The NYT has an intersting piece on abortion and the Democratic Party this morning: For Democrats, Rethinking Abortion Runs Risks

Since its defeats in the November elections, nothing has put the fractured soul of the Democratic Party on display more vividly than abortion. Party leaders, including Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and the new chairman, Howard Dean, have repeatedly signaled an effort to recalibrate the party’s thinking about new restrictions on abortion.

Adding to that, Congressional Democrats named a professed opponent of abortion rights, Harry Reid of Nevada, as the leader in the Senate. Some Democrats supported another abortion opponent, Timothy J. Roemer, for the party’s chairmanship.

Of course, so far Clinton and Dean appear more focused on changing how the party talks about abortion moreso than how it votes on the topic. A real test will be whether there is compromise on any of Bush’s appeals court nominees, as the stumbling block for most, if not all of them, is the abortion issue.

Certainly it would behoove the Democrats to moderate on the topic, such as on issue like partial birth abortion, parental notificaiton, etc.

The question becomes, can they go from talking about maybe talking about the subject differently and actually transform the party’s image on this topic?

It would appear that some supporters aren’t too thrilled:

Emily’s List and other groups have also sounded alarms about the direction the party leadership is taking over all. During the search for a national Democratic chairman, Ms. White posted a rallying cry on the group’s Web site: “We fought like mad to beat back the Republicans. Little did we know that we would have just as much to fear from some within the Democratic Party who seem to be using choice as a scapegoat for our top-of-the-ticket losses.”

Although others may be adopting a more pragmatic view:

Another large abortion rights group, Naral Pro-Choice, is reversing course, saying it will drop its opposition to the proposed Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act, a bill that would require doctors to offer anesthetic for the fetuses of women seeking abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice, said the organization was saving its ammunition to fight judicial nominees who might overturn Roe v. Wade. “We are standing strong in the next Supreme Court battle,” Ms. Keenan said.

There are “bigger issues to fight,” she added, “to draw attention to the broader issue of reproductive health.” For example, in this week’s edition of the conservative Weekly Standard, Naral placed an advertisement asking abortion rights groups to “please, help us prevent abortions” by increasing access to birth control.

Note that the court fight remains in play, as one would expect.

The problem for the Democrats on this issue is multi-layered. First is the aforementioned talk v. action problem, second is the clear fact that much of their base, especially as manifested by key interest group support, is rather intensely pro-choice, and third this is the kind of issue where moderation may not lead to an actual increase in votes.

Of course, threats like this one are meaningless:

But abortion rights advocates warn of a bigger revolt within the party if its members start compromising on new abortion restrictions like parental notification laws or the fetal-pain bill. Karen Pearl, interim president of Planned Parenthood, said some of her allies were saying that “to the degree that the Democrats move away from choice, that could be the real birth of a third-party movement.”

Abortion rights alone is insufficient to sustain a whole party. Such a move would create an anemic third party, cripple the Democrats and empower the Republicans. As a result the pro-choice position would be further weakened.

Also, I would note that for all the hand-wringing amongst pro-choice advocates, abortion remains quite legal and quite easy to obtain and the likelihood is that that fact won’t change anytime soon–even if George W. Bush got to replace the entire Supreme Court tomorrow.