Peace activists are planning today to protest George W. Bush's visit here to speak and accept an award for his pro-life efforts at a Catholic summit. It is "outrageous that he's receiving a pro-life award," said Sharon Tipton, an organizer of the protest with a group called the Orange County Peace Coalition, which she described as an umbrella group for other local peace organizations.

The Obama administration and a Congress narrowly controlled by Democrats present both new challenges and new opportunities for Catholic pro-life advocates on Capitol Hill. Sr. Carol Keehan, president and CEO of Catholic Health Association and a Daughter of Charity, said in an interview that pro-life advocates have faced different strategic challenges and priorities in recent Republican and Democratic administrations.

The pregnancy rate among teenage girls in the United States has jumped for the first time in more than a decade, raising alarm that the long campaign to reduce motherhood among adolescents is faltering, according to a report released Tuesday. The pregnancy rate among 15-to-19-year-olds increased 3 percent between 2005 and 2006 -- the first jump since 1990, according to an analysis of the most recent data collected by the federal government and the nation's leading reproductive-health think tank.

It has been almost 40 years since the landmark Roe v. Wade decision took the issue of abortion out of state legislatures, where it was being debated in many states, and established a constitutional right to the procedure. The decision short-circuited the messy, cumbersome, noisy way we Americans make laws and cast the debate in absolute terms. Pro-choice advocates insisted that women had an absolute right to an abortion. Pro-life forces insisted the unborn child had an absolute right to life. The ambivalence most Americans felt about abortion and about the pre-Roe legal regime that left many women dead or maimed from illegal abortions -- got lost amid the claims of absolutists.

Representative Bart Stupak often endures things others find unbearable. He crisscrosses a Congressional district so vast that some constituents live eight hours apart and so cold that the beer at his beloved football games sometimes freezes. Years ago, as a state trooper, he blew out his knee chasing a suspect, and he has since had so many operations that he now returns to work the same day, toting crutches and ice...Now he is enduring more hatred than perhaps any other member of Congress, much of it from fellow Democrats. His name has become a slogan: "Stop Stupak!"

Well, the knives are out. Senator Bob Casey has come forward with a compromise proposal regarding federal funding of abortion in the health care reform bill and some pro-life advocates are already piling on. Mind you, no one really knows precisely what is in the proposal at this point, but why let a little thing like facts get in the way. Douglas Johnson is so unrelentingly hostile and strident I think his group should change its name to the Nasty Right to Life Committee.

Attempts to limit funding for abortions, with backing from U.S. Catholic bishops, could jeopardize a historic chance to enact universal coverage. Whatever the fallout from Nebraska Democrat Ben Nelson's failed attempt to insert new abortion restrictions into the Senate's healthcare package, it appears increasingly likely that reform will be made hostage to this most divisive of issues. In the process, it also appears that America's Catholic bishops, who have supported some form of government health insurance as a fundamental right for nearly a century, are determined to transform themselves into a single-issue constituency. If that occurs, it will constitute a transformation almost as historic as passage of universal healthcare reform.

Deal-cutting and compromise are essential arts in legislating, and the health care reform bill now being debated in the Senate is no exception. But on abortion, which has become perhaps the biggest threat to the $848 billion overhaul of the health insurance system, middle ground is hard to come by. That's not stopping Sen. Bob Casey Jr. from trying. The Pennsylvania Democrat has emerged as one of two anti-abortion voices in the Senate Democratic caucus. The other, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, has said he won't vote for the bill without abortion language that mimics its cousin in the House of Representatives. A last-minute push from the Conference of Catholic Bishops and a bloc of anti-abortion Democrats secured House language preventing anyone who receives a government health insurance subsidy from buying a plan that covers abortions. Mr. Casey, however, repeatedly has said he won't draw a line in the sand on the issue, making him a sure supporter of the bill regardless of the abortion language.

Roman Catholic bishops have made front page news recently by wielding significant influence over health care debates in Congress. Many pundits and politicians are outraged at the bishops for ensuring passage of the controversial Stupak amendment, which critics argue rolls back access to a legal medical procedure as part of health care reform. Some lawmakers have questioned the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' tax exempt status." Do Catholic Bishops Run the United States Government?" a recent Huffington Post headline harrumphed. One editorial cartoon depicted the U.S. Capitol dome replaced by the dome of St. Peter's Basilica. As a Catholic and progressive who values my faith tradition's commitment to the common good on such diverse issues as poverty reduction, immigration reform, nuclear disarmament and health care, I've been grappling to articulate a thoughtful response to the wave of headlines. Sound-bites don't cut it.

For some years, Democrats have denounced parodies that cast their party as utterly closed to the views of those who oppose abortion. Last weekend, Democrats proved conclusively that they are, indeed, a big tent -- and many in the ranks are furious. From the outraged comments of the abortion-rights movement, you'd think that Rep. Bart Stupak's amendment to the House version of the health-care bill would all but overturn Roe v. Wade. No, it wouldn't. The Michigan Democrat's measure -- passed 240 to 194, with 64 Democrats voting yes -- would prohibit abortion coverage in the public option and bar any federal subsidies for plans that included abortion purchased on the new insurance exchanges.