WASHINGTON — On the 30th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe vs. Wade, the White House signaled Wednesday that it will try for "common ground" between those on either side of the wrenching debate over legalized abortion.
The comments by a top White House official came as thousands of demonstrators gathered here in subfreezing temperatures to mark the high court ruling and to gear up for a political fight over the future of abortion.
After decades of marching on Washington, leaders of the March for Life proclaimed that efforts to overturn the Supreme Court ruling would soon prove successful. With Republicans in charge of the White House and Congress, and speculation about Supreme Court vacancies to come, their rhetoric flared with the prospect of upending the fragile majority that supports the court decision.
"Now, we're on final approach," former Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) told 50,000 marchers gathered on the National Mall. "We have a pro-life president and a pro-life Senate. It's been a bumpy road. Now, it's a new day. We will prevail."
In a broadcast hookup, President Bush spoke to the crowd while in St. Louis, where he had gone to pitch his economic plan, but he did not mention the Roe decision by name. Voicing his support for banning so-called partial-birth abortions and human cloning, Bush spoke instead about the need to "protect the rights of children yet to be born."
White House top political strategist Karl Rove later told reporters that both sides should coalesce around shared concerns -- such as counseling for teenagers and better adoption practices -- before engaging on the more fundamental debate about abortion.
"Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, there's a desire to find common ground," he said. Mentioning the bills outlawing late-term abortions and human cloning, Rove said, "Let's get those victories before we start prognostications about things that may be years in the future."
The temperate White House tone was of little comfort to groups favoring abortion rights, who fear that a new GOP majority will send women back to an era of illegal abortions and desperate deaths. Feminist Majority President Eleanor Smeal vowed a fierce fight against any Supreme Court nominee who opposes abortion. "We are determined to protect Roe," she said in one of the day's many counter-events held, in the backers' words, to celebrate the ruling's empowerment of women to make their own reproductive decisions. "President Bush does not have a mandate to overturn Roe."
