The Nation - News from July 13, 1989

President Bush won’t offer legislation to counter Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action and abortion, Vice President Dan Quayle said. “The President does not feel that those decisions need to be overturned to advance the cause of civil rights,” Quayle said at a news conference during the NAACP’s annual convention in Detroit. The Supreme Court, in a series of 5-4 decisions this term, made it harder to initiate and win discrimination suits and gave states far greater power to restrict abortions. The abortion question now will be debated largely at the state level and Bush and Quayle won’t take part, though they have made their own opinions public, the vice president said. “Both of our positions are pro-life,” he said.