by David Whitman

About the author: David Whitman is a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report.

For a fleeting moment in October 1998, Michelle Lee became the emblem of the abortion-rights movement. The 26-year-old divorced mother of two suffered from a life-threatening heart condition. Her heart was so fragile that Louisiana State University Medical Center in Shreveport had put her on the transplant list and her cardiologist had warned that another pregnancy could kill her. Yet when she unexpectedly became pregnant last summer, the LSU Medical Center refused to give her an abortion. The reason: A panel of the state hospital’s physicians concluded that Lee’s chances of dying from her pregnancy were less than 50 percent.

The hospital’s decision prompted [journalist] Connie Chung to pointedly ask on Good Morning America...