Topic: Abortion
Senator: Durbin
Date: SEPTEMBER 14, 2005
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DURBIN: Let me ask you one other question. Senators Coburn and Brownback have, I think, sincerely and accurately expressed their views on the issue of abortion. I think they have been very articulate in saying so.
Many would argue that it's one of the most divisive legal and political issues we faced in our generation.
I would like to ask you this question: Why do you think this issue is so important to so many women in America -- the whole question of Roe v. Wade, the question of reproductive freedom and the question of freedom of choice? Why do you think it's so important?
ROBERTS: Well, I think it's important -- and again, to women on both sides of the issue, and also, I think, to men as well, but obviously it's an issue that directly affects women. It's a fundamental question, as the court has addressed in Roe and in Casey, that obviously affects the lives, directly, of millions of Americans, and the availability of rights under that decision affects women.
But I know there are people who have strongly held views on both sides of the issue. And I know that the responsibility of a judge confronting this issue is to decide the case according to the rule of law consistent with the precedents; not to take sides in a dispute as a matter of policy, but to decide it according to the law.
And your questions earlier about, you know, causes we agree with, causes we don't agree with -- I do want to emphasize that there is a unifying theme in my approach, both as a lawyer and as a judge. And that is the cause that I believe in passionately, the one to which I have devoted my professional career, is the vindication of the rule of law.
And I tried to explain in my opening statement on Monday why that's important: Because, without it, any other rights that you may agree with as a matter of policy are meaningless. You need to have courts that will enforce the rule of law if you're going to have rights that mean anything.
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