Conservative Activist Argues for Roe v Wade to be Overturned

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: You have — along with many activists in the conservative sphere, have worked pretty successfully for 50 years now to come to this moment. So, I just want you to just reflect on that, and how, in fact, President Trump, who actually became electable because your movement and the Federalist Society and the others suggested that he should be the nominee, given what you got him to say about nominating judges. All three of the judges that he appointed are named in this draft ruling. So just talk to me about the politics that have got you to this point.

CARRIE SEVERINO, PRESIDENT, JUDICIAL CRISIS NETWORK: Well, first, I think it’s important to separate the politics on the policy of abortion. I am someone who’s pro-life. But the big issue in this case is not, should the court be pro-life or pro- choice? The question is, what does the Constitution itself say? There are some that are arguing the Constitution itself requires a nationwide ban on abortion. What the court said is, we’re not making that call either. We are staying, as Justice Kavanaugh said, scrupulously neutral. And that’s my organization JCN’s position as well. We want to make sure that the court and the judges are faithful to the words of the Constitution. Now, on this question, that is a very easy question. It’s a difficult political question. It’s a simple legal question, because the Constitution of the United States nowhere speaks to abortion. It does not have any words about a right to abortion. It doesn’t have any language about a right to privacy, which is what the right to abortion was then derived from. The Roe decision itself doesn’t even decide which specific right in the Constitution it is emanating from.

AMANPOUR: Well…

SEVERINO: I mean, they have gotten so many far — so far removed from the language.

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AMANPOUR: As you know, it comes from the idea of privacy and the rest, and that’s what the president alluded to.

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SEVERINO: Which is nowhere in the Constitution.

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SEVERINO: So, the politics are…

AMANPOUR: Well, I know, but it’s how some of the amendments are interpreted.

SEVERINO: Right.

AMANPOUR: But, look, lots wasn’t actually strictly in the Constitution that is now law.