But right-to-life groups aren't satisfied.

As a freshman member, Dean introduced a "Death with Dignity" law modeled after the legislation in Oregon, an action opposed by right-to-life groups.

And right-to-life groups have initiated an assault on Mr. McCain.

"There are taxpayer groups, right-to-life groups, the Libertarians themselves, the remnants of the Perot faction and others who would not want their issues to be ignored by a Whitman candidacy."

"Medical groups and family planning clinics should protest the decision to show that we too have a voice, not only the right-to-life groups," one professor said.

But it began to founder after Dr. Kevorkian came out against it, as did the Michigan Republican Party and a coalition of religious, medical and right-to-life groups.

He's a member of Daily Bread, one of the right-to-life groups that keep the pickets marching out there," Davenport said.

"The right-to-life groups are saying that the sky is falling," said Assemblyman Neil M. Cohen, a Democrat from Union County.

The protests defied an injunction issued by a Manhattan Federal judge last week forbidding members of a right-to-life group called Operation Rescue from obstructing access to abortion clinics in the city.

For example, under President Clinton officials at the department fought hard to make available the "morning-after" pill, whose use is opposed by many right-to-life groups.