no surprises here…

Speaking this afternoon at a Planned Parenthood conference, Barack emphasized his support for a woman’s right to choose. He also criticized the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Gonzales v. Carhart to uphold a ban on late-term abortions.

Calling the decision a “concerted effort to steadily roll back the hard-won rights of American women,” Barack reminded the audience that with one more court vacancy, the conservative justices would overturn a woman’s right to choose.

As the New York Times Caucus blog reported, in one of his first acts as president, Barack would sign the Freedom of Choice Act – a bill that would guarantee abortion rights for women.

Barack also criticized the Senate’s confirmation process that allowed Chief Justice Roberts to sail to an easy confirmation.

“He loves his wife. He’s good to his dog,” Barack joked, referring to the fluffy answers the Senate Judiciary Committee allowed Roberts to give. We need to use a different standard to evaluate justices, Barack said:

We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.