Supporters of a woman’s right to choose an abortion had reason to feel confident a year ago, with a newly elected Democratic president whose party controlled the House and the Senate.
But not long after President Obama lifted a ban on U.S. funding for international health groups that support abortion, a gunman killed the nation’s most prominent abortion doctor, George Tiller. And by year’s end, congressional majorities voted to limit access to abortion coverage in proposed health-care reform legislation. The fact that an antiabortion Michigan Democrat won the day stunned abortion-rights advocates.
“We think the potential now for even more mischief and more attacks on pro-choice politics is very, very evident,” said Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. “The other side is really going to attack on every front. They’re just emboldened.”
The new year finds the opposing political forces at loggerheads once more, as both sides prepare for health-care negotiations and events surrounding the 37th anniversary, on Jan. 22, of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion.