Pro-Life Protesters at Hearings Reflect Grassroots’ Passion

Guest blog post by Charmaine Yoest
 

Yesterday morning’s start to the Sotomayor hearings featured multiple references to the life issue, underscoring what we expected — that life would be a hot-button issue with this nominee. 

The above-the-fold “news” on life coming out of the morning, however, was the interruption of the proceedings twice from pro-life protesters.  While I think it’s important to observe the decorum of a formal hearing and give due respect to the Senate, the protesters’ passion does underscore what we have been saying in our meetings with senators: The grassroots are paying attention to these hearings. They want to see careful, rigorous questioning of this nominee. Most importantly, as I told Politico, we are all “looking for heroes” — people who are willing to stand on principle, uncowed by challenging political circumstances.

Charmaine Yoest is the President of Americans United for Life.