Iowa Points Up Abortion Dilemma for GOP Hopefuls

This gritty little city on the banks of the Mississippi--where modern riverboat gambling took its first breath and Cary Grant died--has a new claim to fame: After months of controversy and a contentious vote, this past Wednesday it became the only city in the nation to restrict abortion within its narrow boundaries.

In the conservative Hawkeye State, access to abortion has dropped as the strength of religious conservatives has risen. At the same time, it is here that the nation is watching the Republicans who would be president court Iowa voters by arguing over who would best protect the rights of the “preborn.”

Here’s the candidates’ dilemma: The right, which is the engine that drives the primary process, is pressing hard for promises and proof that the party’s nominee will do everything in his power to outlaw abortion. But nationwide, with Monday marking the 23rd anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide, many more voters would simply like the issue to go away.

Even in Iowa, where religious conservatives make up 40% of the Republican Party, nearly half of the voters surveyed in a recent statewide poll said they wish that the candidates would spend less time talking about abortion and more time talking about crime, education and welfare reform.

“Most of the Republican Party is either courting--or trying to avoid offending--the very considerable block of religious-right and Christian-conservative voters,” said Republican analyst Kevin Phillips. “People who can plausibly aspire to the nomination have to have something that keeps it on the front burner for the religious right and the back burner for the rest of the country. That’s an interesting stretch.”

Interesting, yes. Impossible, perhaps, if the conservative drama now playing out in patchy snow under the leaden skies of a Midwestern winter is any indication. Consider the Mother Teresa test, which cropped up Jan. 13 during a GOP presidential debate televised nationally from Des Moines.

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When Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole was asked how he would prove that he would not raise taxes, he instead defended his “strong, consistent pro-life record.” He was honored recently, he told the audience, “to have Mother Teresa call me and thank me for my work in prohibiting partial-birth abortions.”

To which Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) later replied: “Now, Bob, Bob Dole, I’m glad Mother Teresa called you on that partial-birth abortion. . . . But I physically saw her Dec. 8. I have it on videotape.”

For anti-abortion Republicans in Iowa--which holds its key early caucuses Feb. 12--and throughout the nation, 1996 offers an embarrassment of riches. Of the nine men running for their party’s nomination, eight of those most likely to win say that they are against abortion.

Since California Gov. Pete Wilson and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter dropped out of the race last fall and retired Gen. Colin L. Powell said he would not run, only Morry Taylor, flamboyant and unelectable, is telling folks here that “this decision is between a woman and her minister, priest or rabbi.”

“Somebody asked me if it was bad to have all pro-life candidates,” said Samona Joy Smit, legislative director for the Iowa Right to Life organization. “That’s the best of all possible worlds.”

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Unless of course you’re a candidate trying to elbow your way to the forefront or a moderate Republican looking for a candidate to support in 1996. In the rough-and-tumble world of campaign supply and demand, anti-abortion voters can afford to be picky--as both Dole and Alan Keyes have found out.

On NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press” last month, Dole was asked if he supported a constitutional amendment to ban all abortions. “I supported that at one time,” he replied. “I would not do it again. . . . I think there have to be some exceptions,” such as when pregnancy occurs after rape or incest, or would imperil the life of the mother.

Ralph Reed, Christian Coalition executive director, immediately chastised Dole, calling the statement a “stunning reversal from the winning Reagan position that has sustained the Republican Party for 15 years.”

“Not a single pro-life incumbent of either political party lost in 1994 and 1995,” Reed warned. “The Christian Coalition will distribute 22 million voter guides in the presidential primaries next winter and spring. Those voter guides will accurately reflect Sen. Dole’s and other candidates’ positions on this issue.”

Even Keyes has not been immune from attack. He is best known for his impassioned speeches about the need to fight--and vote--against abortion at all costs, even political suicide.

“Consult your hearts right now,” he tells audiences, “and instead of looking for the winner as people keep saying, remember what this system is supposed to be about.”

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But during a recent appearance on “The Jan Michelson Show,” Des Moines’ answer to Rush Limbaugh, Keyes’ first three calls from listeners went something like this:

Rick: You seem to be very pro-life. But did you raise the issue of abortion at the Republican convention in 1992?

Keyes: I gave a speech and said you do not have the right to do what was wrong. I thought it was extremely important in 1992 to make that clear.

Rick: Do you still make the exception for the mother?

Keyes: The state does not have the right to ask her to commit suicide. In that instance alone . . . her unalienable right cannot be taken away.

Rick: But the child’s can?

That sort of argument--pushing even anti-abortion candidates to take more insistently anti-abortion positions--is part of the dynamic of Republican politics here as the nation’s primary season prepares to begin. But so too is Davenport Alderman Ruth Reynolds, 69, who voted unsuccessfully against her city’s new abortion restrictions on the grounds that the measures contradicted her party’s very foundation as a champion of the individual and proponent of less government.

The decision to have an abortion “is a private matter,” she said. “Women should have the right to choose. I don’t think that it belongs in government.”

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Here in Davenport, the conflict can be seen clearly. In this heavily Catholic city, the abortion issue has helped produce the first Republican-majority City Council in a quarter of a century. And the Republican majority has helped make the city deeply hostile to abortions.

Davenport, the former farm equipment capital of the world, is the hub of the so-called Quad Cities, a metropolitan area of 380,000 people that spans the Mississippi River and bleeds into Illinois. When St. Luke’s Hospital and Mercy Hospital, a Catholic institution, merged in the early 1990s, the resulting health center decided to stop performing abortions. The closest Planned Parenthood clinic is in Iowa City, an hour away, making the Davenport area the largest region in the country without a Planned Parenthood facility. No abortions are performed within 60 miles.

Despite the lack of abortions in the city, anti-abortion organizations have pushed a series of ordinances to restrict even the possibility of the procedure being performed there. The most recent ordinance approved by the City Council would make Davenport the only city in the country with a municipal law requiring parental notification before a minor has an abortion.

The debate over the measures has been fierce. “It’s just torn our council and community apart,” Reynolds said. “One alderman said this issue was the worst thing he had to face since both of his parents died.”

But Roger Mall, a senior Iowa Right to Life official who spearheaded the Davenport effort, does not believe the City Council went far enough. Mall works locally for Texas Sen. Phil Gramm’s presidential campaign.

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Voters such as Reynolds and Mall underscore the difficulties facing Republican candidates today. So do Loras A. Schulte, the Iowa state director for Republican candidate Patrick J. Buchanan, and Betty Christensen, a GOP activist in the Des Moines area. Listening to their disparate positions on abortion itself, and on the political implications of a candidate’s stand, one quickly senses a candidate’s nightmare--an issue without an answer.

Mall said he believes that abortion is the transcendent political issue and declares that if any Republican candidate turns his back on the religious right, “we will withhold our support. We are in this for the long haul.”

For her part, Reynolds said she feels the party has already turned its back on voters such as herself when it embraces a platform like the one adopted in 1992: “We believe the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life that cannot be infringed. We therefore reaffirm our support for a human life amendment to the Constitution.” So far, she has “hung in there for Dole,” but she says it has been a struggle, and she is not certain what she will do in November.

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Schulte thinks of himself as more pragmatic than Mall and a little more tied to the Republican Party. But he too warns that he’s “in this for the principle” and that if the Republican candidate gives short shrift to what Schulte holds dear, “I will be more willing to see us sharpen our conservative edge in Congress than ensuring Bob Dole wins.”

Christensen takes Reynolds’ abortion-rights position and goes further.

“I truly believe the Republican Party was meant to support people and keep the government out of our lives,” she said. This fall, she plans to vote for “the candidate who most supports the issues I care about--women’s issues. His name’s Clinton.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Republicans and Abortion: A TOUGHENED PARTY PLATFORM

1976: The question of abortion is one of the most difficult and controversial issues of our time. It is undoubtedly a moral and personal issue but it also involves complex questions relating to medical science and criminal justice. There are those in our party who favor complete support for the Supreme Court decision, which permits abortion on demand. There are others who share sincere convictions that the Supreme Court’s decision must be changed by a constitutional amendment prohibiting all abortions.

1992: We believe the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life that cannot be infringed. We therefore reaffirm our support for a human life amendment to the Constitution. . . . We oppose using public revenues for abortion and will not fund organizations that advocate it. We commend those who provide alternatives to abortion by meeting the needs of mothers and offering adoption services. We reaffirm our support for appointment of judges who respect traditional family values and the sanctity of innocent human life.

CANDIDATES’ POSITIONS

* Lamar Alexander: “I believe abortion is wrong. I would try to persuade anyone not to have an abortion. I support the right of the states to enact restrictions on abortions.”

* Patrick J. Buchanan: “I will choose a pro-life vice president, appoint constitutionalists to the Supreme Court who will vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade, make the White House a bully pulpit for pro-life and carry out [a] contract with the unborn as president.”

* Bob Dole: “It should be illegal, as far as Roe vs. Wade is concerned, . . . with the exception of life of the mother, rape or incest. We have some exceptions.” Opposes late-term abortions even when the mother’s life is at stake.

* Steve Forbes: “I’d like to help support an environment where abortions wither away in America. I would ban abortion in late pregnancy--barring emergency.” Supports parental-notification laws and opposes public funding for abortions.

* Phil Gramm: “I am pro-life, I have a 100% pro-life voting record. I will end taxpayer funds for abortion except to protect the life of the mother.”

* Richard G. Lugar: “I’m pro-life. I’ve voted against abortion throughout my Senate career. I think it will be an important issue in the campaign.”

Sources: Project Vote Smart, interviews and campaign literature.