Democrats Seek to Avert Abortion Clashes

On the other hand, five antiabortion Democrats were elected to the House from districts in the industrial Midwest and South, conservative regions that the Democratic Party had been struggling to infiltrate. Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.), who is Catholic and opposes abortion, won a Senate seat with strong Democratic establishment backing -- although his father, the late Pennsylvania governor Robert P. Casey Sr., had been barred from addressing the 1992 Democratic National Convention because of his antiabortion views. A slim majority of the Senate leans toward favoring abortion rights, but the Democratic-led House remains antiabortion by a narrow margin. As one abortion rights activist put it, "We've made gains, but we don't have carte blanche on anything."

Democrats hope their proposals for preventing unwanted pregnancies will become a bridge within the party and even across the aisle to some Republicans, a way to reconcile moral reservations with legal rights.

Third Way, a moderate Democratic policy group, coined the term "abortion grays" to define the nearly two-thirds of voters who hold mixed views on the subject. Rachel Laser, Third Way's abortion expert, has counseled numerous Democratic candidates and lawmakers on prevention rhetoric. In a poll the group commissioned last summer, 69 percent of voters said they supported the goal of reducing the number of abortions "while still preserving the basic right to have one."

And yet Democrats have been reluctant even to mention abortion in recent years. Laser reviewed Senate Web sites and found that Democratic members used the word fewer than 350 times, while Republicans raised the issue 1,900 times. Democrats "also are prone to make conflicting statements about abortion or to couple their pro-choice voting records with a statement professing their personal opposition to abortion," one of her Third Way memos said. "This comes across as defensive, confusing and disingenuous."

The Reid bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-N.Y.), would increase funds for family-planning services, ensure contraception equity in health insurance plans and improve access to emergency contraception. The Ryan-DeLauro legislation would expand access to contraception, fund sex-education programs, improve health-care access for low-income women and children, and extend adoption tax credits.

There are still minefields, as Ryan discovered when he entered the abortion fray in the House. A 33-year-old Catholic who represents a working-class Ohio district, he has sought to jostle Democratic thinking on abortion since his service in the state legislature. After he was elected to Congress in 2002, Ryan reached out to the antiabortion group Democrats for Life. The group was devising what evolved into a foundation of the prevention agenda, a plan to lower the abortion rate by 95 percent over 10 years.

In late 2005, Democrats for Life discussed a possible collaboration with Third Way, but an alliance never materialized because many antiabortion Democrats, particularly Catholics, were reluctant to endorse contraception provisions.

"We wanted a bill that all pro-life Democrats could feel comfortable supporting," said Kristen Day, executive director of Democrats for Life. But Ryan decided that Democrats had to go further, and he shopped his bill around the House without the group's support. It has since become the leading Democratic vehicle in that chamber. "We cannot have a legitimate abortion-reduction bill without contraception," Ryan said.

But the Democrats for Life bill also has gained broad support and even has attracted some Republican backers. Among its provisions: expanding welfare and health benefits for pregnant women and closing health-insurance loopholes that limit prenatal care. At least three states -- Alabama, Michigan and Virginia -- are considering smaller versions of the House package, Day said.

"In the ideal world, there would have been just one bill," she said. "But it's a positive step that our party has been talking about this. Two bills is a good thing."