Since the election, progressives have been discussing ways to win over the "moral values" voters, the people who overwhelmingly supported George Bush and other conservative Republicans.   Pundits urge that progressives expand the morality discussion beyond hot-button social issues like abortion.  This is an important step.

Framing the discussion of moral values to include concern for the poor, the sick and the elderly, opposition to preemptive war, and protection of the environment -- all neglected in 2004 -- will help progressives pick up some of these self-identified moral values voters.  On these issues, progressives can appeal to those with conservative religious beliefs.

However, it would be a mistake to duck on what those voters consider the single most important moral issue, abortion. Failure to address it prevents progressives from even getting the conversation started.

Conservative political commentators have sold the distortion that anyone who cares about morality is  "pro-life" on abortion.  This is not surprising and it is not new.  But it is becoming increasingly problematic for progressive candidates.  For the past twenty or more years, those of us who believe abortion should be legal and accessible to women--"pro-choice" people--have been labeled "anti-life."  Even many in the news media have described us as "pro-abortion."

I believe abortion should be a safe, legal option for women, but I am neither pro-abortion nor anti-life, and there are millions like me.  If a woman is pregnant and cannot handle the pregnancy for medical, psychological, emotional, or other reasons, it must be her choice, not that of politicians.  Most women who decide to have an abortion do so after thoughtful consideration of their difficult options, consultation with family, clergy, and doctors, and yes, prayer.

Many of us pro-choice people believe a human fetus is much more than "just a piece of tissue."  In 2004, I introduced abortion prevention legislation in the Minnesota Senate.  My bill would have single-handedly reduced the number of abortions by more than all the restrictions that have been passed by the pro-life movement in the last thirty years.  How?  By preventing unintended pregnancies through family planning services and sexuality education.

Am I pro-abortion?  Absolutely not.

Most "pro-life" voters, when pressed on specifics, admit that they don't want abortion to be illegal; they oppose arresting either the women or their doctors.  They call themselves pro-life because they have a strong aversion to abortion, and they want to express their opposition in the belief that it will reduce the number of abortions. Pro-choice candidates can gain their support with a strong abortion-prevention agenda.

Until now, these voters have been co-opted by politicians like George Bush.  Although these self-identified pro-life politicians are very vocal in their dismay over abortion, they do little more than push for relatively minor restrictions and blame the Supreme Court for their inability to outlaw it.

But they don't need to wait for a Supreme Court majority to outlaw abortion.  They could amend the constitution.  Yet they don't even try.

During Ronald Reagan, George H. and George W. Bush's Presidencies; sixteen years of "strong pro-life Republican leadership" in the White House, how often have any of them pushed a constitutional amendment to outlaw abortion?  Not once.  Not even one attempt in sixteen years. President Bush and his predecessors recognized that it would be highly unpopular to make abortion illegal and prosecute either the doctors or the women.

Karl Rove and other Republican operatives have no interest in banning abortion -- they want to keep the issue alive; it's a successful vote-getter.

Extremists on either side of the abortion issue will not listen to persuasion.  Those who truly believe the bumpersticker slogan "abortion is murder" will never accept anything short of a total ban on legal abortion.

However, only the most radical "pro-lifers" really believe that aborting a nine-week-old fetus is the moral equivalent of shooting a nine-year-old child in the head. For most voters, abortion is not murder, but neither is it an acceptable method of birth control.  Pro-choice politicians like myself who treat abortion as a serious moral issue, offer effective plans to prevent it, and who are willing to challenge the abortion rhetoric of pro-life politicians, can win votes from many pro-life voters.

Rather than ignore the abortion issue when talking with conservative and moderate "moral-values" voters, we should take the issue head-on.

Given a choice between a candidate offering "pro-life" rhetoric, and a candidate pushing initiatives that significantly reduce the number of abortions, pro-life voters will choose the latter, even if that candidate is pro-choice.