Pro-life groups are urging Republicans to reject Judge Merrick Garland, who has been nominated by President Barack Obama to fill the U.S. Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Antonin Scalia, who died last month.
Garland, 63, chief judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, is being accused by pro-life advocates of being Obama's appointee to push his abortion policy.
"Judge Merrick Garland is President Obama's pro-abortion pick to tempt some Republicans to act now to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court. The president's commitment to unrestricted, unmonitored and taxpayer-funded abortion is well known," said Clarke Forsythe, acting president of Americans United for Life.
He added, "Pro-life Americans agree with the assessments of President Obama, Vice President Biden and even Sen. Chuck Schumer, all of whom urged the Senate to hold the line against Supreme Court picks late in a president's term."
Garland has not yet made a ruling on abortion, but his actions showed that he is pro-abortion, Life Site News said.
He became a clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Brennan, who is tagged as "the driving force behind the writing of Roe v. Wade."
Garland has also been quoted as saying that Roe author Harry Blackmun's private papers are "great gift to the country," reported the New York Times.
Garland is described as a "moderate centrist," but pro-life advocates said this is not enough.
"Judge Garland is far from being a consensus nominee and would be an incredibly different jurist than Justice Scalia. Some of Judge Garland's most recent opinions and dissents raise serious questions about his ability to serve as a constitutionalist," said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.
Penny Nance, president of the Concerned Women for America, warned that "this nomination will upset the balance of the Supreme Court to the radical Left for many decades. Such a seismic shift in the highest court of the land must be presented to the people."
Garland has liberal leanings, the report said, as he once questioned the Second Amendment gun rights and sided with environmentalist regulations.
But the stakes become higher if he is pro-abortion, it said.
"Millions of lives hang in the balance of each ruling on abortion put forth by the Supreme Court," said Troy Newman, president of Operation Rescue.
He added, "I strongly urge the members of the Judiciary Committee to hold fast to their promise, for the sake of the future of our country and the future of our posterity."
"The next president — Republican or Democrat — should be in the position to fill the court's vacancy with the advice and consent of the Senate," said Michael Needham, CEO of Heritage Action.
