Bush backs proposed pro-life bills

President Bush supports congressional proposals requiring abortionists to warn some women that their unborn children will feel pain and banning adults from helping pregnant minors cross state lines to circumvent abortion laws requiring parental notification, the White House said last night.

“President Bush supports both pieces of legislation,” said White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy.

The support signals Mr. Bush’s decision to continue with his incremental opposition to abortion during his second term, at least until the issue explodes over expected vacancies on the Supreme Court.

Although Mr. Bush believes that Americans are not ready to ban all abortions, he is expected to nominate Supreme Court justices in the next four years who might overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion a constitutional right.

But until there is a vacancy on the court, the president appears content to continue chipping away at the legality of abortion — through proposals such as the 2003 ban on partial-birth abortion and the fetal-pain and state-line proposals — rather than launching an all-out assault.

That strategy was reflected in his annual phone call yesterday to the March for Life in Washington, which was led by pro-life activist Nellie Gray.

“The America of our dreams, where every child is welcomed … in life and protected in law, may still be some ways away,” he acknowledged from Camp David. “But even from the far side of the river, Nellie, we can see its glimmerings.”

The president made it clear that despite the polarizing nature of the abortion debate, he places a premium on politeness.

“I want to thank you, especially, for the civil way that you have engaged one of America’s most contentious issues,” he told the pro-lifers in remarks broadcast on the Mall. “A true culture of life cannot be sustained solely by changing laws. We need, most of all, to change hearts.”

That statement was widely interpreted as a reluctance to challenge Roe v. Wade directly, a posture the president first articulated in a 2003 press conference.

“I don’t think the culture has changed to the extent that the American people or the Congress would totally ban abortions,” he told reporters in the Rose Garden then.

But pro-life activist Stephen Peroutka, who participated in yesterday’s march, said, “That’s a tough thing to say to the 4,000 babies who will be aborted tomorrow — that this is not the right time to outlaw abortion.

“When is the right time — when public opinion polls say it’s the right time?” he asked. “Shouldn’t he be a leader and make it the right time? Let’s stop leading by public-opinion polls.”

Mr. Peroutka credited the president with reigniting the debate over abortion, even if he hasn’t gone far enough in banning the practice. He called for Mr. Bush to adopt a take-no-prisoners approach to abortion in his second term.

But White House press secretary Scott McClellan suggested that the president will continue to take a nonconfrontational approach to the abortion issue.

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