Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Single-focus, litmus-test social conservatives took a hit last week after they chased a moderate Republican out of a special U.S. House election in upstate New York and backed a right-wing independent instead. Their guy lost, handing a Democrat a district that had gone Republican for more than a century.

It looked like a clear lesson in the danger of demanding ideological purity. Liberals and Democrats had themselves quite a chuckle watching the right wing destroy the Grand Old Party.

But the moral to that story faded quickly in the face of a far more substantial victory for single-issue zeal four days later.

So potent had anti-abortionists become that even with a Democratic majority, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi felt the need to bow to them to scrounge enough votes to pass a health-care reform bill.

It turns out that, while the Democratic Party had been welcoming one and all under its tent, far-right social conservatives were having their sway during election seasons, too. There are plenty of anti-abortionists with a D next to their names.

So by the time it came to vote on health reform, which had already taken a beating from the Tea Partiers, too many Democrats said they wouldn’t go for it unless its anti-abortion language was tightened. They weren’t sufficiently assured by the fact that federal funding of abortion is already illegal.

New Bar

They got their way, and Pelosi got a health bill passed containing a public option. That would be available alongside private insurance plans in a health exchange where people can compare and select a policy if they don’t like their current insurance.

Now the bill would bar even privately funded, privately insured abortions for many women who are now covered. It says you can’t enroll in a private plan with abortion benefits if you also receive a tax credit that the bill would create.

Tax money wouldn’t go for abortions. But the provision would create a whole new bar to jump for some women in need of abortions.

With 240 ayes, that amendment proved more popular than health reform itself, which barely squeezed through by 220 to 215. As for Democrats, 64 of them voted for the new abortion restrictions. See what a nice, big tent the party has now?

It wasn’t the usual anti-abortionists pulling the strings this time around, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out. Most of them opposed the health bill regardless of abortion language and are so often aligned with Republicans as to be less relevant this time around.

More Power

No, the anti-abortionists with greater credibility and therefore greater potency are those who support health reform of the sort that Congress is trying to pass and who are less partisan.

That would be the Catholic church, the main force behind the anti-abortion amendment sponsored by Michigan Democrat Bart Stupak. Pelosi found herself negotiating with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, whose members had been lobbying Congress for health reform and against abortion and building support for their position through churches around the country.

Let us pause to remember that abortion is legal in this country. In Roe v. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court forbade states and the federal government from barring abortions outright. Restrict them, yes, up to a point.

Defining that point has served as the abortion battleground ever since the 1973 ruling. Making abortions as difficult to get as possible is the fallback strategy until anti-abortionists get a Supreme Court willing to reverse Roe. They have been quite good at it, too.

E Pluribus Unum

It’s also worth recalling that those who oppose a public policy on religious or any other grounds are free to do so in this pluralistic country of ours. But forcing others to adhere to specific religious beliefs who don’t share them by writing them into law is un-American.

That’s especially true since the Supreme Court has said that it’s unconstitutional for government to violate the individual’s right to make personal, medical decisions to end a pregnancy.

Early term abortion isn’t murder under the law, however fervently many religious adherents believe it is. Catholics have company in that belief.

If it weren’t for that belief and the activism of its advocates, access to safe abortions wouldn’t keep shrinking as states impose more restrictions.

For example, a smattering of states require face-to-face anti-abortion counseling with health providers forced to give out falsehoods, such as claiming a link between breast cancer and abortion. Some make a woman wait 24 to 48 hours after counseling to return for an abortion, a special hardship on women who must miss work or who live far from an abortion provider.

Private Insurance

Some states already limit private health-insurance coverage, according to the Guttmacher Institute, an international reproductive health research and education group based in New York.

Restrictions like these combine with harassment and threats that abortion providers face (not to mention actual murder) from radical “pro-lifers” have made it impossible for some women to abort, even if they have been raped or sexually abused by family members.

That the House bill would impose yet another barrier to abortion isn’t the final word. With pro-choice senators and House members threatening revolt if the language remains in the package, with promises from President Barack Obama that the ban on federal funding for abortions will remain intact, compromise will be sought.

Even the bishops say they never meant to expand current restrictions but merely ensure that federal funds don’t indirectly fund abortion.

One more thing: Congress’s newest member, Democrat Bill Owens of New York’s 23d District, voted against the Stupak anti- abortion amendment.

As it turned out, his vote didn’t matter much. The amendment passed, anyway.

(Ann Woolner is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

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To contact the writer of this column: Ann Woolner in Atlanta at awoolner@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 11, 2009 21:00 EST