WASHINGTON -- The tiny pink plastic babies were roughly the size of your thumb. They were molded to show what a human fetus, curled in a prenatal position, would look like after three months of gestation in a womb.

The first time I saw these pieces of propaganda -- for that is what they were -- I was a reporter covering the Democratic Party s 1984 presidential convention in San Francisco.

Ronald Reagan was running for re-election. His conservative supporters were intent on fomenting -- on his behalf, but also to gain power for themselves -- a culture war.

The idea was to portray their foes as mainstream San Francisco Democrats -- immoral libertines who wantonly favored gay "lifestyles," legalization of pot and abortion.

Never mind that, 11 years earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had ruled that women have a constitutionally protected right to have an abortion, with some government controls on their freedom of choice late in pregnancy.

Democrats, the GOP charged, were baby killers. It was easy to see that. All you had to do was look at the plastic fetuses displayed on folding tables near the convention hall.

You can still find those plastic toys at anti-abortion rallies. And the culture war that they symbolized has become more intense, divisive and angry.

And, in some cases, violent.