Orrin Hatch: “This article reads in part: I have never met Mr. Pryor, but his political life is a matter of public record. He has…”

“This article reads in part: I have never met Mr. Pryor, but his political life is a matter of public record. He has served the State of Alabama with distinction, enforcing its laws and court decisions fairly and consistently. This is why President Bush nominated him to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and why the Senate Judiciary Committee approved him last Wednesday for consideration by the full Senate. But the committee debate on Pryor was ugly, and the vote to advance his nomination split exactly along party lines. Why? Because Mr. Pryor believes that Catholic teaching about the sanctity of life is true; that the 1973 Supreme Court Roe v. Wade decision was a poorly reasoned mistake; and that abortion is wrong in all cases, even rape and incest. As a result, Americans were treated to the bizarre spectacle of non-Catholic Senators Orrin Hatch and Jeff Sessions defending Mr. Pryor's constitutionally protected religious rights to Mr. Pryor's critics, including Senator Richard Durbin, an 'abortion-rights' Catholic. He concludes with: Some things change, and some things don't. The bias against 'papism' is alive and well in America. It just has a different address. But at least some people in Alabama now know where he local Catholic church is--and where she stands--even if some people in Washington apparently don't.”