Unlike, say, Al Gore's claims about global warming, Kerry's claim that life begins at conception did not spark scientific controversy. Enraged embryologists didn't rush forward to claim life begins at some other point. Kerry's statement attracted attention precisely because by stating the obvious he put himself in an obviously untenable position: If life begins at conception, Senator, how can you justify taking life in an abortion?

The Bush campaign pounded Kerry from this precise angle: "His rhetoric is at odds with a long record of opposing common-sense measures like the ban on partial-birth abortion," a campaign spokesman told The New York Times.

But if it makes "common-sense" to ban partial-birth abortions because life begins at conception, doesn't it make even more sense to ban all abortions?

The Republican Party's pro-life platform -- which Mehlman argues is right for the party -- offers a solution to abortion commensurate with the Bush-Frist-Boehner affirmation that life begins at conception. It endorses "legislation to make it clear that the Fourteenth Amendment's protections apply to unborn children."

In this Congress, Rep. Duncan Hunter, the California Republican, introduced H.R. 552, the Right to Life Act, which follows through on the platform by defining as a "person" for 14th Amendment purposes "all stages of life, including but not limited to the moment of fertilization or cloning."

It recognizes in law what Bush, Frist, Boehner and Kerry already recognize in fact.

According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, 42 million babies were aborted in the United States between 1973 and 2002. Each subsequent year adds about 1.3 million more.

Today, we are having a great national debate, driven by a president at odds with the base of his own party, over how many immigrants we should allow into our country and by what means -- so we can fill a shortage in workers. What if we had a great national debate driven by a president, in unison with the base of his own party, over how many babies we can save?

South Dakota had that debate this year, and the pro-lifers won. The state banned all abortions, only exempting normal medical actions taken by a doctor to preserve the life of a pregnant mother.

What South Dakota proved is that truth is persuasive. All you need are politicians who will fight for it.