Filibuster of Anti Right to Life Justice Nominee Dawn Johnson?

President picks former legal director of NARAL and staff counsel to the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project to head Justice Dept.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews.com) - Criticism continues to pour in from pro-life lawmakers over the radical pro-abortion views of Dawn Johnsen, Obama's pick to head the Office of Legal Counsel, who reportedly does not have enough votes to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate. However, GOP judiciary committee members fear that Obama may move the nomination through while Congress is in recess over Memorial Day, a tactic known as a recess appointment.

Johnsen was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee in February along party lines for the Justice Department slot, where she would act as legal advisor to the president.

31 Indiana state senators have petitioned the two U.S. Senators from Indiana to reject the Johnsen nomination. The two U.S. Senators, Democrat Evan Bayh and the customarily pro-life Republican Richard Lugar, currently support the nomination.

"It's a statement from a very strong pro-life caucus," Indiana Senate President Pro Tempore David Long told the Associated Press about the petition from the Indiana senators. "It is not based on the fact she is pro-choice, it is based on the fact that she is radically so."

Since the nomination, pro-life lawmakers have expressed their concern that Dawn Johnsen, a professor at the Indiana University School of Law, has written some of the most extreme statements in favor of abortion on record as legal director of NARAL and staff counsel to the ACLU's Reproductive Freedom Project.

An architect of the Freedom of Choice Act, Johnsen told the Supreme Court in 1989 that any pro-life law is equivalent to forcing "involuntary servitude," because it "requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state's asserted interest."

Pro-life laws "reduce pregnant women to no more than fetal containers," said Johnsen, and thus anything less than unrestricted abortion violates the Thirteenth Amendment, which prohibits slavery.

"Progressives must not portray all abortions as tragedies," Johnsen wrote as a contributor to the 2009 book The Constitution in 2020. "Senator Hillary Clinton ... took the aspiration a step in the wrong direction when she called for policy changes so that abortion 'does not ever have to be exercised or only in very rare circumstances,'" she added.

In addition, Johnsen helped prepare the plaintiff's briefs for the 1988 case, United States Catholic Conference v. Abortion Rights Mobilization, which sought to strip the Catholic Church of its tax-exempt status because of its pro-life advocacy.

"The president has said we have to find common ground on the issue of abortion, but his nomination of Dawn Johnsen to head up the office of legal counsel is among the most controversial of his nominees," said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) in a floor speech Wednesday.

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While Johnsen compared pregnancy to slavery, said Foxx: "I and millions of other women do not feel this way. We cherish the opportunity to have borne a child."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid told Roll Call that the Senate vote would be delayed until Johnsen can accrue a filibuster-proof 60 votes.

"Right now we're finding out when to do that. I've had a number of conversations with some Republicans to find out if we have a couple of Republican votes," Reid said. "We need a couple Republican votes until we can get to 60."

However, committee Republicans say that it is possible that President Obama may bypass the vote with a recess appointment over Memorial Day weekend.

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