It would be hard to come up with an issue on which U.S. Senate rivals Jim DeMint and Inez Tenenbaum stand farther apart than abortion.

Republican DeMint considers it a moral wrong and has worked and voted to make it less accessible.

Democrat Tenenbaum considers it a fundamental right and has lobbied the Legislature to make it more accessible.

Anti-abortion groups have contributed generously to DeMint’s campaign; pro-abortion rights organizations have given heavily to Tenenbaum’s.

The involvement of these advocates and activists in the U.S. Senate campaign in South Carolina might not, however, reflect voters’ interests in the issue.

Neither DeMint, a congressman since 1999, nor Tenenbaum, the state education superintendent, has made abortion a centerpiece of the campaign.

Abortion is not the politically hot issue it was leading up to and following the 1989 Webster decision, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states could sharply restrict abortion within their borders.

But for a segment of voters, in particular the approximately one-third of S.C. Republicans who identify themselves as evangelical Christians, a politician’s abortion stance will weigh heavily in the choice of a senator, said Francis Marion University political science professor Neal Thigpen.

“I wouldn’t say abortion is the key to the election, but there’s no question that this is a pro-life state,” he said.

Historically, polls show most Americans believe abortion should be legal with limitations, but the answer to surveys on the topic vary widely depending on the question asked.

Southerners tend to favor a more restrictive approach than Americans in general.

That helps explain DeMint’s greater willingness to emphasize his anti-abortion track record and Tenenbaum’s tendency to downplay her pro-abortion rights stance.

ON THE RECORD

Tenenbaum and DeMint register strong feelings on abortion.

“I have four children,” DeMint said. “And it becomes more obviously hypocritical, when your wife is pregnant, to call it a baby if you want it and, if you don’t, to call it a fetus.”

He says life begins at conception and “who we are is pretty much programmed by conception.”

DeMint has a near-perfect rating from the National Right to Life Committee. He has a perfect record with South Carolina Citizens for Life, the local affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee.

For Tenenbaum, abortion is a woman’s right.

“The decision whether or not to have an abortion is one a woman must make with her family, her doctor, and based on her religious beliefs,” she said. “This is not a decision the government should make for her.”

As an attorney in the Columbia office of Haynsworth Sinkler & Boyd in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Tenenbaum lobbied against abortion restrictions her clients deemed unconstitutional and onerous.

Tenenbaum was legal counsel for the now-inactive South Carolina Family Research Foundation, which shared those goals.

An example of her legislative efforts: Tenenbaum worked to assure that the Parental Consent Act, which became law in 1990, included a “judicial bypass” — an option for a pregnant girl to seek a judge’s permission for an abortion if she felt she could not go to a parent.

Tenenbaum also lobbied to allow a girl’s grandparent to grant consent for her abortion.

OTHER ISSUES

On other abortion issues, the two candidates also hold contrasting — but perhaps not starkly so — positions.

In 2003 DeMint introduced a bill to suspend the federal Food and Drug Administration’s approval of RU-486, a drug that can induce abortion in the first nine weeks of pregnancy.

DeMint and the National Right to Life Committee say RU-486 is unsafe and point to the 2003 death of a California woman after she took the drug, which was approved by the FDA in 2000.

The pro-abortion rights Planned Parenthood Federation of America calls RU-486 well-tested, safe and effective.

Tenenbaum has some concerns about the drug, campaign spokesman Adam Kovacevich said, but she does not call for the suspension of its FDA approval.

Both Tenenbaum and DeMint agree with the Food and Drug Administration’s May decision to prohibit over-the-counter sales of “Plan B” — a drug that can prevent pregnancy or the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus.

Still, many on both sides of the abortion debate say DeMint and Tenenbaum present a crystal-clear choice on the issue.

“Jim DeMint is the pro-life candidate and Mrs. Tenenbaum is the pro-abortion candidate,” said Holly Gatling, executive director of Columbia-based South Carolina Citizens for Life.

But DeMint is more than that, she said. “He’s the ideal pro-life candidate” because he has not only worked hard to stop abortion, but has sponsored legislation to make it easier for families to adopt children.”

Tenenbaum “has been throughout her career exceptionally supportive of family planning and a woman’s right to choose,” said Steve Smith, spokesman for the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the political arm of Planned Parenthood Foundation of America.

“Jim DeMint’s voting record is one of the worst in Congress when it comes to the right to choose,” Smith said.

Their stances on abortion have helped the candidates attract campaign donations and endorsements.

Tenenbaum is a featured candidate for Emily’s List, a Washington-based group that backs female Democratic candidates who support abortion rights. It has contributed more than $400,000 to the Tenenbaum campaign.

The Planned Parenthood Action Fund sent Tenenbaum a questionnaire on July 1 on which it will base its endorsement decision. She has yet to return it.

Her campaign said she is working to fill out questionnaires from many groups.

DeMint has received $10,000 from anti-abortion political action committees and about $10,000 more from PACs, such as the Eagle Forum, that support candidates whose views include strong opposition to abortion.

He has the endorsement of the political arms of the National Right to Life Committee and South Carolina Citizens for Life.

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com