Kagan in '97 urged Clinton to ban late abortions

Tom Daschle's compromise bill failed, but not for lack of trying.

Published May 10, 2010 9:40PM (EDT)

As a White House adviser in 1997, Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama's new Supreme Court nominee, urged then-President Bill Clinton to support a ban on late-term abortions.

Documents reviewed Monday by The Associated Press show Kagan encouraging Clinton to support a compromise bill that would have banned all abortions of viable fetuses except when the health of the mother was at risk. The documents from Clinton's presidential library are among the first to surface in which Kagan discusses the thorny issue of abortion.

The proposal was a compromise by Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle. Clinton supported it, despite opposition from pro-abortion rights groups. The compromise failed and Clinton vetoed a stricter Republican ban.


By Jill Zeman Bleed

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Abortion Elena Kagan Supreme Court