Democrats' Language and Actions Debunk Myth Party Is "Moderating" on Abortion.

Scarcely a day goes by that some prominent newspaper, national magazine, or influential web site doesn't either celebrate or bemoan what is described as a "race to the center" on the abortion issue by Democrats. The reader is told, for example, that "While there is no serious discussion of moving away from the party's long-standing support of abortion rights" (as a story in the Chicago Tribune recently argued), the "Democrats' public positioning on abortion has been evolving for many years beyond a pure rights-based philosophy to a more nuanced view that takes greater account of many Americans' deeply conflicted feelings while still solidly supporting the principle that women should have the choice of aborting a pregnancy."

This give with one hand and take back with the other hand is typical.

The sleight of hand simul-taneously functions as a nod in the direction of the public's unhappiness with Democrats as the unabashed "party of abortion" and a wink to the powerful abortion lobby that the only thing that might change is a little window dressing.

Both the comments of leading Democratic presidential candidates and the actions of the party even before it won back control of both Houses of Congress in 2006 demonstrate that while Democrats are wilier on the abortion issue they are no less committed to expanding abortion at home and exporting it aboard.

To return to the Chicago Tribune story, written by Mike Dorning, we're told that Democrats are finessing their support for abortion on demand "in sometimes subtle ways." Their "evolving" position was on display, according to Dorning, when leading Democratic presidential candidates addressed Planned Parenthood's political arm in July.

But is that so? Let's look at what the three leading Democratic candidates said to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund.

Illinois Senator Barack Obama ("who was repeatedly interrupted by applause," according to the New York Times) told the activists that the Supreme Court's Gonzales v. Carhart decision was part of a "concerted effort to steadily roll back the hard-won rights of American women." Gonzales upheld the carefully drawn Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act.