WASHINGTON INSIGHT

GENDER BOOST: Democratic strategists in Washington are expecting political dividends for their party from what they hope will be contentious discussions of the abortion issue at Republican platform committee hearings this week in Houston. . . . The Democrats hope that a GOP squabble will energize voters backing abortion rights to rally behind Democratic women running for the Senate in the key states of California, Illinois and Pennsylvania. And the greater the success of these candidates, the strategists say, the greater the chances Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton will have of carrying those states.