Andrew Sullivan's response to Clinton's speech in the New Republic congratulated the senator on asserting both that "the right to legal abortion should remain" and that "abortion is always and everywhere a moral tragedy." It included a few words on the "horrors of partial-birth abortion" and ended by proclaiming that in order to win a values debate the Democrats need "a simple message: Saving one precious life at a time." Sullivan certainly is not the worst foe to face the pro-choice movement. Much about his piece is reasonable, especially his support of over-the-counter emergency contraception. And yet he slips into language that doesn't simply recognize a fetus but worships it.
This is part of what some consider dangerous about Kissling's work, or about Clinton's assertions about the "tragic choice" to abort. It's a reasonable desire to expand the discussion to recognize loss and conflict, but it should also be remembered that abortion is not always tragic or even complicated. Many women terminate pregnancies with joy and relief. Abortions, in addition to easing medical or economic problems, can mark the cessation of emotional and spiritual turmoil -- just as easily as they can provoke it. Many women feel no guilt at all.
Kissling -- who said she was "willing to talk strategy" but insisted that her arguments were based on belief, not politics -- said she thinks that nuance is the only way for the movement to once again grab America's attention. "It's only when you say something unexpected that you can even get people to listen to you. I have heard responses from Catholics who are neither pro-choice nor pro-life, who say, 'This is the first thing I've heard that makes me feel positively about the pro-choice movement.' I am not interested in the rank-and-file NARAL member. I am interested in the person who is conflicted about this issue."
"There is an old-line view that if you say this you are a traitor," Kissling continued. But, she argued, this is the time to risk accusations of treachery, in part because the Senate is stacked against reproductive rights. "This is probably the best time to take a communications risk, a message risk, because we can't win legislatively," she said. "We don't have the votes! So I see this as a time in which our energies should be focused on the cultural change."
By phone, "Beyond Choice" author Alexander Sanger spoke fondly of Kissling: "My only difference with Frances is that before we get to the theological we have to understand the biological. She skipped a step. That is understandable because she's coming from the Catholic perspective." But, Sanger said, "discussions of the fetus are important to have and we have a right to understand what biology is doing in a pregnancy. Once we understand that we can talk about how we draw a balance between the woman and her reproductive goals and the potential humanity of the fetus."
"But I think this discussion is long overdue," Sanger continued. "We, me included, have been talking a certain way for the last 30 years. And public opinion polls have not changed one iota. The amount of legislation enacted that restricts women's access and demeans women continues to grow. We are not winning this battle."
Sanger said that on many levels, he has been pleased that politicians have begun to rethink the approach to abortion rights. "There is no question in my mind that we, the pro-choice movement, ought to be leading the way to reframing how we talk about abortion," he said. "So if various leaders of the Democratic Party are beginning to have this discussion that is all to the good." But he warned, "We have to differentiate between the pro-choice movement and Democratic Party." What the politicians are saying may be sound, but their strategy may be suspect. "The Democrats are looking for a scapegoat for the loss in November, and they've picked the wrong one [in abortion]."
About Clinton, Sanger said: "Her speech was vintage Planned Parenthood for 98 percent of it. She was talking about prevention, and this is something we've been talking about for the last 90 years." On the other hand, he said: "I was disappointed that the value Hillary led off with is that abortion is bad. I don't believe we are ever going to win over the American public unless we make the case that abortion is a moral decision."
If the feeling among some leaders is that the movement is changing its footing, others were quick to smother the impact of Clinton's speech, as well as Kissling's essay. Feminist Majority president and former president of NOW Smeal didn't seem to think there was anything worth reporting. "You talk about a change in language," Smeal said by phone. "I read [Clinton's] whole speech and really she's been saying this for a long, long time. I don't think there's a change there." Smeal pooh-poohed what she called "that little sentence on 'common ground' -- that's not new either. I was having 'common ground' meetings [with antiabortion groups] in the '80s as a president of NOW."
Kate Michelman, who stepped down last year as president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, agreed. "It may sound new because Hillary chose to give it prime time, but it's not new," Michelman said. "Twenty-one years ago, when I was recruited for the presidency of NARAL, they asked me what kinds of things I thought were most important for the pro-choice movement to address. I said No. 1 is our message, the way that we talk about what it means to be pro-choice. As a woman who had to make the choice [to abort], and who had three girls, the language of the movement didn't speak to me and at times sounded strident and not inclusive of the women who chose to have children. I felt we needed to communicate better what it meant to be pro-choice and the values that underlie a pro-choice position." Two years ago, NARAL (the National Abortion Rights Action League) changed its name to the less abortion-centric NARAL Pro Choice America.
Michelman wrote a letter to the New York Times in the wake of Clinton's speech praising the senator for reaching out to antiabortion advocates but cautioning, "As one who has reached across the ideological chasm on that basis for many years, I regret to say she may find that few on the other side are reaching back." Asked whether she thinks that politicians like Kerry and Clinton have jumped the gun by communicating a boiled-down version of the movement's internal debate, Michelman told Salon, "In reality it's going to happen simultaneously ... and I think our movement must be partners in this with our political leaders."
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