Abortion Foes

WASHINGTON - John Ashcroft, the departing senator from Missouri and one of the most conservative lawmakers in Congress, was picked yesterday by President-elect George W. Bush as his nominee for attorney general, the nation's top law enforcement official. The nomination won praise from the Republican right wing and sharp criticism from liberals because of Ashcroft's stands on civil rights and his ardent opposition to abortion. Also yesterday, Bush named New Jersey's Republican Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, 54, to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

After a morning Mass calling attention to "every unborn child in America," Cardinal William H. Keeler led more than 700 abortion opponents in a march from St. Alphonsus Roman Catholic Church several blocks north to the Planned Parenthood office on Howard Street. There, the group sang and prayed for people affected by abortion: mothers, fathers, doctors and staff, and the unborn. Across the street, about 100 abortion-rights supporters staged an equally peaceful demonstration, holding "Pro Choice" and "Keep Abortion Legal" signs and singing "We Shall Overcome."

BOSTON -- It's been stuck on the tarmac for so long that by now RU-486 sounds like the flight number of a plane taken hostage. And that's not far from the truth. RU-486, otherwise known as mifepristone, is the drug developed back in the 1980s by a French doctor so women could choose a non-surgical abortion very privately and very early in pregnancy. In the past dozen years, 500,000 French women have used it safely and effectively. It's been distributed to 20 other countries ranging from the United Kingdom and Finland to Greece and Israel.

DES MOINES -- Perhaps Texas Gov. George W. Bush's most touchy moment in the Republican presidential debate here the other night came when former Reagan administration official Gary Bauer asked him a simple question: Would he pledge, if nominated, to select an anti-abortion running mate?It was a clear litmus test of the anti-abortion front-runner in a state where abortion foes are said to hold strong influence in the Republican Party, and whose support is being zealously sought -- particularly by Mr. Bauer.

WASHINGTON -- In a decision likely to ignite a firestorm among abortion foes, the National Institutes of Health announced yesterday that it will begin funding the medically promising field of human stem cell research, despite a federal ban on studies using human embryos.Stem cells -- the earliest cells from which the body's organs are developed -- could hold the secret to treating a wide range of disorders, including heart disease, cancer, Parkinson's disease, arthritis, spinal cord injury and diabetes, as well as for producing now-scarce transplant organs.

ABORTION OPPONENTS have been unsuccessful in reversing the Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in this country. But they have had better results in their attempts to hamper family planning programs in poor countries.Today, another attempt to impose a "global gag rule" on these programs is expected to reach the floor of the House of Representatives. Members of the Maryland delegation ought to see this for what it is -- a misguided attempt to curb abortions that would instead deprive poor families of contraceptives and increase maternal and child deaths.

CHICAGO -- A federal class-action lawsuit filed 12 years ago charging anti-abortion protesters with a conspiracy of extortion and violence to close abortion clinics finally begins today in Chicago, and its resolution could have national reverberations.In the suit, the National Organization for Women accuses the Pro-Life Action League and Operation Rescue of managing a nationwide campaign to shut down abortion clinics through acts or threats of physical violence and arson, among other things.

WASHINGTON -- For years, the abortion fight has been waged with in-your-face protests in front of abortion clinics and with graphic pictures of bloody fetuses.Now, abortion foes are increasingly relying on a quieter strategy of carefully targeted political pressure. The goal isn't to fundamentally change abortion policy; it is to make gradual, but steady headway -- or make adversaries pay a price if they don't go along.Judging by the past week's events, the approach is working.Abortion opponents in Congress wanted to bar aid to international family-planning groups that promote, perform or support abortion with their own money.

A nationally known anti-abortion activist, who was a key figure in a February Supreme Court decision that established that demonstrators may confront clinic patients and staff until asked to back off, will become pastor of a Catonsville church next month.The Rev. Paul H. Schenck will become rector and senior pastor of Bishop Cummins Memorial Reformed Episcopal Church on Frederick Road the first week of July.Schenck gained a national reputation as a confrontational anti-abortion leader during demonstrations in Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y., along with his identical twin, the Rev. Robert Schenck, an Assemblies of God minister.

Dubbed a "pro-laugh" comedy by its promoters, "Citizen Ruth" is indeed funny, although the warring factions on the front line of the abortion debate aren't likely to think so. Still, director and co-writer Alexander Payne skewers both sides with his canny satire, and the movie is likely to appeal to that lump of people in opinion polls who are decidedly "undecided."Laura Dern plays Ruth Stoops -- a name that sounds as low as she is -- who is undecided to the point of utter negligence. A "huffer" who gets high off spray paint and other substances best used in well-ventilated areas, she is introduced as she has nearly unconscious sex with a fellow loser while the romantic tones of "All the Way" accompany opening credits.