Abortion Issue Could Easily Tip Balance in 3 Local Races : Politics: Activists on both sides are targeting two elections for Congress and one for state Assembly in which Democrats support abortion rights and Republicans oppose them.

With the general election less than six weeks away, South Bay and Westside coastal terrain has become a key battleground in the fight over abortion.

Proponents of abortion rights are assisting Democratic candidates, and anti-abortion groups are supporting Republicans in two congressional contests and one state legislative race being waged in communities along Santa Monica Bay.

Democrat Jane Harman is running against Los Angeles City Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, a Republican, in the 36th Congressional District, which stretches from San Pedro to Venice.

Meanwhile, liberal Democratic Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson of Los Angeles is locked in a reelection fight against conservative Republican Assemblyman Tom McClintock of Thousand Oaks in the new 24th Congressional District, which runs from Malibu to Ventura County.

And Democrat Debra Bowen, a Marina del Rey attorney, is battling Republican Redondo Beach Mayor Brad Parton in the 53rd Assembly District, which follows the coast from the edge of the Palos Verdes Peninsula to Venice.

All three races are expected to be hard-fought, since the newly drawn districts are closely balanced in voter registration between Democrats and Republicans. In each case, abortion clearly divides the candidates.

Taking a cue from anti-abortion forces that have long been politically active, Planned Parenthood this year launched a special program targeting the three districts for extensive voter registration and education activities.

“We have no choice but to get politically involved,” said Marie Paris, executive director of Planned Parenthood’s Los Angeles Advocacy Project. “We put off doing this for a long time.”

But a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions narrowing the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion, and the prospect of further setbacks in the courts, left Planned Parenthood with no alternative, she said.

“We need to elect a pro-choice majority,” Paris said. “There are three districts in Los Angeles County, state and congressional races, where there is a clear, black-and-white choice on the issue of reproductive freedom.”

Once the decision was made to target the races, Paris said, the project began registering abortion-rights supporters at various locations, including Manhattan Beach, the Venice Boardwalk and Santa Monica Pier.

The drive appears to have been especially successful in the 53rd Assembly District. When the district was created early this year, Republicans had a 46% to 43% registration advantage. The latest figures from the County Registrar-Recorder show a slight Democratic edge, 42.7% to 42.2%.

More than 900 volunteers have been trained to staff phone banks from the San Fernando Valley to the South Bay. Their mission: to find thousands of Republican women willing to cross party lines and vote for a Democrat because of the abortion issue. Plans also call for the mass mailing of a voter guide detailing the candidates’ positions on abortion.

“We’re trying to mobilize pro-choice voters,” Paris said. “One can make a difference with a few thousand votes in a district.”

But unlike political action committees, Paris said, the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Project, which is separate from its clinics, will stop short of actually endorsing candidates.

She said the organization hopes to raise and spend $100,000 on the effort. The largest contribution--$35,000--came from a single donor who does not wish to be identified, Paris said. (Because it is established as a nonprofit, nonpartisan lobbying organization, rather than a PAC, the project is not required to identify its contributors.)

The three races are also the top priority in Los Angeles County for the California Abortion Rights Action League, a political action committee that lobbies in support of abortion rights.

“The political battle is where the focus has to be,” said associate director Robin Schneider. She said that groups such as hers cannot count on the courts to uphold a women’s right to choose whether to have an abortion. “Our success there is going to be very limited,” she said.

So, the organization is actively supporting Democrats Harman, Beilenson and Bowen, all of whom support abortion rights. Though acknowledging that “these are not easy races,” Schneider said, “we believe significant numbers of Republicans and independents will support pro-choice candidates.”

On the opposite side of the issue are the anti-abortion groups supporting Republicans Flores, McClintock and Parton.

“These are very important races,” said the Rev. Lou Sheldon, chairman of the Traditional Values Coalition, which represents a statewide network of churches. “We have endorsed these three pro-life candidates.”

Sheldon said voter registration drives have been conducted with help from churches, which have also supplied volunteers for the three campaigns. “We have a lot of people in these three districts,” he said.

He described Flores’ race for Congress and Parton’s race for the Assembly--the two open seats--as crucial.

To receive the coalition’s backing, Sheldon said, a candidate must make a commitment that “they think abortion is morally wrong” and will oppose government funding of abortions.

Jan Carroll, legislative director of the California Pro-Life Council in Sacramento, said the three races are a high priority. The organization also has endorsed Flores, McClintock and Parton.

Carroll described the three Republican candidates as “very excellent, pro-life candidates” who believe that “government should not be involved in encouraging or subsidizing abortion in any way.”

She was reluctant to discuss in detail what the Pro-Life Council is planning to do in the 5 1/2 weeks left before the election. “We do just what campaigns do,” Carroll said. “You find your people. Find your base, and make sure they know the pro-life candidates.”

The goal is simple. “To turn out the pro-life vote,” she said.

Although the economy and jobs are the dominant issue in all three contests, candidates acknowledge that abortion is important to activists on both sides of the question.

In the congressional races, a key difference is the candidates’ position on the Freedom of Choice Act. The legislation pending in Congress would forbid states from imposing restrictions on abortion and overrule limitations imposed by recent Supreme Court decisions.

Beilenson, a solid supporter of abortion rights, favors the legislation, but McClintock opposes it. McClintock said the measure would eliminate a requirement for parental consent when a minor has an abortion and a waiting period before the operation can be performed.

The division is the same in the other congressional contest. Harman strongly supports the Freedom of Choice Act, and Flores is against it.

And in the Assembly race, Bowen and Parton take opposite stands on the abortion question. Bowen said flatly: “I don’t believe the government has any business in the decision, period.”

Parton said, “I believe we need to not have abortions. We need to eliminate them and have restrictions on them.” But he stopped short of saying abortion should be made illegal.