Half a loaf: A new antiabortion strategy.

The right-to-life movement is at a critical point in its crusade to prohibit abortion. With an administration publicly committed to outlawing abortion, antiabortion senators as chairmen of key committees, and many abortion opponents newly elected to the House and the Senate, the year began with the widespread expectation that Congress would take some action to override the Supreme Court's 1973 decisions legalizing abortion. It has become apparent, however, that despite the election gains, a "human life amendment" that would declare the fetus a person entitled to full constitutional protection--which has been the primary objective of the right-to-life movement for almost nine years--has no chance, in the next several years at least, of obtaining the two-thirds majorities needed in both houses to send the amendment to state legislatures for ratification.

As a result, antiabortion groups, while still committed to a human life amendment, have begun searching for an interim strategy that will allow them to keep the abortion issue alive politically while they try to convince Congress and the American public to support such an amendment. The search for an interim approach has divided the antiabortion movement, however.

One faction, lead by Sen. Jesse Helms (R.-N.C.) and Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R.-Ill.), is trying to short-cut the amendment process by getting Congress to pass, by a simple majority vote, the so-called human life statute (S. 158). It declares that human life begins at conception; therefore, the statute extends the same legal protections to the unborn that apply to all persons. That strategy, however, has provoked the nearly unanimous outrage of the medical, legal and scientific communities, including many people who oppose abortion but believe this approach to be unconstitutional. Nevertheless, the human life statute has widespread support among antiabortion organizations, particularly among the more militant right-to-life groups, because, while it does not write fetal rights into the Constitution, it does recognize the "personhood" of the fetus, which is the guiding principle of the right-to-life movement. Using an obscure parliamentary tactic, Helms is expected to bring his bill to the Senate floor before the e nd of the year. Most political observers believe that if a vote is taken, the bill will be defeated.

Meanwhile, some of the more pragmatic antiabortion activists in Congress, led by Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R.-Utah), are backing what appears to be a more reasonable approach designed to appeal to moderates in Congress on the abortion issue as well as to a broader spectrum of the American public. Hatch, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, has proposed a constitutional amendment, the "human life federalism amendment" (S.J.Res. 110), which would authorize Congress and the states to regulate or prohibit abortion, in order, in his words, to "restore to the representative branches of government the authority to legislate with respect to the practice of abortion." (1) The senator, who has had impeccable credentials as a leader in the antiabortion cause, maintains that his amendment is a reasonable compromise to resolve the stormy abortion issue without compromising the movement's principles.

Senators Jeremiah Denton (R.-Ala.), Don Nickles (R.-Okla.) and Rudy Boschwitz (R.-Minn.)--all strong abortion opponents--have joined Hatch as cosponsors of the amendment. The measure also has the backing of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), which has departed from its long-standing policy of not endorsing a specific antiabortion amendment. Archbishop John R. Roach, president of the NCCB, said the bishops believe that sweeping antiabortion amendments (such as a human life amendment) could not pass Congress now, and that it is better to back an "achievable solution." (2) (Several members of the Conference staff reportedly had a hand in drafting the Hatch amendment.) The proposed amendment reads:

The right to abortion is not secured by this Constitution. The Congress and the several States shall have the concurrent power to restrict and prohibit abortions; Provided, That a law of a state more restrictive than a law of Congress shall govern. (3)

Although the Hatch amendment, and the rationale for it, were adopted from a recommendation made by the Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the largest antiabortion organization, recently refused to endorse it, and reaffirmed its support for a human life amendment. (The NRLC has also publicly supported the human life statute.) A coalition of more than 60 smaller antiabortion groups has denounced the proposed amendment and called on Hatch to withdraw it and support Helms's bill instead. (Many of these groups originally opposed the bill but have shifted their support to it upon realization that a human life amendment cannot be passed.) Helms, Congress's fiercest crusader against abortion, has said that support for the Hatch amendment is "premature" because it raises many "disturbing questions." (4)