Given the behaviour of parts of the press over the past few years, and given the prime minister's decision to appoint a judge to shine so unflinching a light on it, something akin to what was agreed yesterday was always the probable outcome.
Last week he told an anti-abortion rally in Washington that he would sign a bill banning late-term abortions, and has hinted that if a Supreme Court vacancy arises, he will appoint a Conservative judge who may vote to overturn the landmark Roe v Wade case which legalised abortion in the United States.