National Abortion

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.

WASHINGTON -- In the wake of the Supreme Court's refusa to hear the Guam case, the operative question now is whether abortion rights will continue to be an important issue in national -- politics -- or one largely fought out in state capitals. Many politicians in Congress would not be unhappy to see the latter.The message in the court's ruling is that even after 12 years of Ronald Reagan and George Bush there simply isn't a majority on the court for overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.

ANNAPOLIS -- A Senate committee approved a bill yesterday that would keep most abortions legal in Maryland but also would require -- over the objections of many abortion-rights groups -- that a parent be notified before a minor has an abortion.The 7-4 vote, in the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, sets up a Senate debate on abortion likely to begin tomorrow.L Neither side is predicting a swift end to the deliberations.Activists say the bill will be attacked on two fronts. Opponents of abortion said they will try to add restrictions to the bill on the Senate floor.

The early-abortion pill, RU-486, was approved for use yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration, a milestone victory for abortion-rights advocates who fought for more than a decade to bring the drug to the United States. Proponents said the drug will make abortion a more private matter for thousands of women each year because it can be taken in the home, away from family planning clinics and hospitals. There are 1.5 million abortions performed in this country each year. They said it will also make abortion more accessible to women who live far from family planning centers and other clinics that offer surgical abortions.

WASHINGTON - Galvanized by the Republican takeover of the Senate, opponents of abortion are preparing a major push for new abortion restrictions in the next Congress, beginning with a ban on the type of medical procedure they call "partial-birth abortion." Abortion opponents say they will also push for several other measures already passed by the Republican-controlled House, including a bill making it a crime to evade parental notification laws by taking a minor across state lines for an abortion, and legislation making it a separate crime to harm a fetus during an attack on a pregnant woman.

America's most famous aborted person sat down to an interview in a Maryland restaurant recently and talked about how normal she is. She's a teen-ager -- just turned 15 -- who enjoys movies like "Wayne's World," idolizes hot Christian singer Amy Grant, likes boys, hangs out at malls, wears jeans with flowers painted on them, giggles a lot."I'm just real normal. A normal, normal teen-ager," insists Gianna Jessen, who has a cascade of long blond hair decorated by two braids strung with red hearts.

WASHINGTON -- Police arrested 360 anti-abortion demonstrators yesterday who tried vainly to shut two abortion clinics during the first of two days of protests planned in the capital by groups on both sides of the abortion issue.Protesters were led by Randall A. Terry, director of Operation Rescue, a national anti-abortion group whose members said yesterday that they were rescuing babies from death.The effect of the protest was mainly symbolic. Police prevented the demonstrators from blocking doors of the Washington Surgi-Clinic and another site a few blocks away.

Challenger Harvey B. Gantt has opened up a lead of 49 percent to 41 percent over incumbent Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., according to a poll published in today's editions of the Charlotte Observer.The telephone poll of 596 likely voters was taken Monday through Thursday by KPC Research of Charlotte, which also conducts The Sun Poll in Maryland. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.Most earlier polls -- including polls conducted two to four weeks ago for the Charlotte Observer, the Greensboro News & Record and the Raleigh News and Observer -- showed Mr. Helms and Mr. Gantt in exact or virtual ties.

MIAMI - He once told an audience of Phil Donahue's television show that killing a doctor who performs abortions was as justifiable as killing Hitler. Then one July morning, he took a pump-action shotgun and fatally shot a doctor and his escort outside a women's clinic in Florida's Panhandle. Tomorrow, Paul Hill is scheduled to die at Florida State Prison. The former Christian minister, a murderer in the eyes of the state but a hero and a future martyr to some, will become the first convicted killer of a physician who performed abortions to be executed in the United States.

The Germantown clinic featured in today's story, “ Maryland abortion protest target takes fight to protesters ,” has been a focal point of the abortion debate over the past few years. Dr. LeRoy Carhartarrived there in late 2010. That year, Nebraska had banned abortions after 20 weeks. Carhart, who performs both early- and late-term abortions, still lives in Nebraska and travels to Maryland to work at the Germantown clinic. Michael Martelli, director of the Maryland Coalition for Life, said Carhart's arrival in Maryland was a “catalyst for the … rising up and unity” of many groups that oppose abortion.