Clarence Thomas.

CBS) In his first television interview, in which he discusses his childhood, his race, his rise to Supreme Court Justice and his job on the nation's highest court, Clarence Thomas says the real issue at his controversial confirmation hearings 16 years ago was abortion.

In 1991 I went home to Mississippi for a cousin's wedding. My brother was still an entrenched Democrat at the time. He isn't anymore, but he isn't a Republican either. He's a lawyer and the one in the family with whom I verbally spar the most.

We had a doozy of an argument over this. I knew without a shadow of doubt that this whole smear campaign on Thomas was about abortion. My brother thought I was crazy. The abortion lobby was so afraid that a conservative like Thomas would "turn back the clock" on their right to destroy their unborn children in the womb, that they were willing to do anything and everything to make sure that didn't happen.

Thomas now talks about it and I was exactly right. Fortunately, my brother has come around to my way of thinking on the abortion issue, so I can't call him today and say "I told you so."

Anyone who believed Anita Hill at that time didn't want to see the truth for what it was.

My grandfather was from the old south. Prejudice and proud. I was sitting in front of the TV at his house watching the hearings closely. We had the one and only political discussions we ever had. He asked me why I cared so much about a "negro" becoming a Supreme Court judge. I looked at my grandfather and said, "I don't care what color his skin is, he believes in the same things I believe in. He will help make decisions that will affect my children directly and generations to come. It's important." He just looked at me. He didn't say another thing.

What happened to Clarence Thomas should never happen to anyone wanting to serve our country. They tried to denigrate a good man with no evidence whatsoever other than heresay. This is one of the reason I think good people are reluctant to enter public life, and I don't blame them.