Pill Politics
While Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush are split on abortion rights, the
issue has mostly remained in the background on the campaign trail. But with the Food and Drug Administration's approval Thursday of the RU-486 pill - which can end a pregnancy without surgery - that could change.
Bush, whose father banned the pill when he was president in 1989, said the FDA's decision was "wrong", but did not say whether he would try to overturn it if elected.
"I fear that making this abortion pill widespread will make abortions more and more common," said the Texas governor. "As president, I will work to build a culture that respects life."
As expected, Gore said he was pleased with the FDA's move.
"After careful review and clinical tests, the Food and Drug Administration has determined that its use is safe and effective," the vice president said. "Today's decision is not about politics, but the health and safety of American women and a woman's fundamental right to choose."
Appearing Friday morning on CNN, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Gore's running mate, said: "I do feel that there is a consensus in our society now – a majority of consensus anyway – that is consistent with the law of the land, that ultimately this ought to be a woman's right to decide with her doctor and with her own set of spiritual values and assent with her god, but that the state ought to have limited involvement in this, particularly in the early stages of pregnancy."
When Gore mentions abortion on the campaign trail, he usually connects the issue to possible vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court. Bush opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or endangerment to the mother. And, more hardline than its own nominee, the Republican Party's platform favors a ban on all abortions.
The pill, known chemically as mifepristone and by the brand name Mifeprex, will be available to doctors within a month.
Within hours of the FDA's approval, the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights League (NARAL) sounded a clarion call on its Web site.
"As we celebrate this victory, we must remain vigilant," NARAL president Kate Michelman said in a statement.
"We must ensure that our next president supports making this important reproductive health option available to American women," she said. "We must also return the House (of Representatives) to the hands of a leadership that will work to expand women's reproductive health options, not curtail them."
National Right to Life (NRTL), a leading anti-abortion rights group, accused the FDA of playing politics.
In a statement, the group said that four months after the agency "recognized the substantial risks" of the pill, "the FDA has dropped most of these protections for women's health. What has changed, other than a four-month campaign of political pressure by the abortion industry and its allies?"
Because the RU-86 pill can be given to women in a doctor's office, rather than in a clinic, it allows greater privacy for women. Not coincidentally, the right to privacy was at the heart of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade legalizing abortion rights. Subsequent rulings by the High Court have dealt with the competing rights of free speech, generally on the part of anti-abortion protesters at clinics; and privacy, generally for women seeking abortions. Demonstrations have sometimes been violent, with clinic bombings and murders of clinic personnel carried out by radical elements of the anti-abortion rights movement.
The Supreme Court's last landmark on the issue came in 1992, when the justices voted 5-to-4 to reaffirm the basic right to abortion with some restrictions, as long as the restrictions pose no "undue burden" on pregnant women. That was before President Clinton, who has staunchly favored abortion rights, took office. Now, with the Supreme Court divided, and with more than one justice likely to step down during the next presidential term, whoever occupies the White House starting in 2001 could shape the next court for years, if not decades, to come.
NARAL and Planned Parenthood have launched a drive to contact more than two million women to vote for Gore in November. NRTL and the Christian Coalition are mobilizing a grassroots effort to get anti-abortion rights voters, especially Catholics, to vote for Bush.
Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson expressed concern about the FDA's approval of RU-486.
"Coming as it does, just weeks before the election, it has political overtones," Robertson told the Associated Press.
"It's obvious it's going to make abortion more common," he added. "I don't see why people can't use birth control so this whole thing doesn't come up more often."
For decades, national opinion polls have consistently shown that most Americans favor abortion rights with some exceptions. Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control reported the lowest level of abortions in the United States in two decades. And health experts note that abortions did not increase when RU-486 debuted in France in 1988, or later across Europe.