Abortion Issue Could Easily Tip Balance in 3 New Districts : Politics: The candidates take sharply opposite positions, and registration figures are nearly even. Activists on both sides have targeted the campaigns.

The battle lines are being drawn in the political fight over abortion.

Abortion-rights forces are mounting an all-out effort in three legislative and congressional races along the Los Angeles coast where sharp differences exist between Democratic and Republican candidates over the emotionally charged issue.

Opposing them are anti-abortion groups determined to elect Republican candidates sympathetic to their position.

All of the contests touch the Westside.

Long-time 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 that stretches from Malibu across the northwestern San Fernando Valley into Ventura County.

From Venice south along the beach to the edge of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Democrat Debra Bowen, a Marina del Rey attorney, is battling Republican Brad Parton, the mayor of Redondo Beach, in the 53rd Assembly District.

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

All three races are regarded as highly competitive, because 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 who 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 pro-choice voters at various locations, including the Venice Boardwalk, Santa Monica Pier and Manhattan Beach.

More than 900 volunteers have been trained to work on phone banks from the San Fernando Valley to the Westside and 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’ position on the abortion question.

“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 political action committee, 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.

“The political battle is where the focus has to be,” said Robin Schneider, associate director of the Santa Monica-based group. Abortion rights advocacy groups cannot count on the courts to defend a women’s right to choose whether to have an abortion, she said. “Our success there is going to be very limited.”

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

The voter registration effort by abortion rights groups and the Democratic campaigns appear 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%.

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

“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 has been done by churches and volunteers are working in the three campaigns. He described Flores’ race for Congress and Parton’s race for the Assembly--the two open seats--as crucial.

In order 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 McClintock, Parton and Flores.

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 each of the contests, candidates acknowledge that abortion is important to activists on both sides.

In the congressional races, a key difference is the candidates’ position on the proposed 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, while McClintock opposes it. McClintock said the measure would eliminate any 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.

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

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