Safe, legal and rare

Critics of Hillary Clinton will say that the New York senator's efforts to seek common ground with the anti-abortion movement is a cynical, poll-driven attempt to shed the early perception that she's the kind of Northeastern liberal who would lead the Democratic party to defeat in 2008 at the hands of red state America. And they'd be right. But that doesn't mean it's not a smart thing for both her and her party. A majority of Americans do not want to see women lose access to legal abortions. But they also see abortion as an outcome to be avoided, a tragedy even if they do not equate it with murder. President Bush understands this--you'll recall the conciliatory language he used in his 2000 GOP convention speech. President Clinton understood it too when he called for making abortion "safe, legal and rare." Let's hope the rest of the party understands it as well.