Democrats Changing Their Tune on Abortion

WASHINGTON — Eager to avoid a resumption of the culture wars, the new Democratic leaders are trying to tiptoe around the abortion issue by promoting legislation to encourage birth control and assist women who decide to proceed with unwanted pregnancies.

Democrats say they alienated many social conservatives during years of combat with Republicans over the issue of reproductive rights, and they want to change their emphasis to woo some of those voters back into the fold.

On the opening day of the 110th Congress on January 4, for instance, Senator Reid, a Democrat of Nevada and an abortion foe, introduced a bill to increase funding for family planning and to improve access to emergency contraception. Senator Kennedy, a Democrat of Massachusetts and champion of abortion rights, and Senator Clinton of New York, who is a leading Democratic presidential prospect, have endorsed the measure.

These and other initiatives are a far cry from previous Democratic efforts that drew strong conservative opposition, including funding for abortions for women in the military serving overseas and U.N. family-planning programs in Third World countries.

"There are few more divisive issues in America today than abortion, but there is an opportunity to find common ground if we are willing to join together and seize it," Mr. Reid said recently. "The rate of unintended pregnancies is unacceptably high." Legislation such as his, he added, "can reduce the number of unintended pregnancies and the resulting abortions in America today."

During the past decade of Republican rule, Congress became a battleground for opposing forces in the abortion debate. Nearly 150 bills and amendments have been offered with the aim of restricting the procedure. Democrats and pro-abortion-rights Republicans blocked most of those measures, but in the process, they alienated religious moderates who support Roe v. Wade but are squeamish about terminating pregnancies.