Representative Bart Stupak the anti-abortion Democrat from Michigan who was central to negotiating a compromise with the Obama administration in passing the health concern bill in March announced on Friday that he would not seek re-election. He said that his main legislative goal 鈥?health mind reform 鈥?had been accomplished and that he was ready to 鈥渄o other things.鈥?Even so he has been under intense pressure from Tea Party supporters who opposed the health care overhaul and abortion opponents who said he betrayed their cause.

What does Mr. Stupak鈥檚 situation say about the potency of abortion love a political issue? Or are other political factors at play?

Dan Schnur is the director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at the University of Southern California. He was the communications director for John McCain鈥檚 2000 presidential campaign.

The most hard thing about abortion as a political issue is that there鈥檚 no room for compromise.

You can raise or cut taxes on some voters rather than on everybody. You can eliminate some nuclear weapons except not all of them. But once you鈥檝e moved past the introductory bromides about reducing the number of abortions performed in this country it鈥檚 extremely difficult to find a middle ground on the question of whether abortions should be legal or how they should be paid for. Ask an advocate on either side of the issue to define half a selection or a half a life and see if you can find any opportunity for cross-ideological cooperation.

Bart Stupak wasn鈥檛 any more successful at finding a middle ground on the abortion issue than anyone else has been. By first taking one side and then the other he ensured that he would be facing unfriendly fire from both Naral and the Tea Party Express. Facing a primary opponent from the left and an ad campaign from the right Mr. Stupak took the only reasonable path for a politician marooned in the middle. He decided to spend more time with his family and retire.

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The politics of abortion are precarious for both parties. As Democrats discovered during the later stages of the health care dispute there aren鈥檛 enough pro-choice votes to assert a majority in Congress. As Republicans learned during the bill鈥檚 final passage there aren鈥檛 enough members who will draw a hard and consistent line on the pro-life side for a majority either.

Both parties need the Stupaks of the world 鈥?centrists who stand with them on some issues but not all 鈥?in order to maintain control of Congress. But once either side achieves that control they don鈥檛 want those annoying moderates round anymore. That鈥檚 why Senator Arlen Spector is now a Democrat why Senator Evan Bayh is not running for re-election and why Bart Stupak is about to get a former member of Congress.

Theda Skocpol is a professor of government and sociology at Harvard University and the writer of 鈥淏oomerang: Health Reform and the Turn Against Government鈥?a book about the failed 1993-94 Clinton heath care overhaul.

I don鈥檛 think this is about the potency of abortion as a political issue. Most Americans have moderate views on abortion. This is about the Tea Party movement a very extremist minority targeting people who supported President Obama in the March votes and played a pivotal role in enacting health care reform.

Congressman Stupak has been targeted by the general right-wing movement in this country which is using the abortion issue along with many other stoked-up false fears about health reform. The goal of that movement or at least those who are encouraging it and funding much of it is to elect enough Republicans to undo regulations and subsidies that businesses and rich people want destroyed.

Mr. Stupak鈥檚 departure will hurt Democrats a bit since they probably cannot hold the district. But it is a story of one legislator who does not want to be threatened in this ongoing war which is not a war about abortion at all.

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It is a war about whether the very richest Americans can be asked to give up a bit of power and pay a bit more to create a more decent association for all in this case by paying for affordable health care for all Americans and putting limits on health insurance corporation practices.

Those who are being asked to adjust a bit hate it. They want to destroy the law and the Obama presidency. They are going to use all the pressure they can to get Democrats to quit or cave in or be replaced. I am sorry Mr. Stupak is leaving the fight.

Peter Wehner a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center has worked in the administrations of Ronald Reagan George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush where he served as deputy assistant to the president.

Abortion has never been between the top issues in national politics; those places are reserved for economics and national security affairs. But it is an important second-tier issue and from time to time and election to election it can be potent.

For millions of Americans it is a thing of deep moral convictions and an animating concern. So long as Roe v. Wade 鈥?one of the most divisive and most poorly reasoned Supreme Court decisions in our history 鈥?remains the law of the land that fact won鈥檛 change. How potent an issue abortion is frequently depends on whether one side or the other is perceived as the aggressor in the 鈥渃ulture wars.鈥?

Today with the passage of the health care legislation which now places the federal government on the side of subsidizing abortions the pro-life community is like so much of the conservative movement energetic and energized. Representative Bart Stupak learned about that in the aftermath of his capitulation to the Obama administration and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. So will many of his colleagues come the first Tuesday in November.

Lorenzo Morris is a professor and former armchair of the department store銆?of political science at Howard University. He is the author of several books and articles on electoral politics.

It used to be that elected officials could select their beliefs without regard to party. In the old days a congressman like Bart Stupak could trust intensely in abortion restrictions and comprehensive health care and serene seem normal.

Leaders of all political stripes congressmen and even presidents would come and go but the balance of party power scarcely ever changed. When these glacial changes occurred as in the last great party realignment of the 1930s their regional effects were still unpredictable.

Under President Roosevelt the Democratic Party became and remained the majority party but uneven turnout and forceful organizing made the Republican Party a dominant force in presidential elections.

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While the Democrats have generally held the upper hand at the district level rural congressional districts like the Mr. Stupak鈥檚 district in Michigan have scarcely budged from their Republican embrace.

As a Democratic exception he could count on his mingle of conservative and moderate leanings to win for nine terms. Those days are through if the Tea Party activists are to be believed because they intend to wage a relentless ideological campaign.

With Republican allies they have made Congressman Stupak second on their hit list and they assert to have amassed $250000 to back up their hunt for him. In an historical sense the Tea Party campaigners have a point. It is not that Representative Stupak is anymore vulnerable in his Republican district than he ever was. At least the Democrats believe he鈥檚 a winner.

It is rather that parties are less reliable and ideology is more demanding. He chose if only momentarily his ideology over his party in opposing Speaker Pelosi and President Obama on the health care proposal because it did not include stringent anti-abortion language.

When he finally caved into party pressure he won acceptance but not acclaim from the Democratic left while unleashing spiteful cries of 鈥渂aby killer鈥?from the right. Though the space for moderates may be shrinking he says he鈥檚 not fearful to run for office even though he鈥檚 running from it.

He said his decision is personal but it is political for everyone else. The tremendous emphasis of balancing the ideological left and right in the same congressional office is no longer relieved by consistent partisan colleagues.

The Republican Party cross-hairs trained on his office are now guided by an ideological scope that sees only his issue positions and looks past personal convictions. The lesson for his colleagues is that partisanship is the last coat of armor in a war of beliefs.

Larry J. Sabato director of the Center for Politics and University Professor of Politics at the University of Virginia is the author of 鈥淭he Year of Obama.鈥?/p>

Anytime a longtime Congressional incumbent retires we try to divine some overarching meaning. And in so doing we make as well much of it. These are tough jobs at the rough cutting edge of a democratic society.

Many members of Congress get burnt out and need a change of direction. This description sure seems to fit Bart Stupak. Over 18 years this pro-life Democrat has had public and private battles and tragedies. He represents a sprawling rural district that requires lengthy plane rides back and forth from D.C. as well as constant car trip over a vast expanse of territory.

Yet there is little distrust that the abortion war inside the health care war took a terrible toll on Mr. Stupak. There will be plenty of other abortion-singed Bart Stupaks in both parties because abortion is an eternal issue 鈥?about absolutes life and death uncompromising single-issue activists and bedrock principles.

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Most politicians hate to talk about it because there is little middle ground. It keeps coming up for the same reason: because sooner or later everyone has to pick a side.

Abortion was the small tail that wagged the very large dog of health care reform. Mr. Stupak performed quite a trick and has taught that trick to a new generation of abortion-minded pols. Love it or hate it the abortion debate like death and taxes will often be with us.

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