A prominent Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Wednesday that she'll press Supreme Court nominee John Roberts for his views on abortion rights and other women's issues at his confirmation hearings next month.


Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., indicated in a speech to two lawyers' groups in Los Angeles that she will measure Roberts against the record of retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, whom he would replace. The moderately conservative O'Connor, often the deciding vote on the divided court, played a key role in a 5-4 ruling in 1992 that preserved Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that made abortion legal nationwide.


"As the only woman on the committee, I have an additional role to play: representing the views and concerns of 145 million American women during this hearing process," Feinstein said. "It is my hope that Judge Roberts would play a role similar to Justice O'Connor's ... and bring with him a voice defined by temperance and open-mindedness."


Feinstein later told reporters that she hasn't prejudged how she'll vote on Roberts, a federal appeals judge whom she praised as having "a very fine, keen, sharp legal mind." She ducked a question on whether Senate Democrats are divided over whether to oppose President Bush's choice for the high court, but she left no doubt that her vote will be guided by what Roberts says about his views on abortion rights.


"It would be very difficult for me to vote to confirm someone to the Supreme Court whom I knew would overturn Roe and return our country to the days of the 1950s," Feinstein said.


Despite a private, one-hour meeting with Roberts recently, "I am really not sure what the views are," she said.


Roberts has said he regards the Roe v. Wade decision as "settled precedent," but as a government lawyer during the administration of the first President Bush he filed briefs urging the high court to overturn Roe.


Feinstein said she wants to know whether Roberts considers Roe "well enough settled" to refrain from seeking to exercise the Supreme Court's prerogative of overturning it.


In Washington, the media campaign over Roberts' nomination heated up, as a leading liberal group announced it would oppose him and a pro-business group said it would back him.


People for the American Way will oppose Roberts' nomination because his record as a lawyer in the Reagan and first Bush administrations suggests he would "dramatically shift the balance of the court to the right ... and turn back the clock decades" on civil rights, women's rights and privacy rights, group President Ralph Neas said.


Thomas Donohue, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said his group is supporting Roberts because of his "fairness, keen intellect, open-mindedness and judicious practice of the law."