WASHINGTON (AP) – Abortion rights are at the core of the controversy surrounding Samuel Alito’s appointment to the Supreme Court and the confirmation struggle it spawned.

“I would approach the question with an open mind,” Alito said early in his testimony, when first asked how he would view legal challenges to the 1973 Roe v. Wade high court ruling establishing abortion rights.

It was a pledge he repeated numerous times, in one form or another, as Democrats poked, prodded and probed for his views on an issue that divides the country as it does the Congress and the court.

Alito’s carefully couched answers were no surprise. The 55-year-old appeals court judge would replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who cast the deciding fifth vote in a 1992 ruling that reaffirmed the basis of Roe v. Wade.

His confirmation, which appears a virtual certainty, may not lead to reversal of the right to an abortion. But numerous cases are pending in the courts that would sanction state laws that significantly narrow the right – if a majority of the post-O’Connor court agrees.

The Supreme Court could hear arguments next fall in the Bush administration’s attempt to ban a type of late-term abortion that critics call partial birth abortion.

There also are state court challenges to bans on so-called “partial birth” abortion, restrictions on pregnant minors who want to end pregnancies and the rights of inmates to assistance in obtaining abortions.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, one of several Democrats to ask Alito about abortion, summed up the situation Alito confronted:

“If you say one thing, you upset my friends and colleagues on that side,” she said, referring to Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and elsewhere who oppose abortion rights.

“If you say the other, you upset those of us on this side,” she added. She spoke of herself and other Democrats determined to preserve rights first established in the Roe v. Wade ruling, as well as outside groups that are most strongly opposed to his confirmation.

In three days of testimony, Alito fielded frequently hostile questions from Democrats about numerous issues.

Republican senators, meanwhile, generally were content to protect him if they deemed it necessary.

“Let me just ask you directly, on the record, are you against women and minorities attending colleges?” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, asked after Democrats questioned the nominee about his membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton, an organization opposed to admissions policies resulting in admitting greater numbers of women and minority students to the Ivy League university.

“Absolutely not, senator. No,” he replied.

“You know, I felt that that would be your answer. I really did,” Hatch responded.

When it came to Democrats, Alito was asked repeatedly by Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and others about presidential powers inherent in the Constitution. The questions stemmed in part from the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping of domestic calls as part of the war on terror.

Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois asked Alito whether he was cognizant of the “crushing hand of fate,” when it came time to evaluate the claims of individuals whose cases came before him.

Sens. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Charles Schumer of New York and others questioned him aggressively about the Concerned Alumni of Princeton.

Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin as well as Kennedy, among others, bore in on Alito’s participation in a 2002 appeals court case involving Vanguard, the mutual fund company, even though he pledged to the Judiciary Committee in 1990 he would avoid such cases because he had substantial investments in Vanguard.

Still, by one count, abortion figured in 101 of 546 questions put to Alito through the end of Wednesday’s session, more than any other issue.

Alito’s mere presence in the committee room made Feinstein’s point that he had little maneuvering room.

President Bush’s earlier choice to replace O’Connor, Harriet Miers, never made it as far as the hearing room.

She withdrew her nomination, bowing to a savage attack from conservatives fearful she would not be a reliable vote to overturn the 32-year-old abortion precedent.

The same groups betray no such concern about Alito, who described himself 20 years ago as a lifelong conservative who believes “that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.”

Throughout, Alito stuck to a simple, two-step formulation. Earlier abortion cases establish precedent, he said, an initial and important consideration for his and all justices considering cases. Still, precedent alone is not an “inexorable command” to justices, he added, an observation that sends chills through the ranks of abortion rights supporters.

“Those are the words that Justice Rehnquist used arguing for the overturning of Roe,” Feinstein said.

“Did you mean it that way?”

—-

EDITOR’S NOTE: David Espo is AP’s chief congressional correspondent.

AP-ES-01-12-06 1806EST