Even before Anita Hill went public with her sexual harassment allegations, women’s rights groups were convinced that Clarence Thomas was bad news. “The record shows that if confirmed, Judge Thomas would indeed vote to take away this fundamental right [to abortion], to take this nation back to the days when women had no alternative but the back alleys for health care,” said Kate Michelman, the director of the National Abortion Rights Action League. Michelman and other reproductive rights advocates testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 1991, urging the panel composed entirely of white men to think about what effect Thomas would have on abortion access if confirmed to the Supreme Court. They faced skepticism, however, from someone who could have been a key ally: Joe Biden, who was then a Democratic senator from Delaware and was chairman of the committee. “I did not find anywhere in the record on that issue where he evidenced extreme views ― where he said ― where he, on the face of what he said, as anything extreme or an explicit endorsement,” Biden said to the women who testified on Sept. 19, adding that they showed a “failure of logic” in coming to such a conclusion. Biden’s performance in the Thomas hearings with respect to Hill has been much discussed both in the media and by the candidate himself. But his comments and views on abortion during that same confirmation fight have received far less attention. “Sen. Biden always has had complicated views on the issue,” Michelman recalled. “His recent remarks about the Hyde Amendment are evidence of this rather complicated view. So it’s clear that it wasn’t one of the issues the senator was particularly troubled by in relation to Thomas’ potential threat.” Faye Wattleton was president of Planned Parenthood at the time, the first African American person to ever hold the position. She testified against Thomas that day and told HuffPost that she didn’t consider Biden an ally in the abortion fight. “It was just a continuation of the uncertainty of dealing with him on this issue, well before the Anita Hill or Clarence Thomas hearings came along,” Wattleton said. She also called his behavior later, handling Hill’s allegations, “inexplicable and outrageous” and “almost circus-like in its comedy.”

I do not share the certainty of some who are voting against Judge Thomas that he will be as extreme as some of his statements could lead one to believe he might be. Sen. Joe Biden, 1991

Just four years earlier, Democrats ― led by Biden ― had defeated Robert Bork for a Supreme Court seat. Opponents relied on his long record to argue that he would be an extremist, a sure vote to ban abortion rights. Bork’s nomination set the stage for the modern, highly partisan Supreme Court confirmation fight. After that, presidents knew better than to nominate someone with a track record on controversial issues, and nominees knew better than to state their views outright. So senators and activists had to rely on the scant evidence out there to figure out where nominees stood. For Thomas’ views on abortion, the key piece of evidence was a speech he gave at the Heritage Foundation in 1987, in which he praised an essay by a conservative scholar, Lewis Lehrman, that argued a fetus had an “inherent right to life” and called abortion “a holocaust.” Thomas characterized this article as “a splendid example of applying natural law.” Thomas’ speech was about natural law and conservative politics, not abortion, but abortion rights advocates saw in that line a troubling embrace of a far-right stance that could mean a vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. In his hearings, Thomas said he didn’t endorse Lehrman’s conclusions on abortion, although he refused to give his personal opinion on Roe v. Wade or abortion rights. “My view is that there is a right to privacy in the 14th Amendment,” he said, adding that he couldn’t comment on Roe v. Wade while maintaining his “impartiality.” “Whether or not I have a view [on abortion] is irrelevant,” he added. Biden was also concerned and frustrated with Thomas’ unwillingness to be more forthcoming, at one point calling the nominee’s reply on abortion and privacy rights “the most inartful dodge I’ve ever heard.” On Sept. 8, he wrote a Washington Post op-ed saying he wanted to know whether Thomas would “use natural law to impose a national moral code,” calling it a “critical question for the hearings.” And from Bork to John Roberts, Biden has pressed Supreme Court nominees over the years on the right to privacy.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Joe Biden, who was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1991, was not as convinced as women's rights groups that Clarence Thomas would be an extreme anti-abortion voice.