Clarence Thomas says Roe v. Wade wasn't a focal issue for him as he went through law school and launched his legal career: 'My life was consumed by survival'

Clarence Thomas, who was nominated to the high court in 1991, said in a new book that he hadn't really thought about the case when he was in law school.

In the book "Created Equal: Clarence Thomas in His Own Words," co-edited by Michael Pack and Mark Paoletta, Clarence Thomas sat down with Pack for over 30 hours over the course of a year.

During the interview, Thomas talked about the opposition he faced during his confirmation hearings. He said in the discussion that he didn't think much about the decision to legalized abortion in the United States when he was a law student.

He knew that abortion was central to the criticism leveled at him after he was nominated to replace Thurgood Marshall.

He told Pack that it was the key to the opposition. It was ironic that through all the years of preparation, and coming through Georgia, and all the challenges, that of all the things that they've reduced it to was something that wasn't even an issue in your life.

He said that he should have realized that his life wasn't important. What mattered was what they wanted.

During his studies at Yale Law School, Thomas dismissed the idea that he should have been more focused on abortion issues.

During his confirmation hearings, he told Pack that he didn't know how he would rule on the issue.

He didn't think much about substantive due process since law school. In 1972 I had constitutional law.

He said that he was more interested in the race issues. Getting out of law school was more important to me. The bar exam was more important to me. I was consumed by survival. I was unable to pay my rent. I was unable to repay my loans. I had everything going on that you were doing.

In the years leading up to his Supreme Court nomination, Thomas didn't pay much attention to abortion.

He said that Democrats think we should have been worried about this issue. I didn't think about it. I didn't think about it because I hadn't read either of those books. This was not my problem.

The Mississippi abortion ban was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday. Chief Justice John Roberts voted with the majority in the Mississippi case, but watched his fellow conservative judges overturn 50 years of precedent in the case.

13 states had so-called "trigger laws" in place that effectively banned abortion procedures immediately after the court's ruling.

The court should "reconsider" prior rulings on contraceptives, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage in order to make the case that the 14th Amendment's due process clause is needed.

In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents.