Lately, my inbox has been flooded with mass e-mails soaked in religious
rhetoric and urging a vote for Sen. Barack Obama. The names vary — "Catholics
United," "The Matthew 25 Network," "The Joshua Generation Project" — but their
message is the same: It's time for religious Americans to renounce single-issue
voting.

After watching pro-life weekly churchgoers twice tip the electoral scales for
President George W. Bush, it's easy to guess the single issue to which these
messages refer. Abortion rarely is mentioned in these e-mails, perhaps because
Obama's extremist position on the issue leaves little room for persuading
pro-life voters. When it is mentioned, the subject frequently is couched in the
assumption that a candidate's abortion stance does not matter much because a
president's anti-abortion policies have little effect anyway.

That claim — often made about pro-life senators, governors and state
legislators as well — cleverly taps into the discouragement many religious
voters feel about making abortion a high priority year after year, only to see
the legalized destruction of unborn human life continue.

But voters who doubt a pro-life president's effect should visit the website of
NARAL Pro-Choice America, where they can find a laundry list of Bush's sins
against the abortion lobby. Among the highlights: Bush banned the use of
taxpayer money to support abortions overseas. He signed such landmark
legislation as the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act and the Partial-Birth
Abortion Ban Act, the first federal law to ban an abortion procedure since Roe
v. Wade. And he appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice
Samuel Alito, who helped form the court majority that narrowly upheld the
partial-birth abortion ban.

NARAL and its allies know that the next president's abortion policies matter
more than ever before. Their favored candidate, Obama, opposed the federal
partial-birth abortion ban and an Illinois version of the born-alive act aimed
at protecting infants who survive late-term abortions. He has pledged to
appoint only Supreme Court judges who support Roe. And he has promised to sign
the Freedom of Choice Act, an extreme piece of legislation that would nullify
many federal, state and local laws restricting abortion, including the
partial-birth abortion ban.

Sen. John McCain, by contrast, promises to run a pro-life administration and
appoint strict constructionists to the Supreme Court bench — a crucial pledge,
given that it may take only one more such judge to overturn Roe v. Wade and
send the abortion issue back to the states. Of course, nominees first must win
Senate confirmation, which explains why abortion-rights activists also are
working feverishly to solidify a pro-choice majority in the Senate.

If Roe were to collapse, America's abortion battle would shift to the state
legislatures. Governors and state lawmakers, who already wield considerable
clout on parental-consent and waiting-period laws, suddenly would have the
power to decide the legality of abortion itself. Abortion-rights activists
realize this, and they have made state races a new locus of their resources in
recent years.

Regardless of Roe's status, pro-life legislators can make a difference on
abortion. The Guttmacher Institute, which originally was a division of Planned
Parenthood, recently reported that U.S. abortion rates have dropped to their
lowest levels in 30 years. Michael J. New, a political science professor at the
University of Alabama, has analyzed state statistics on the abortion rates of
minors and found a correlation between stricter laws and fewer abortions. As he
told the Washington Post last week, "The states with the most active pro-life
laws have seen the biggest abortion declines."

That's good news for voters who feel motivated by their faith to put the right
to life at the top of their priority list. And it's a timely reminder that now
is no time for retreat.

Colleen Carroll Campbell is an author, television and radio host and St.
Louis-based fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Her website is
www.colleen-campbell.com.