When he announced his switch from Republican to independent, Vermont Sen. James Jeffords said choice was one of the "fundamental issues" about which he and the Bush team disagreed. With Jeffords' switch, Democrats took control of Senate committees--a change that the Feminist Majority Foundation says "will be crucial to reproductive rights, as pro-choice Democrats will replace anti-choice Republicans." So, choice is safer today, right?

In some critical ways, yes. The Bush team's biggest fear is that Democrats will hold up key appointments--especially confirmations to the judiciary. The Democratic leadership could do to the Republicans what Sen. Trent Lott did to the Clinton administration for eight years: simply refuse to bring nominations up for a vote. But there's reason to believe they won't. For all their fighting words, the Democrats confirmed Ted Olson--a conservative attorney who has fought aggressively against women's rights and affirmative action--as solicitor general. The Democrats had the power to filibuster Olson's confirmation (the vote was tight: 51 to 47), but the party leadership decided not to act. Conciliation was the better part of valor, they explained.

And that's how choice could fall victim to Capitol Hill brinkmanship. Focused on the Supreme Court, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle likely will let lesser appointments slide by. But talk to abortion providers, and you find that those appointments are often where the real action is. It's at the local level that anti-Roe folks can pull the plug on women's rights--to little fanfare but maximum effect.

Consider the case of Denise O'Donnell. For the past two and a half years, O'Donnell, as U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York, pursued the killer of Buffalo obstetrician Barnett Slepian. After a complicated international investigation, police in France finally arrested James Charles Kopp, the alleged assassin. On May 4, O'Donnell's office filed papers seeking Kopp's extradition to New York to stand trial. Since France does not extradite suspects who face capital punishment, Attorney General John Ashcroft had to assure French government officials that prosecutors would not seek to execute Kopp, who faces a state murder charge and the additional charge of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act (FACE). A decision on extradition is due June 28.

In New York, federal prosecutors picked up Loretta Claire Marra and Dennis John Malvasi of Brooklyn, and charged them with aiding the fugitive Kopp. Eleanor Smeal of the Feminist Majority Foundation told Women's Enews that if O'Donnell hadn't spearheaded the case, Kopp might never have been caught. In her investigation of Slepian's murder, O'Donnell made crucial, political choices to cast a wide net in the belief that Kopp didn't act alone. In doing so, she trailed Kopp and his associates across the Atlantic and brought what Smeal calls an "international anti-choice conspiracy" to light.

But O'Donnell won't be on hand to prosecute, if and when the Kopp case finally makes it to court. On March 15, George W. Bush demanded her resignation in the middle of her four-year term. She vacated her office on May 31.

U.S. attorneys, appointed by the president, generally tender their resignations when a new administration takes office. But there have been exceptions. In O'Donnell's case, both New York Sens. Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer asked the White House to permit O'Donnell to complete her term. No dice. Although no new nominee has been named yet, the most likely replacement is a conservative Republican judge currently on the state family court. Kathleen M. Mehltretter, the district's former deputy attorney, is temporarily filling the post.

If the Democrats are out for "conciliation," it's unlikely that they will deem the U.S. attorney post serious enough to merit a grand fight. But for beleaguered abortion providers, the U.S. attorney is all-important. By enforcing clinic protection laws like FACE, O'Donnell made it possible for people like Marilyn Buckham, the administrator of the clinic where Slepian worked, to concentrate on providing health care, instead of having to focus on raising millions of dollars for clinic repairs, staff protection and lawsuits simply to get criminals into court. As Buckham told Women's Enews in May: "For what we went through, thank God it was under the [Clinton] administration."

National pro-choice groups usually confine their work to electing pro-choice candidates and lobbying against abortion restrictions and anti-choice Supreme Court justices. As critical as Washington is, the spotlight on federal judicial nominations obscures another crucial area in the fight for choice--one much closer to home.

Schumer sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Maybe he and his colleagues will be able to block the incoming U.S. attorney candidate and demand O'Donnell's reinstatement. That will depend on whether Democratic leaders consider the post important enough--and how much heat they get from their constituents.