File0001Save0002Save0001214109 4:0O PMEconomist.comi, , , ,.,,.Speqqlacdis ',€dtgisnUHITETI STATE$LexirgtonA life and choice matterApr 29th 2004From The Economist print editionprovides some intriguing lessons about American politicswere seen as cranks. Pro-life vigilantes murdered abortion doctors, firebombedaninsult under the sun at the Clintons, who were busy extending abortion rights,Page 1 of 3Economist.com zl4lo9 4:oo pMToday the picture is very different. In 2003 a survey of college freshmen by the University of California,Los Angeles, showed that only 55o/o of them thought that abortions should be legal, down from 670/o in1992' Last November, when George Bush signed a law banning partial-birth aboition, this first federalrestriction on abortion for 30 years passed the Senate by a lopsided majority of 64-34.The most obvious reason for the change is that pro-lifers have captured the political establishment.Republicans control all three branches of the federal government as well as a majority of seats in statelegislatures' The party is also much more hostile to abortion than it has ever been before. There are afew pro-choice Republicans left-Arnold Schwarzenegger and Colin powell, for instance-but theirnumbers are in sharp decline.The pro-lifers have also got a lot cannier. You don't need to be all that clever to realise that shootingpeople in the name of life is a losing strategy, even if you justify it on the grounds that .,quite a numberof babies' lives will be saved", as Don Treshman, the leader of i.escue America, once did. That rhetoric isnow soft-pedalled. Even though the pro-lifers' long-term goal remains the same-the repeal of Roe vWade-they have attacked by stealth rather than full-fronlal assault.The pro-life movement has shifted the debate from a lofty, widely supported principle (should womenhave the right to choose?) to much more specific questions. Do women have a right to abort theirfetuses in the third trimester? Can an underage giil have an abortion without heiparents, consent?Should taxpayers' money be used to finance aboitions? These tactics have made the pro-choice peoplelook like extremists: defending partial-birth abortion is a lot harder than defending the principle ofchoice' The tactics have also allowed state legislatures to impose umpteen restrictions on abortion, suchas waiting periods, Medicaid bans and parentll-consent laws.In the meantime, the pro-lifers have.tried to change the culture that underpins Roe v Wade. GeorgeBush has remarked that he doesn't think that "the culture has changed to the extent that the Americanpeople or the Congress would totally ban abortions." But conservatives are still having some success inthis slow-motion culture war. Frances Kissling, a long-time pro-choice activist, admits that it is mucheasier for people to see themselves as "pro-life" than it was a decade ago-thanks to advances in neo-natal care, improvements in sonograms and the increasing popularity of -adoption.All this has required a remarkable combination of patience and opportunism. The pro-life movement hasgradually constructed a network of institutions, from James Dobson's Focus on the Family behemoth inColorado Springs to tiny think-tanks in most state capitals, that keep the anti-abortion fires burning andspot mistakes by their opponents. William Saletan, the author of "Bearing Right: How Conservatives Wonthe Abortion War" (University of California Press, 2003), describes how the pro-lifers used the pro-choicers' arguments about limiting government intrusion into people's private lives to undermine the casefor public subsidies for abortions for the poor.To the barricadesYet things are not all going the pro-lifers' way. The number of marchers this weekend is a sign of theroadblock being erected in front of the slowly advancing conservative machine. Indeed, conservativesmay yet regret that they have not been stealthy enough and have stirred up opposition that will costi them dear. The marchers were united by a palpable hatred of the Bush administration. ('.Abort Bush ini the first term',. read a typical banner.) Pro-choice groups are already planning a massive voter-turnout1 campaign for this November's general election.I And this roadblock is being erected at a time when the pro-lifers are still far from their real target. Theyi lliy^liY," t_l:j::d"d in chariging abortion policy at the margins (particutarty the margins inhabited byI tl.:, poor)' But the thing that really upsets them-the constitutional right foi women to have abortions-I :!il_toTT:ldt.solid support. And, for conservatives, this seems part or a worrying pattern in domesticI pollcy. Right-wingers have succeeded only in implementing the easy part of their'idear (cutting taxesIII http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/printerFriendly.cfm?story_id: z;zgoLo page 2 of 3tLIEconomist.com 214109 4:OO PMrather than shrinking governmeht, for example) and yet half the nation is nevertheless up in arms. Justimagine the outcry if conservatives start trying to implement the difficult things-like banning abortioncompletely.Copyright O 2009 The Economist Newspaper and The Economist Group. All rights reserved.http:/ /wvvw.economist.com /world / u nitedstates/ Printe rFriend ly.cfm?story-id = 2 62 9010Page 3 of