On Abortion, Few Seem to Take Roberts at Face Value

Nominee's Testimony Discounted by Groups On Both Sides of Issue

By Charles Babington

Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 17, 2005; Page A02

In 20 hours of Senate testimony this week, John G. Roberts Jr. made several comments that would seem reassuring to abortion rights advocates and unsettling to those seeking to outlaw abortion. There is a constitutional right to privacy, he said. And justices should show significant deference to long-settled cases such as the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling.

But the reaction from both camps in the abortion wars was startling. Abortion rights groups took no comfort in the chief justice nominee's remarks, and antiabortion groups took no offense. The reason, activists on the left and right say, is that both sides vividly remember Clarence Thomas's 1991 confirmation hearing in the same Senate Judiciary Committee room.