Life Itself: Abortion in the American Mind.

• Author: Rubin, Alissa

Roger Rosenblatt. Random House, $20. Outside Buffalo's two abortion clinics, anti-abortion protesters scream, "Murderers, murderers!" Across the street, members of abortion rights groups retort, "Nazis!" An armory holds nearly 200 arrested members of the national anti-abortion group Operation Rescue. Clinic defenders scuffle with police.

Looking at this scene, you might say America is at war. Rosenblatt, a former essayist for Time and now a commentator on the "MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour," has written a book that aims to be a peace plan. When I first heard of it, I was intrigued and hopeful. Rosenblatt asks people to accept that they disagree. Then, he hopes, once people start to listen to one another, they will discover they have more in common than they thought and will lay down their angry placards.

Rosenblatt's plan is both simple and rational, but this does not mean it would work in practice. Real efforts to bring the two sides together show how difficult it can be. Consider the Greater Bridgeport (Connecticut) Adolescent Pregnancy Program. This coalition of about 20 social service agencies from across the abortion spectrum initially aligned to fight teen pregnancy. (One in five births in Bridgeport is to a teen mother, making its teen pregnancy rate twice that of the state's.) The coalition includes representatives of the Bridgeport Catholic diocese and Planned Parenthood. Not only does the group agree to avoid discussing abortion, but it excludes from its ranks representatives of the city's abortion clinic and Operation Rescue. Because the coalition is in constant danger of violating the Catholic Church's prohibition on artificial birth control, staffers get around the problem with verbal gymnastics worthy of Thomist philosophers. For instance, in coalition-sponsored sex education courses, staffers never "promote" birth control, they "give information" about it.

These efforts are a far cry from what Rosenblatt has in mind. In his post-abortion-war idyll, anti-abortion activists will allow abortion until the fetus is viable--the same policy that was in force in the mid-seventies after Roe v. Wade. Rosenblatt's only nod to anti-abortion interests is to say he would like to see abortion discourged, but he does not say how. His view is staunchly pro-choice, sprinkled with phrases from the National Abortion Rights Action League and Planned Parenthood. He gives no ground to the concerns of abortion opponents. In fact, he ignores his peace...