Orrin Hatch: “After the Supreme Court's decision in Stenberg v. Carhart, he upheld that law by ordering state officials not to enforce…”

“After the Supreme Court's decision in Stenberg v. Carhart, he upheld that law by ordering state officials not to enforce the conflicting Alabama partial-birth abortion law. Earlier, he had enforced Alabama's partial-birth abortion law narrowly, to ensure consistency with Supreme Court's dictates in Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Even though he disagrees violently with both of those cases from a personal religious standpoint, but he enforced and upheld those laws, in the face of criticism from many of his conservative friends in Alabama. Let me read one other item. At his hearing, I asked him this question: So even though you disagree with Roe v. Wade, you would act in accordance with Roe v. Wade on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals? This was his answer: Mr. Pryor. Even though I strongly disagree with Roe v. Wade, I have acted in accordance with it as attorney general and would continue to do so as a Court of Appeals judge. Chairman Hatch. Can we rely on that? Mr. Pryor. You can take it to the bank, Mr. Chairman. To be honest with you, that is the way he is, and he is being condemned for that.”