Prominent DLC'ers such as Hillary Clinton maintain a "safe, legal, and rare" position on legal access to abortion : well and good. The "rare" aspect of that equation is advancing nicely, and down the road it's clear that "rare" will actually mean, in many geographic areas, "none" because there are no clinics left that perform abortrions in the first place. As for "safe" well.... I suppose those mostly nonexistent ( "rare" ) legal abortions will be "safe" except for a few firebombings of clinics here and there. As for "legal", well... we'll see about that. But - at the end of the day, it comes down to this : other than mouthing the proper focus group tested positions, what are top Democratic leaders actually doing to support abortion rights ?

Should the Democrats simply write off Louisiana as a "hopeless case" ? Or should they channel resources into the state, to slowly build back a base of support ? It comes down to this : to the extent that Democrats play the traditional game of ignoring states deemed uncompetitive, to channel resources to those states where Democrats candidates have a good chance they miss the point - the "culture war" is a permanent campaign, and the Democrats had better start playing it.

This summer, the last abortion clinic in Mississippi [ see PBS Documentary ] is in the crosshairs of the antiabortion movement which - as Talk To Action contributor moiv narrates, in Hard Truths - has ascended to a whole new level of funding via a growing torrent of millions of federal and state "faith based" dollars for a new and extensive network of "crisis pregnancy centers" that use deceptive practices in their quest to supplant abortion clinics and prevent abortions. Another primary stated goal of these centers is evangelism. So: the antiabortion moveent is now, in essence, federally funded.

A dual strategy now clicks into place : a "death of a thousand cuts" will largely render Roe v. Wade irrelevant in large swaths of the US and - meanwhile - the US Christian right is pre-positioning legislation to take full advantage in case Roe is struck down.

How did we come to this dire point ? - Read On....

In Storming the Gates of Hell, From Louisiana to Mississippi, Max Blumenthal details the  growth in the anitbortion movement over the last decade and a half - a grassroots movement that paved the way for Louisiana's new bill banning most abortions - while leadership bodies such as the DLC waffled on the issue and crabwalked rightwards ( the Clinton Strategy ).

The abortion bans recently enacted in South Dakota and Louisiana seem to have taken a lot of people by surprise. A bill emerges suddenly from some statehouse packed with ornery right-wingers, some mediocre governor signs it, and progressives spend the morning after wondering what the hell happened, or simply dismiss the state as a distant redoubt of fundamentalism. Analysis of the long-term strategy that made it possible for such draconian bills to become law is hard to come by. And without an understanding of the origins and history of this kind of legislation, it is difficult to map out a way to stifle it. Meanwhile, more and more states seem poised to pass bans of their own.

As Blumenthal recounts, seminal Christian right thinker Francis Schaeffer originally conceived of the antiabortion movement as a wedge issue that could destroy secular government, and - further - the issue has been used to attack and break up the big mainline Protestant churches as well. So, by neglecting the issue the Democratic gives the Christian right free reign in a central area of strategic advance

[ Max Blumenthal, continued ] The violent anti-abortion protests of the 1990's were more than mere outbursts of fundamentalist rage; they marked the deliberate execution of a strategy outlined in theologian Francis Schaeffer's bestselling 1981 book, A Christian Manifesto, in which Schaeffer urged Christians to employ anti-abortion civil disobedience as a means of challenging the legitimacy of secular government.

Blumenthal's message is plain : pay attention, don't waffle, don't crabwalk right - organize to counter the antiabortion movement and don't expect the Democratic Party to be much help

Today, on the DailyKos, diarist pico reinforces the message: The received wisdom of the DLC works, inadvertantly or not, well meaning or not, to enable one of the central strategic advances of the US Christian right, and the DLC focus on placing Democrats who are women into state office positions does nothing to address that advance and even - as in the case of Governor Blanco - can facillitate the Christian right's agenda:

[ Pico, in Kos is Wrong On Louisiana ] the Right has been building up its forces, slowly and surely - and rather than target our resources where we needed them the most (in convincing the voters that the pro-choice movement was an important issue), we made due getting a few "qualified women" elected.  In the meantime, the Right entered our communities, they've gone to our churches, they've fed the anti-abortion fires of our religious groups, and they've shamelessly used ignorance as the foundation of their strategies.

IN FACT, the abortion issue is one of the primary wedge issues used to attack the mainline protestant denominations ( link: Talk To Action site section, "the shadow war" ) and so by neglecting the issue the DLC is, in effect, giving the Christian right advantage on two seperate fronts - in attacks on liberal Christianity and in its "death of a thousand cuts" strategy to make sure that even if Roe v. Wade is not reversed the decision will be rendered largely irrelevant because of state level efforts to shut down abortion clinics and state level legislation restricting access to abortion rights or banning abortion in all but the rarest of cases.

As the Rev. Carlton Veazey, President and CEO of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, writes on Talk To Action:

With mainline Protestant churches in the midst of their large regional and national conferences, so-called "renewal" groups are trying to stir up turmoil by attacking the churches' historic support of women's reproductive choice. As in many years past, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is a target of these "renewal" groups, in particular of The Institute for Religion and Democracy (IRD), an ultra-conservative political lobby in Washington DC.  The IRD's campaign against the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice is perhaps best characterized as an effort to distort our mission and work and vilify our good name.... Reproductive choice is not the only sensitive issue that is exploited by the IRD and its allies. Gay rights and doctrinal interpretation are also targets of their attacks.[ Christian right attacks on gay rights are, also, occuring at a global level:  see Talk To Action contributor Matt Thompson's recent Talk To Action piece Orthodox Anglicans' Akinola: 'Five Years in Jail if You are Gay in Nigeria'

What's to be done ? As Max Blumenthal advises, in his conclusion to "Storming..." :

Because abortion bans like Louisiana's are invariably the product of long-term grassroots campaigns, it is important to counter them with a proactive response. The Christian right has selected the Jackson Women's Clinic as the next battleground in its war on reproductive rights. Whether by volunteering as a clinic escort, supporting the clinic financially or drawing attention the inevitably violent and theologically contradictory tactics of the demonstrators who will gather outside it this July, pro-choice forces can not afford to cede an inch.

Beyond Blumenthal's ( deadly serious ) point is a larger lesson Democrats and progressives must come to grips with if they are to push back the drive for American theocracy : coalition politics.

The received wisdom of inside-the-beltway consultants to the Democratic Party has come to be so wildly out of touch with national political realities as to work, in effect, to advance rather than counter the strategic intitiatives of the Christian right, and the underlying reason is really so simple as to confound the wisdom of political stances scientifically derived from innumerable focus groups and taken on or off like expensive suits of clothing.

Ya gotta have allies. One of the central activities of politics is - of course - coalition building. Unless the Democratic Party can support the interests of key allies it will find itself greatly - even fatally -  enfeebled as its ranks of grassroots activists thin out and choose to stay home rather than work for a party that does not work for them. Decades ago, Christian right strategists chose Abortion and Gay rights as key wedge issues, and the Democratic Party has so far blundered into the trap.

VIEW FROM THE FRONT LINES - Statement of Anne Rose:

20 years ago, the social issue battle was being fought in front of abortion clinics in every city in this country. From 1984 to the present, the battle front was sidewalks in front of abortion clinics. These were the first skirmishes., The Catholic Church and Evangelical movement had decided to draft their soldiers for this cultural war locally and to train them on the abortion issue.

The plan that we saw in these small towns involved not only protests that would become violent and involve killings, but also a methodical and secret plan to start at the bottom of the political ladder with school boards, city councils, etc. in the quest to take over the Congress and the White House

The National media and liberals watched this occurring and came in for the skirmishes but never dug deeper, nor did the Democrats. Just as the protests and attacks against clinics were well organized like a military campaign, so was the ultimate goal. These people were not only militarily brilliant, they were very very patient. They knew it would not happen over night and they recruited young people to carry them through the campaign.

They have been relentless. We cite many current Republican leaders who honed their skills in the abortion wars of the 80's and 90's: Ralph Reed, Bryan Brown, Paul Schenk, Jordan Laurence, and Michael Farris to name a few.

We must reiterate. We watched the troops years ago with walkie-talkies and camouflage outfits taking over abortion clinics. At the time, Susan Hill described it in a Federal Court hearing as "looking like young boys playing war". They were young men at the time, but they were not playing. It was for real.

The question of connecting the dots never occurred to Democrats and was "poo-pooed" by the media. It was as if abortion providers were yelling fire but the theater was empty. This is a well constructed campaign that goes on, and unless the left and moderate left recognizes the campaign it's in, it can't win.

We continue to fight back by exposing these "soldiers" who were raised on anti-abortion zealotry.

Now, for Jackson. Here's a recent E-Mail I sent out to supporters who want to help with the upcoming siege in Jackson on July 15-22.

Dear Colleagues:

As some of you have heard, Flip Benham and Operation Rescue (or Operation Save America) are planning a protest in Jackson, Mississippi at Jackson Women’s Health Organization for the week of July 15-22.

The frightening words from their website: “The Gentle Revolution is making its way toward Jackson, Mississippi, this year, July 15-22, 2006. Pro-life leaders from across our nation will be joining us at the “last abortion mill ” in the state of Mississippi. We will be storming the gates of hell in the strong Name of Jesus Christ. Little did any of us know, as we ran to the roar to help those devastated by Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi and Louisiana, that God was preparing us to return to Mississippi to deal with an even more deadly foe - Abortion!”

They recently picketed the Raleigh Women’s Health Organization and Susan Hill’s home in Raleigh NC. This is also the same group that attacked Dr. Warren Hern in Boulder last Summer.

On behalf of Susan Hill and the rest of the staff, we appreciate the concern and outrage of all who want to help with this effort in Jackson. Fortunately, many of the events staged by anti-abortionists recently have fallen flat and have not attracted the numbers they have been claiming. We do want to be ever vigilant, and to this extent we’d like for anyone wanting to assist in the defense of JWHO to contribute money to our security efforts.

For obvious security reasons, we’re not going to detail our efforts but rest assured that they include professional security services, surveillance, and video.

We’re requesting that there be no large counter demonstrations near the clinic during clinic hours. There will be pro-choice events throughout the week at the clinic and in other parts of Jackson, but the area around the clinic is small and not conducive to large groups of people. Patients don’t have to walk in a public area from their cars to the clinic. Our clinic parking lot is attached to the building, so there is no need for escorts. In our experience, patients aren’t able to distinguish between anti-abortion and pro-choice demonstrators, so any increase in numbers will only confuse them and make their access and comfort more difficult. We want to hire the most sophisticated professional security detail available to protect our patients, our staff, and the clinic.

If you’d like to contribute to that effort, please send contributions to: National Women’s Health Foundation %Raleigh Women’s Health Organization 3613 Haworth Drive Raleigh, NC 27609

We promise that 100% of your contribution will go directly to security efforts at Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Jackson NOW is coordinating the events in Jackson.

Again, we appreciate everyone’s volunteerism and energy, and hope for a peaceful week in Jackson. Thank you.

Cordially,

Ann Rose 800-455-8130

On behalf of Susan Hill

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO APPROPRIATE FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS

Thank you for listening.

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