The Shifting Politics of Abortion

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Abortion-rights groups boast that since the Webster ruling, their membership has skyrocketed and their war chests have filled to bulging. They have shrewdly appealed to conservatives by framing the issue in terms of whether government or the woman should decide about abortion. They are also resorting to what was once a favorite weapon of right-wing organizations, the election hit list. Last week the National Abortion Rights Action League unveiled the NARAL Nine: nine antiabortion lawmakers it vowed to help defeat at the polls. The list included Florida's Martinez, South Carolina Senator Jesse Helms and Connecticut Governor William O'Neill. "We will do everything possible to bring these politicians down," promises Kate Michelman, NARAL 's executive director.

Lawmakers who try to dodge by soft-pedaling their antiabortion positions run the risk that their inconsistency may itself become an issue. In New York City's mayoral race, G.O.P. candidate Rudolph Giuliani has pronounced himself personally opposed to abortion, but promises if elected to defend the right to choose. That prompted a thinly disguised rebuke from New York's John Cardinal O'Connor. Without singling out Giuliani by name, O'Connor said politicians who practice such "evasions" were "irrational and deceitful" -- criticisms that could discourage the ethnic Roman Catholic vote that Giuliani desperately needs to defeat Democrat David Dinkins.

Pro-life groups, licking their wounds and refiguring their strategies, draw some encouragement from polls showing that voters opposed to blanket restrictions on abortion rights nevertheless favor certain specific regulations, such as laws that forbid abortion for the purpose of selecting a child's sex. That is the approach that pro-lifers are taking in Pennsylvania, where the state legislature is considering ten antiabortion measures proposed by Representative Stephen Freind.

But even in Pennsylvania emboldened pro-choice lawmakers are going on the offensive. Early this month, 14 legislators introduced a package of nine bills that would guarantee a woman's access to abortion and repeal some restrictions passed in recent years. "It was time to stop responding to what was offered by the other side," says Democratic State Representative Karen Ritter. In the battle over abortion, most of the cheers are coming from the pro-choice side.