By Peter J. Smith
WASHINGTON, D.C., April 12, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Dawn Johnsen has withdrawn her bid to head the White House’s Office of Legal Counsel, throwing in the towel after interminable delays and bipartisan opposition in the Senate, in part due to some of her radical pro-abortion views.
“Unfortunately, my nomination has met with lengthy delays and political opposition,” she said in a statement on Friday. “I hope that the withdrawal of my nomination will allow this important office to be filled promptly.”
ABC’s White House Political Correspondent Jake Tapper reports that a source in the Senate Democratic leadership told him that the White House “didn't have the stomach for the debate.”
Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Obama’s nomination of Johnsen was “a bridge too far” even for the highly partisan Senate to cross. Two Democrats, Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Penn.) and Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), threatened to join Republicans in a filibuster of Johnsen, because she was too extreme.
“There was bipartisan opposition to this nominee and we welcome the withdrawal,” the GOP leader said in a statement. “But it is my sincere hope that the Senate will soon receive a consensus nominee for this important position.”
Johnsen’s views on abortion were on the extreme left. She once suggested in an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court that pro-life laws compel women to “involuntary servitude” and that anything less than unrestricted abortion on demand would be a violation of the Thirteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution, which outlawed slavery. Johnsen made that comment in footnote 23 of the brief she filed in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. 490 (1989) (No. 88-605).
Elsewhere Obama’s nominee stated that even modest abortion restrictions “reduce pregnant women to no more than fetal containers.”
Johnsen also described the idea of striving to make abortion rare – not just “safe” and “legal”– as “nonsensical.”
She also accused pro-life activists of resorting to tactics not unlike the “intimidation carried out by the Ku Klux Klan” and excoriated fellow pro-abortion leaders for portraying “abortions as tragedies.”
In a brief written on behalf of the American Constitution Society last year, Johnsen advocated that social progressives circumvent the legislative process in favor of judicial activism, stating that “the progressive agenda should focus on the courts as the vehicles for desired change.”
One of the most extreme cases of Johnsen’s legal advocacy for abortion involved her crusade to strip the U.S. Catholic Church of tax-exempt status over its pro-life activism. United States Catholic Conference v. Abortion Rights Mobilization went to the Supreme Court, where the Catholic bishops won their case. However the National Abortion Rights Action League – later redubbed NARAL Pro-Choice America – rewarded Johnsen for her efforts by hiring her to be their legal director, a position she filled from 1989–1993.
Johnsen also served as staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Reproductive Freedom Project from 1987-1988. She also served in President Bill Clinton’s Justice Department from 1993-1998, including a stint as Acting Assistant Attorney General leading the OLC.
Johnsen’s nomination also drew stiff protest from other members of Congress. A letter submitted to President Obama by Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) on behalf of 62 other Congressmen, said that President Obama’s pick violated his pledge to find “common ground” on the issue of abortion.
The letter noted, “She has condemned virtually every type of regulation of abortion conceived by a legislature, no matter how mild the regulation or how shocking the practice regulated, as unacceptable.”
“The Office of Legal Counsel needs a leader that will respect the Constitution and resist the temptation to substitute personal ideology for sound legal reasoning.”
See related coverage by LifeSiteNews.com:
72-Page Report Documents Obama’s “Radical” Nominees and Appointments
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/jan/10012703.html
Congressmen Blast Obama Nomination of Radical Pro-Abort to Head Justice Dept. Legal Counsel
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/mar/09032503.html