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The mother of all political battles beginsBy Bill Schneider RELATED
SPECIAL REPORT
• Gallery: Current justices
• Gallery: Quotes from Alito rulings
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSWASHINGTON (CNN) -- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court sets up the mother of all political battles. Not to mention the political Play of the Week. Justice O'Connor's retirement sets the stage for a big showdown over the abortion issue. The toughest issue of them all. O'Connor voted in 1992 to reaffirm a woman's constitutionally protected right to abortion. Conservatives want President Bush to nominate a justice who will cast what could be the deciding vote against that right. And they want to know that up front, before the Senate confirmation vote. Their cry is, ``No more David Souters.'' Souter, nominated by the first President Bush in 1990, did not define his position on abortion. Conservatives were outraged when he turned out to support abortion rights. Many liberals denounce the idea that a nominee should have to pass a litmus test on the abortion issue. "I don't have to set up a litmus test for any particular nominees. I have voted for judges which have been pro-life," Sen.Ted Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, said. The CNN-USA Today Gallup poll asked the public, do you want a new Supreme Court justice to be someone who would vote to uphold Roe v. Wade -- the decision that legalized abortion -- or someone who would vote to overturn it? By better than two to one, Americans prefer a Supreme Court nominee who would vote to uphold Roe v. Wade -- and continue to give constitutional protection to abortion rights. Even Republicans are divided on the issue. Nearly half want a justice who would uphold abortion rights. The issue does seem to be more important to anti-abortion voters. Most of them them say they care a great deal about the choice of a new justice. Whereas those who favor abortion rights are less intensely motivated. Right now. But there's a big campaign brewing. Almost as intense as a presidential campaign. And when abortion rights supporters feel their rights are being threatened, they have shown that they can rally. As they did against the nomination of Robert Bork in 1987. "In Robert Bork's America, there is no room at the inn for blacks, no place in the Constitution for women," Kennedy said at the time. Everyone expected Chief Justice William Rehnquist to retire. But O'Connor upstaged him. And grabbed the political Play of the Week for herself. Most voters accept the view of abortion rights set out in the Supreme Court's 1992 decision: that abortion is a constitutionally protected right that can be limited and regulated. The co-author of that decision? Sandra Day O'Connor. 
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