Some abortion-rights groups are worried about potential Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

Sotomayor has never ruled on any abortion-related cases, but The Los Angeles Times reports that some pro-choice activists are concerned about the lack of evidence proving that she supports upholding Roe v. Wade. In fact, in the one case that came the closest to a ruling on women’s reproductive rights — Center for Reproductive Law and Policy v. Bush — Sotomayor ruled against abortion-rights groups.

Sotomayor wrote the 2002 opinion for that case, which challenged the "Mexico City Policy" that prohibited foreign organizations receiving U.S. money from performing or supporting abortions. Abortion-rights groups protested the policy, saying it violated the First Amendment, due process and equal-protection rights. But Sotomayor relied on an earlier case law that said the First Amendment doesn’t apply in this way, and the government is "free to favor the anti-abortion position over the pro-choice position" with public funds.

"She wasn’t going to try to get out of that in a way another activist judge might have tried to do," Kevin K. Russell of Scotusblog told reporters yesterday. She "does not see it as her job to fix every social ill in the world or thinks her opinion is the only one that matters."

Naral Pro-Choice America is urging supporters to contact their senators and push them to have Sotomayor reveal her views on abortion and privacy rights during the Senate Judiciary Confirmation hearings. As for President Obama, the White House says the president never specifically asked Sotomayor for her views on abortion. But pro-life groups are also wondering where Sotomayor stands.

"What we have seen of Judge Sotomayor’s record so far sheds little light on her views regarding how the Constitution bears on the powers of elected lawmakers to protect the right to life of unborn children,"  Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee, told LifeNews.com. "We believe it is critical that senators thoroughly explore whether Judge Sotomayor believes that Supreme Court justices have the right to override the decisions of elected lawmakers on such issues as partial-birth abortion, tax funding of abortion, and parental notification for abortion."

Legal experts also say they see no sign of how Sotomayor would rule on any hot-button topics, including abortion, gay marriage or Second Amendment rights; gun-rights groups are also worried. A lack of a paper trail on these issues could bode well for Sotomayor, since it will provide less fuel for Republicans to oppose her. We wonder if that was purposeful on the president’s part.