Some Officials Moving Toward Abortion Rights : 3 Governor Hopefuls Seem to Soften Stands Against Procedure

With this week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision forcing them to take a stand in the emotional abortion debate, early indications are that some politicians long considered part of the anti-abortion camp have begun to move closer to the abortion rights forces.

To a certain extent, this erosion may indicate concern over the political strength long-dormant pro-choice groups are expected to muster, now that the Supreme Court has moved abortion to the top of the national agenda.

One of the most dramatic defections was that of Illinois Atty. Gen. Neil Hartigan, who has long said he was personally opposed to abortion. He is also highly visible as the official who will be urging the Supreme Court this fall to allow his state to impose abortion restrictions more far-reaching than those the court upheld in the Missouri case handed down Monday.

Huddled With Advisers

Nonetheless, Hartigan declared Friday that “the right of privacy is of paramount importance. I support the woman’s freedom of choice” to have an abortion. His announcement, which drew fire from activists on both sides, came after he had huddled several days with advisers for his possible run for governor, where he is viewed as the strongest of the likely Democratic contenders.

In Massachusetts, former Atty. Gen. Francis X. Bellotti, another Democratic candidate for governor, issued a statement supporting abortion rights immediately after the court decision, despite his record of defending the state’s anti-abortion laws. A 1979 Supreme Court case bearing his name, Baird vs. Bellotti, established a system under which a minor must have both parents’ permission to get an abortion, unless a judge intervenes.

“Bellotti is begining to be convinced that the abortion issue is a critical issue and that he needs to be pro-choice to win,” said Joyce Cunha, director of Mass. Choice. “We’re going to be very skeptical.”

All the shifts have not been so clear, nor have they all come from Democrats, whose national party supports abortion rights.

Apparent Softening of Stand

Rep. Jim Courter, the GOP nominee for New Jersey governor, has a congressional voting record that pits him squarely against abortion. But he appeared to soften that position somewhat earlier this week.

Courter told the Bergen Record, in an interview published Thursday, that “there’s not the consensus here to modify the laws we now have in order to restrict abortions.”

“The laws aren’t going to change,” he said. “For myself, it’s never been on the top of the agenda.”

A recent poll by the Record found that more than two-thirds of the state’s residents oppose a ban on abortion.

“You’re going to see a lot of what Courter is doing--a lot of anti-choice candidates trying to downplay this issue,” said Nancy Broff, political and legislative director of the National Abortion Rights Action League, which plans to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into the New Jersey governor’s race alone.

The Supreme Court’s decision is seen as a turning point, from which the court’s new conservative majority is expected to chip away at its 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that established abortion as a national right.

Thus, in the next few years, for the first time in almost two decades, sometimes reluctant state politicians will be handed the power to decide whether to place restrictions on abortion.

Politicians trying to find a middle ground between the two views, or shifting from one side to the other, are finding themselves drawing fire from both.

Hartigan, for example, attempted to reconcile his personal views with his public stand by saying: “The choice may not be one that I would advise a woman to make, but in a pluralistic society, a society like ours, the differences of opinions and beliefs must be tolerated.”

“I don’t think his political strategists served him well by this,” said Ralph Rivera, chairman of the Illinois Pro-Life Coalition Political Action Committee. “I feel he is trying to get votes from both sides. It won’t work.”

Patricia Dougherty, executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League’s Illinois chapter, also was critical of Hartigan’s statement. “It doesn’t do anything for me . . . . I find it disturbing when he talks about tolerating. (The issue) is not to tolerate, but to protect these rights.”