Durbin on the abortion issue

At one time within the Democratic Party there were plenty of pro-lifers, many of them, such as Dick Durbin of Illinois, were Catholic.

Durbin was a member of the House back then in the 1980s, and until 1989 was one of those pro-lifers.

From Lynn Sweet's column in today's Chicago Sun-Times:

In questioning Alito on Wednesday morning, Durbin pressed him on abortion, specifically on why he could not say if he found "constitutional support'' for a woman's right to choose or if the Supreme Court rulings were the settled law of the land.

"You can't bring yourself to say there's a constitutional basis for the right of a woman's privacy when she is deciding, making a tragic, painful decision about continuing a pregnancy that may risk her health or her life, I'm troubled by that,'' Durbin said.

Sen. Tom Coburn is an Oklahoma Republican (and an MD) who embarrassed Durbin yesterday during the Alito hearings.

Also from Sweet's article:

Coburn brandished a 1989 letter Durbin, then a House member, wrote to a Springfield constituent when he said he believed Roe vs. Wade, the Supreme Court ruling paving the way for legalized abortion, should be reversed.

But Durbin is good at speaking with a pedagogical (and arrogant) speaking voice.