Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's (R) support for abortion rights and opposition to the "constitutional logic" used in the 1973 Roe v. Wade case could help abortion-rights opponents "win" the abortion debate at the state level, Eric Johnston, a graduate student of theology at Catholic University of America, writes in a New York Times opinion piece. Giuliani is running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Although Giuliani has expressed "ambivalence" about Roe, which effectively barred state abortion bans, such ambivalence is "consistent with his belief that judges should not seek to achieve political ends," according to Johnston. Abortion-rights opponents "should applaud…