Here’s an interesting little item. In 2000, the Supreme Court struck down Nebraska’s ban on partial-birth abortion. In their decision they cited a policy report by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). A key phrase in the report said that the procedure “may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman.”
It turns out, however, that this important statement wasn’t in the doctors’ original report. (Indeed, the actual report said that the physician’s 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.”)
Guess who got it put in there? A name that’s been in the news lately: Elena Kagan.
Why ACOG should have been willing to sign off on this revision is another matter, of course, but it is startling that Ms. Kagan simply went in and altered the language this way. I think we might be hearing more about this.
Learn more here.