BOB ABERNETHY: We now reflect on the ethics of abortion in our Perspectives roundtable. Helen Alvare is a pro-life lobbyist and spokesperson for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Vicki Saporta is Executive Director of the National Abortion Federation, which represents abortion providers, and Lynn Neary is religion correspondent for National Public Radio. Lynn, you've been working on this story for NPR. How has the focus of the debate, in your judgment, changed?

LYNN NEARY (National Public Radio): Well, I think as we saw in that taped report, there have been some medical technological advances, such as the sonogram, which is now a routine part of pregnancy -- which probably have made people more aware of the fetus. And in -- when ROE V. WADE first came into being, the emphasis really was very much primarily on women's rights. So now that -- but that's always been the balance, women's rights vs. the rights of the fetus. I think it presents a challenge to the pro-choice movement in the sense that perhaps the pro-choice movement needs to deal with this question of the fetus, but we also know that people support choice, particularly in the first trimester. And I think that presents a challenge to the pro-life people, who are not supportive of abortions at any time.

VICKI SAPORTA (National Abortion Federation): Many advances in technology have actually made abortions possible much earlier in pregnancy. Now women can discover that they're pregnant even before they miss their first menstrual period, and we have technology available to allow them to terminate those pregnancies at much earlier stages, so they can terminate their pregnancy when they find out they're pregnant, instead of having to wait six or seven weeks.

ABERNETHY: Helen Alvare, public opinion seems to say that abortion will never be totally banned. Is it still your goal to do that, to ban it all together?

HELEN ALVARE (National Conference of Catholic Bishops): If you put this to a referendum, you would get a lot of the same results that you had in the states before ROE V. WADE took it away from them, I think. If you ask people when abortion ought to be legal, most people would say either rape, incest, and life of the mother, or in the early weeks. That was what we had before ROE, that's what I think if you gave it back to the people we might see in the near term. But, of course, our goal must be, because every unborn is a unique human being, to protect that person's right not to be killed.

ABERNETHY: But maybe accomplish it as much by moral persuasion and opinion as by law?

Ms. ALVARE: Our most important goal is moral. For people not to want to kill, but as Martin Luther King said, "The law may not make you love people, but it can stop you from killing." We need both.

ABERNETHY: Vicki, what's your goal, to keep things the way they are, or just to head off this chipping away that somebody was talking about?

Ms. SAPORTA: The National Abortion Federation's mission is to keep abortion safe, legal, and accessible. And we work very hard to keep abortion safe. And now women can terminate their pregnancies without having to risk their lives and endanger their health, the way they did prior to ROE V. WADE. And that has been a very important development, because women have shown that they want to terminate their pregnancies whether abortion is legal or not legal, and it is a morally acceptable decision for women to do that.