There’s nothing like losing to focus the attention of a major political party.

Fresh from the convincing re-election of President George W. Bush in an election cycle in which voters told pollsters values was a key component of their ballot decision-making, Democrats at the national level and in our state are reconsidering what they can do to reach out to evangelicals and other voters concerned about abortion, marriage and other values issues.

Although you can color me skeptical, I think evangelicals ought to test the sincerity of such efforts. After all, anything that can be done to limit the prevalence of abortion in America ought to be considered.

New Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean – whose election to the coveted leadership role was bolstered by the unanimous endorsement of Florida DNC members – has promised that his party will begin a serious effort at evangelical outreach. You may recall this is the same Howard Dean who, while running for the Democratic presidential nomination, told a reporter that the Book of Job is his favorite New Testament book!

My skepticism is only underscored by Dean’s recent comments at a Kansas Democratic Party fundraiser. Echoing the rhetoric of former President Bill Clinton, Dean said that Democrats should work to make abortion “safe, legal and rare.” The former Vermont governor went on to add, however, “The issue is not abortion,” according to the Lawrence Journal-World. “The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.”

Dean concluded his speech with the value-laden claim, “This is a struggle of good and evil. And we’re the good.” Well, I’m glad to know that Dean at least believes that there are such things as good and evil, even if he strongly suggests that “right-wing pastors” inhabit the world of evil.

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton made a splash in Jan. when she, too, echoed her husband’s “safe, legal and rare” abortion mantra in a speech to an abortion rights rally. The New York Times and other major newspapers gave significant attention to her comments, suggesting they were aimed at moderating her image in anticipation of her widely expected 2008 run for the White House.

With Republicans capturing Sen. Bob Graham’s U.S. Senate seat and Jeb Bush’s convincing re-election two years ago, the GOP now holds every statewide office in the Sunshine State – with the exception of Sen. Bill Nelson’s U.S. Senate seat. Republicans also enjoy large majorities in the Legislature. Therefore, Florida Democrats are also working to improve their image with evangelical voters.

The so-called “Mainstream Democrats” support fiscal responsibility, patriotism and “faith and moral convictions,” according the St. Petersburg Times, quoting from an invitation letter for the group’s recent meeting.

Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua, a member of the group and candidate for governor next year, told The Palm Beach Post recently, “We have allowed ourselves to be painted as if we were part of an agenda that is outside the 40-yard lines, but the great majority of Floridians are typically moderate individuals – slightly more conservative than liberal, but only slightly conservative.” Smith added that although most of the Mainstream Democrats are “pro-choice” on abortion, they would have supported the parental notice bill last year if exceptions for rape or incest would have been included.

And yet, Florida Democrats and their fellow-travelers in the abortion lobby have consistently opposed even the most limited regulations of abortion in our state – which explains why, although the number of abortions have declined nationwide in the last decade, the rate continues to climb in Florida.

According to a study last year by the pro-abortion Alan Guttmacher Institute, Florida ranks seventh in the nation in the rate of abortions among teens. And, Americans United for Life rated Florida as 32nd in the nation – the lower two-third’s of our country – in the protection of the unborn. (For more on both of these studies, see my editorial, “Protecting parental involvement in abortion,” March 11, 2004.) According to statistics from the governor’s office, while the number of abortions has risen by seven percent since 2001, the number of newborns have increased by only 5.4 percent. In Florida, one-in-three pregnancies ends in abortion.

Even with such troubling facts, it’s not surprising that the pro-abortion lobby immediately disparaged Gov. Jeb Bush’s new initiative to support non-profits offering alternatives to abortion when it was announced last week in Jacksonville by Lt. Governor Toni Jennings. For more on the new program, see our story starting on page one.

Representative of the over-the-top criticism was Clarice Pollock, president of the National Organization for Women in Florida, who said of the Pregnancy Support Services Program, “It’s not about preventing pregnancy, of course. It’s about making women walking wombs. That is no help at all to make women have children they do not want or can’t afford?”

That the wonderful people who offer alternatives to abortion would be characterized with such hard-hearted cynicism illustrates the quandary Democrats face in attempting to reach values voters. How will abortion ever become rare if “pro-choice” politicians and lobbyists continue to stridently ridicule those who are seeking to offer abortion alternatives?

I have a simple test to judge the sincerity of Florida’s Mainstream Democrats in their desire to reach-out to evangelical voters:

1. They should enthusiastically embrace the governor’s new Pregnancy Support Services Program and start to praise the selfless efforts of pregnancy care centers who are offering constructive alternatives to abortion. It would also demonstrate the genuineness of their interest in our views if party leaders would start to repudiate publicly comments like those of Ms. Pollock who demean the sacrificial work of pro-life pregnancy care centers by claiming that they wish to make women “walking wombs.” No political party that seriously wants to appeal to pro-life voters should allow itself to be identified with such reckless rhetoric.

2. As the Legislature begins to work on a parental notification law in the wake of voters’ approval of Amendment 1 last fall, Mainstream Democrats should not support inevitable efforts to weaken the new law with exceptions which are intended to undermine a truly valid parental notice measure. Pro-abortion lobbyists who don’t trust Florida’s parents to deal lovingly with their daughters’ crisis pregnancies should be stymied in their attempts to gut sound parental notice legislation.

Coming down on the right side of these two issues would be a modest, but meaningful start if Florida’s Mainstream Democrats are truly interested in appealing to evangelical and other values voters. Let the test begin.