01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, September 24, 2005

BY JOHN E. MULLIGAN
Journal Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Some national abortion-rights activists have sharply criticized Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee's decision to support the nomination of John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the United States.

But Republican Chafee noted that a leading abortion-rights lobbying group had made no move to withdraw its early endorsement of his reelection next year. He said he assumed from a conversation with the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America (formerly the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League) that his endorsement was not in jeopardy.

The group was among the first to call for the Senate to reject President Bush's nomination of Roberts to the high court. NARAL spokesman Ted Miller declined to answer questions about Chafee's move to back Roberts; president Nancy Keenan declined to be interviewed.

But the group's former president, Kate Michelman, pronounced herself "deeply disturbed and disappointed" by Chafee's support for Roberts. "As a women's rights leader, I must say it does raise an enormous amount of questions about whether women can depend on Senator Chafee to stand on principle," she said.

Because of Chafee's legislative record, Michelman said, she has counted on Chafee as an abortion-rights supporter "who'll never flinch at a threat to women's rights -- and he flinched this time."

Michelman was especially critical of what she called Chafee's "thin rationale" for backing Mr. Bush's nominee. Chafee said he supported Roberts in part because he would replace a strong conservative, the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, and therefore did not threaten the court's narrow majority in favor of abortion rights. "That's not standing on principle. That's not acting with the courage of your convictions," Michelman said.

Karen Pearl, the president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, also expressed "disappointment" in Chafee, arguing that Roberts' refusal to be pinned down on abortion questions was not acceptable. Pearl stressed, however, that Planned Parenthood appreciated Chafee's legislative support for abortion rights and that the organization had not begun to consider its slate of 2006 endorsements.

The Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, which is working to unseat Chafee, accused Chafee of a "flip-flop" from a pledge to insist that Supreme Court nominees be abortion-rights supporters.

But Chafee defended his position and noted that Roberts, a federal appeals court judge without a clear track record on abortion cases, has won the support of several prominent Senate Democrats who also favor legal abortion.

Chafee said, "I assume these criticisms will also be directed at the pro-choice Democrats.

"I think I have been very consistent since running in 2000" for the Senate, Chafee added. "I've always said the balance of the court was important."

"I share some apprehension" that Roberts would work to restrict abortion rights, Chafee said. But he added that Roberts could turn out to be a supporter of abortion rights.

Former Republican Gov. Lincoln C. Almond, who heads a Rhode Island group of Roberts supporters, commended Chafee.