TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

While serving the Clinton administration, Elana Kagan apparently pushed the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) to change their report on partial-birth abortion because their original statement that in the “vast majority of cases” the procedure isn’t necessary to protect the woman’s health:

So Kagan set about solving the problem. Her notes, produced by the White House to the Senate Judiciary Committee, show that she herself drafted the critical language hedging ACOG’s position. On a document [PDF] captioned “Suggested Options” — which she apparently faxed to the legislative director at ACOG — Kagan proposed that ACOG include the following language: “An intact D&X [the medical term for the procedure], however, may be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman.”

Kagan’s language was copied verbatim by the ACOG executive board into its final statement, where it then became one of the greatest evidentiary hurdles faced by Justice Department lawyers (of whom I was one) in defending the federal ban.

Change we can believe in.

One note: the article I link to is written by a Bush administration lawyer, but the article links to the relevant memos Kagan wrote. The last memo shows she apparently intervened to change a politically-inconvenient conclusion by the ACOG.