Obama's Nominee To Head Justice Department's Office Of Legal Counsel Once Compared "Forced Pregnancy" With Slavery

Fox News reports that "President Obama's nominee to head the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel once compared 'forced pregnancy' with slavery. Now Republicans are considering a filibuster to block her confirmation. The controversy stems from comments made 20 years ago by Dawn Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University, whose nomination is pending before the full Senate. In a brief filed when she was a lawyer with the National Abortion Rights Action League, Johnsen cited a footnote that said forcing women to bear children was 'disturbingly suggestive of involuntary servitude, prohibited by the 13th Amendment, in that forced pregnancy requires a woman to provide continuous physical service to the fetus in order to further the state's asserted interest.'" 45 House Republicans have co-signed a letter to Obama asking him to withdraw Johnsen's nomination because of her "brazen" abortion rights stance. Her former employee NARAL said this week that it is mobilizing its nationwide network of activists and supporters to pressure the Senate to confirm Johnsen. "The use of the 'F' word when referring to any of these nominees is unacceptable -- and this threat will not go unanswered," NARAL president Nancy Keenan said in a press release. The "F" word she refers to is the word "filibuster."
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