Giving careful, limited answers to probing and sometimes aggressive questions about his views on abortion, Judge Alito said he would give considerable weight to decades of rulings built on the concept that a decision to terminate a pregnancy falls under a constitutional right to privacy.
"Today, if the issue were to come before me, if I am fortunate enough to be confirmed and the issue were to come before me, the first question would be the question that we've been discussing, and that's the issue of stare decisis," the legal term for precedent, he said.
"And if the analysis were to get beyond that point, then I would approach the question with an open mind and I would listen to the arguments that were made."
Reversing Roe is what Alito is referring to when he says he'll "keep an open mind on abortion." This is one of those innocuous sounding code phrases the republicans have grown fond of in the past few years which sounds good to centrists, but means something entirely different in practice. Alito is keeping an open mind about changing settled law.
After Alito's statement Tom Colburn's hands rapidly descended below the table only to come up seconds later covered in an unidentified sticky white substance.
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