WP:O'Connor's Exit Energizes Va. Abortion Debate(gov race decisive issue?)

[DeepModem Mom]

O'Connor's Exit Energizes Va. Abortion Debate

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 10, 2005; Page C06


RICHMOND -- Virginia's candidates for governor are bracing for abortion to emerge as a volatile and perhaps decisive issue as the final months of the 2005 campaign coincide with a national debate over President Bush's choice to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Senior advisers for the Virginia candidates, along with the state's leading abortion rights activists and abortion opponents, say interest in whether a newly constituted court might overturn the 32-year-old decision legalizing abortion will energize a debate that has faded from prominence in Virginia elections....

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A more conservative court could encourage Virginia's lawmakers -- among the nation's most aggressive when it comes to limiting abortion -- to pass more comprehensive restrictions. If the Supreme Court overturned Roe entirely, the issue would likely return to the capital, where legislatures and the new governor could decide whether to make abortions illegal....

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Lt. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the Democratic candidate, supports "reasonable restrictions" on abortion but believes in a woman's right to have one. Republican Jerry W. Kilgore says abortion should be allowed only in cases of rape or incest, or to save a mother's life. Sen. H. Russell Potts Jr. (R-Winchester), who is running for governor as an independent, has been a leading supporter of abortion rights in recent years....

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For months, all three candidates have focused on taxes, transportation, jobs, the environment and education. Now they are looking for ways to use abortion to their advantage....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/09/AR2005070901200.html