National Abortion

The second shooting of an abortion doctor this year suggests a growing extremism in an anti-abortion movement that feels increasingly frustrated by the political process, some leaders on both sides of the issue said yesterday.Rebuffed by the U.S. Supreme Court, rejected by the White House and shunned by many state legislatures, some abortion opponents feel so frustrated by political obstacles that more violence is likely, they say.While major anti-abortion groups reject illegal activity, violent episodes continue.

WASHINGTON -- Harry A. Blackmun, the quiet man at the storm center of the abortion controversy that still blows hard against America's public conscience after 20 years, put aside his accustomed reserve recently to give Bill Clinton some blunt advice.As they sat together at a conference on ideas, the "Renaissance Weekend" at Hilton Head, S.C., the Supreme Court justice who wrote the first abortion rights decision told the soon-to-be president to forget the idea of picking future members of the court only if they favor abortion rights.

TCThough they won four big victories in Tuesday's primaries, abortion-rights activists say they'll have to survive November's general election before they can declare the Senate filibuster-proof on the abortion issue.Abortion-rights groups need 32 votes -- two-thirds of the Senate -- to cut off extended debate like the eight-day filibuster that led to the death of an abortion-rights bill last March. In that parliamentary battle, sponsors of the abortion bill fell one vote shy of breaking the filibuster and forcing a vote on their bill.

In this year's pro-choice sweepstakes, four Howard County candidates for the state legislature are trying to convince voters that they support a woman's right to have an abortion just as much, or more, than their opponents do.Almost every week since the primary election, the team of Democratic challengers Lloyd G. Knowles and James B. Kraft have exchanged barbs over the abortion issue with House of Delegate incumbents Robert H. Kittleman and Robert L....

A FUNNY THING happened on the way to the midterm elections.Abortion rights, the stepchild issue of campaigns past, became a stepping stone to elected office. While once candidates wanted the whole subject to simply go away, in 1994 it was a linchpin of both gubernatorial and congressional campaigns, for those who had previously soft-pedaled the incendiary issue -- and those who had once shown little or no support for legal abortion at all.As recently as 10 years ago, recalls Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, candidates eschewed the league's endorsement or asked it to keep its support low-key.

WASHINGTON -- It should come as no surprise to anyone that Republican conservatives in Congress are mounting another full-bore attack on abortion rights.You might have imagined the abortion issue was settled for the foreseeable future by the Supreme Court decision in a Pennsylvania case. The court essentially upheld Roe vs. Wade, but ruled that states could impose restrictions on abortion so long as they did not impose an "undue burden" on women.The beauty of that decision was that it seemed to reflect with remarkable accuracy the opinion of the nation.

WASHINGTON -- Efforts to reverse nearly two decades of federal restrictions on abortion are advancing at a sluggish pace, despite the election of a president and a slew of new members of Congress committed to abortion rights.Although President Clinton, acting both on his own and with the cooperation of Congress, has been able to chip away at a few abortion obstacles imposed during 12 years of Republican control of the White House, the most far-reaching anti-abortion legislation remains intact.

The touchy issue in the Pennsylvania primary campaign over the next two weeks will be abortion rights. The front-running Democrat, Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas, may have some tricky currents to negotiate.The abortion issue has moved to center stage in recent weeks as Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey, a conventionally liberal Democrat on most issues, has run what amounts to a crusade to wean the national party away from its hard commitment tochoice.He contends that the issue has been a principal reason for widespread defections among working-class Democrats who oppose abortion.

WASHINGTON -- At first blush, it would appear that conservative Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White's decision to retire means the long controversy over abortion rights will at last be shunted to the sidelines, with President Clinton expected to fill the vacancy with a pro-choice nominee.The president in his news conference the other day said he wouldn't ask any nominee how he or she would vote on a particular issue. But he made clear he would want him or her to be a strong protector of the individual's rights of privacy.

Washington. -- They did not look like combat zones: an elegant hotel ballroom, a nicely appointed meeting room -- both peopled with well-mannered, dressed-for-effect individuals.But there they were, angry combatants in the abortion war, getting down to the grim business of body counts.Words and phrases are weapons in the nation's unrelenting battles over abortion, and each side keeps pounding the other with the language of death: the women who risk dying if abortion is not an option, the unborn who will die for certain because abortion is an option.