Pro-Lifers In Obamaland

Sister Sharon Dillon has been attending the annual March for Life for 20 years. A pro-life activist since high school, the 50-year-old former director of the Franciscan Federation doesn't agree with Roe v. Wade—the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion. But as strong as her convictions are, she's also frustrated with the kind of single-minded activism she sees around her: young girls chanting, "hey hey, ho ho, Roe v. Wade has got to go!" "So much time has elapsed since Roe," says Dillon. "I think among veterans, like me, few if any, think the Supreme Court is going to overturn it."

That realization is why she has come to Washington with a different message this year. Dillon is marching with a group called Catholics United who carry a banner that says: "CONGRESS: SUPPORT PREGNANT WOMEN AND REDUCE ABORTIONS NOW!" This is the first time that Dillon has seen any mention of abortion reduction; the battle has always been about Roe and bans. "We need to start thinking in practical terms: what can we do now to reduce abortions?" she says. "And I think that is very pro-life, if we can lower the numbers," she says.

What Dillon is promoting may not sound radical. But to legions of pro-life activists, even the use of the word "reduction" instead of elimination borders on heresy. The pro-life movement began with Roe v. Wade and has, for 36 years, been centered on protest against legal abortion. The idea of lobbying Congress to reduce abortions—rather than ban them outright—strikes many as a wrong-headed signal that tolerating any level of abortion is acceptable. So they have pushed presidents to appoint justices likely to overturn Roe and urged Congress to outlaw at least some types of abortion, like with the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act passed in 2003. But at the march in Washington last Thursday, the leftover signs from the massive celebration of President Obama's inauguration were persistent reminders that such a strategy faces stiff challenges—at least in the short term.

The election of a pro-choice administration and a Democratic Congress has divided the pro-life movement, between those who are preparing for the fight of their lives and those who see an opportunity to redefine what it means to be pro-life. During the eight years of the sympathetic Bush administration, pro-lifers made progress. The Supreme Court is just one vote shy of an anti-Roe majority. Pro-life groups have also promoted state-level restrictions on access to abortion, such as requiring women to have an ultrasound prior to abortion or wait 24 hours. It's been their most popular tactic and has been on an upswing in recent years: approximately 400 bills restricting abortion were considered by the states in 2007, a more than 50 percent increase from 2006, according to Americans United for Life, the country's oldest pro-life organization.

But now, many pro-life activists worry that their victories from the past eight years have been made vulnerable. Obama has already repealed the Reagan-era global gag rule, also known as the Mexico City Policy, which had barred the federal funding of non-government organizations that perform or even discuss abortions in foreign countries—even if they don't use American money for the procedures. And here in the United States, pro-lifers fear that their push for more state-level restrictions may have run its course after all three pro-life ballot initiatives introduced in 2008 failed.

"In reality, if you look at the current situation we're in, I think those kind of statutes have gone as far as they can go," says James W. Brown, chief of staff for pro-life Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), who recently introduced the Support Pregnant Women Act. "The question is, where does it go from here?"