Abortion

A full-scale battle on Capitol Hill over the next Supreme Court nominee could still be months away, but skirmishes have been taking place all year. Conservative activists have brought the most explosive weapon in their arsenal -- the issue of abortion rights -- to bear against a trio of President Obama's nominees for other posts, offering a likely preview of what to expect when Obama's choice to replace retiring Justice David H.

The girl's voice in the videotape is tiny and tentative. She is talking to a nursing aide in a Planned Parenthood clinic in Bloomington, Ind. The girl wants an abortion.

The mother of a Riverside woman who died of toxic shock syndrome after allegedly undergoing an abortion procedure at Planned Parenthood filed a malpractice suit against the organization and a Riverside County hospital this week.

For activists on both sides of the debate over legalized abortion, the criminal trial of Dr. George Tiller, which begins Monday in a Wichita courtroom, is an oddly unfulfilling culmination of a struggle that has wrenched Kansas for years.

Unmarried and pregnant, Ranya gathered up her courage and confided to a friend that she was considering a drastic step: an illegal abortion. She braced for criticism.

In a trial watched closely by activists on both sides of the abortion debate, Dr. George Tiller, the Kansas physician accused of performing illegal late-term abortions, was found not guilty Friday.