Her statement appears to be the most direct evidence of her personal views, ones she has vowed to set aside on the bench.
Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, signed a statement in a 2006 newspaper advertisement opposing “abortion on demand.” Judge Barrett was a law professor at Notre Dame at the time, and her name was among those of hundreds of residents of the region surrounding South Bend, Ind., known as Michiana. The statement appears to be her first direct public expression of her views on abortion, which are at the heart of much of the opposition to her nomination. “We, the following citizens of Michiana, oppose abortion on demand and defend the right to life from fertilization to natural death,” said the statement, published in an advertisement in the South Bend Tribune by St. Joseph County Right to Life, which is now known as Right to Life Michiana and says it is “one of the oldest continuously active pro-life organizations in the nation.” Her endorsement of the statement was immediately seized upon by Democrats, who said it undercut efforts by Mr. Trump and other Republicans to suggest that Judge Barrett’s position on abortion was unknown or unclear. There has long been little question that Judge Barrett personally opposes abortion, based on her Catholic faith, accounts of friends, her supporters’ confidence and suggestions in her academic writings. But the statement in the advertisement boiled it down to a declarative sentence.
