Documents From Clinton Era Portray Kagan As Pragmatic Strategist On Issues Like Abortion, Contraception

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Sexual Health / STDs;  Women's Health / Gynecology;  Litigation / Medical Malpractice
Article Date: 08 Jun 2010 - 2:00 PDT

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The National Archives released 46,700 pages of documents Friday from Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's tenure as a policy adviser and legal counsel in the Clinton administration that reveal "a woman who ... was trying to balance competing policy objectives and chart a centrist course" on issues ranging from abortion to embryonic stem cell research, the New York Times reports. The documents represent Kagan's time as deputy director of President Clinton's Domestic Policy Council (Gay Stolberg, New York Times, 6/5). The memos offer little evidence that Kagan "would stray far" from the ruling patterns of Justice John Paul Stevens -- whom Kagan would replace on the court -- who occupied a "perch on the left of the political spectrum," the AP/Washington Post reports (Hirschfeld Davis, AP/Washington Post, 6/5). "However, divining Kagan's personal views from the documents is difficult because her own position is not always clear," according to Politico. Some of Kagan's supporters say her relatively centrist stances from her tenure in the Clinton administration reveal her pragmatic tendencies (Gerstein, Politico, 6/4).

In one previously released memo, Kagan urged Clinton to support legislation banning abortion later in pregnancy that included an exception for the health of the mother. After Clinton issued a veto for a more restrictive measure, Kagan suggested language for a letter from Clinton to the archbishop of Boston explaining the president's stance, the new documents show.

Kagan, "adopting Mr. Clinton's voice," wrote, "I understand that many who support this legislation believe that any health exception will be so broad as to eviscerate the ban. That is not the kind of exception I support. I support an exception that takes effect only when a woman faces real, serious adverse health consequences" (New York Times, 6/5).

According to the Los Angeles Times, Kagan "possibly signaled her own views" by highlighting a magazine article urging greater insurance coverage of contraception to lower abortion rates (Oliphant et al., Los Angeles Times, 6/5). Kagan expressed at least initial opposition to legislation that would require insurers to cover contraceptives, Politico reports. "I don't think we should support" the legislation, Kagan wrote, adding, "We have been somewhat careful to avoid mandating insurance companies to cover particular services. Why should we require them to cover contraceptives, but not eye glasses for children? I have some concern about the President taking a stand on contraceptives" (Politico, 6/4).

In 1997, Kagan advised Clinton to back legislation banning reproductive cloning but supporting embryonic cloning, despite objections from antiabortion-rights groups. She wrote that "there is no moral rationale" for treating cloned embryos differently than other embryos when used solely for research (AP/Washington Post, 6/5).

Kagan supported the filing of a 1996 legal brief stating that undocumented immigrants are not entitled to routine prenatal care, writing, "It looks pretty clear to me that the brief is right in saying that the welfare law forbids illegal aliens from receiving Medicaid coverage for non-emergency prenatal care" (Sherman, AP/Google News, 6/5).

The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to begin Kagan's confirmation hearings on June 28. The documents released Friday constitute little more than one-quarter of the 160,000 pages of documents being prepared by the William J. Clinton Presidential Library (Barnes/Goldstein, Washington Post, 6/5).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.nationalpartnership.org. You can view the entire Daily Women's Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery here. The Daily Women's Health Policy Report is a free service of the National Partnership for Women & Families.

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