Reasons for Hope.

Someone observed to Patricia Ireland recently that the formation of the rightwing Bush Administration is about as discouraging for progressives as Ronald Reagan's ascendancy in 1980. "I said, `Oh, no!' "Ireland, head of the National Organization for Women, recalls. "We are much better positioned than we were in the Reagan era." Activists are more sophisticated, more experienced, and better organized. And there is the hope, with the partisan split in Congress, that the worst of Bush's rightwing program can be resisted. A Democratic Congress passed many of Reagan's most regressive programs. Dick Gephardt, for one, supported Reagan's early slash-and-burn budgets. But George W. Bush lacks Ronald Reagan's popular support. And progressive interest groups are making it their mission to demand that the Democrats in Congress stop caving in to his agenda. Still, it is a daunting time for people concerned about women's rights, gay rights, social justice, labor, and the environment.

The key to defending and advancing progressive interests is revving up grassroots efforts around the country. "We've got to reach folks who might be prone to let their anger turn into disillusionment and depression," says Ireland. "We have to give them a place to plug in."

Here, then, are a few "places to plug in"--where citizens can apply their energy to defend and advance the progressive cause:

* Reproductive rights: Pro-choice groups in Washington focused on the confirmation battle over John Ashcroft for Attorney General. That was only a prologue to any battle that will rage if Bush gets the opportunity to nominate justices to the Supreme Court. Another fight will be over Bush's expected efforts to reinstitute a global gag rule, barring nongovernmental organizations that receive U.S. family-planning aid from discussing abortion. Some of the organizations in more than fifty affected nations use their own funds to speak out about abortion-law reform. For example, in Nepal, where hundreds of women are in jail for having abortions, the reimposition of the gag rule would mean that groups could no longer advocate the release of these political prisoners. The Center for Reproductive Law and Policy succeeded in getting Congress to lift the global gag rule in 2000, and it will be aggressively monitoring Bush's efforts to put the gag back on.

For the most part, though, battles over reproductive rights will continue to take place at the state level, where most abortion restrictions occur. Parental consent laws, waiting periods, intimidation and harassment of abortion providers, and a decline in the accessibility of abortion clinics outside large urban areas are the main problems the reproductive freedom movement confronts. Shaking off what Patricia Ireland...