also got a visit from Judge O’Connor during her rounds with senators who will vote on her norniation, and said afterward: “I am convinced she will receive the confirmation – overwhelmingly, if not unanimously” and “‘she will make an outstanding justice.” Humphrey said when they talked about the Supreme Court’s landmarl. 1973 abortion decision, “She made it clear to me that the judiciary has a distinctly different role from the legislature and neither body should encroach” on the other. CALLING THE court’s abortion decision “the most flagrant example of judicial usurpation of power,” East said the 51-year-old jurist would “of course” be questioned about her abortion views during the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings.