Sotomayor Mum on Abortion

Sonia Sotomayor repeatedly declined to describe her views on abortion rights at her confirmation hearings on Wednesday, and said that President Obama has never asked her about the issue. When Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn asked her whether or not technological improvements that allow premature babies to survive “have any bearing on how we look at Roe v. Wade,” Sotomayor said “I can’t answer that in the abstract. The question as it would come before me wouldn’t be in the way that you form it as a citizen, it would come to me as a judge.” She also defended herself against charges about her “wise Latina” remark for the second day in the row. “I understand that some people have understood them in a way that I never intended,” she said. “And I would hope that, in the context of the speech, that they would be understood.”