NEWS STORY: Twenty-six years after Roe vs. Wade, the abortion debate continues

c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ Tens of thousands of abortion opponents marched Friday (Jan. 22) from the White House to the steps of the Supreme Court urging the president and Congress to outlaw abortion and end what they call”a culture of death.” But even as protesters joined in the annual March for Life, […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Tens of thousands of abortion opponents marched Friday (Jan. 22) from the White House to the steps of the Supreme Court urging the president and Congress to outlaw abortion and end what they call”a culture of death.” But even as protesters joined in the annual March for Life, held each year on the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court ruling which legalized most abortions, the Clinton administration announced plans to upgrade abortion clinic security using federal money.

The announcement, delivered by first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton at a luncheon celebrating the 30th anniversary of the National Abortion Rights Action League, committed $4.5 million to help clinics purchase closed-circuit camera systems, improved lighting, motion detectors and bullet-resistant glass. It was seen as another blow to anti-abortion advocates who have long been frustrated with the President’s support of abortion.”Violence, harassment and intimidation have no place in our health care system or in this debate,”Clinton said in announcing the proposal.


But Wanda Franz, executive director of the National Right to Life Committee, said she believed the administration pledge demonstrated what she called a”great chasm between Clinton-Gore rhetoric and reality.”They claim that they want abortion to be `rare,’ but they work as servants of hard-core pro-abortion advocacy groups,”she said, referring specifically to the NARAL.

The proposed move also drew reaction during the March for Life kick-off ceremony.”I am upset that federal money will protect the killing centers,”organizer Nellie Gray shouted to an enthusiastic audience.

Marchers included Catholic priests, nuns and many school children bused in from parochial schools in surrounding states.

Speaking to the predominantly white crowd, Gray protested using tax dollars to aid abortion clinics in any way, arguing”they are making the public part of that evil.” Gray lauded the efforts of anti-abortion activists _ especially members of Congress who participated in the march.

Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kans., expressed his support for the anti-abortion cause.”You are fighting for the future of this great nation,”he said.”Keep up the fight! Keep up the faith!” Brownback called his audience”heroes in a battle of great consequence,”and compared their struggle with that of the slain civil rights champion, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Coming from as far away as Iowa and Georgia and including large delegations from New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, protesters cheered and waved homemade signs bearing slogans ranging from”What if Jesus’s mother had chosen abortion?”to”No more dead babies.”Some carried massive signs protesting the controversial late-term abortion procedure that has been the centerpiece of anti-abortion activism for the past two years and which bore graphic photographic images of aborted fetuses.

One protester even donned a grim reaper costume for the occasion. Trailing behind the reaper, another participant wore bloodied surgical scrubs bulging with cash to caricature a greedy and heartless abortion doctor.


Rep. Joseph R. Pitts, R-Pa., called for an end to what he termed a legal”holocaust.”Dismissing notions that abortion is humane, Pitts called the procedure,”the most violent form of death known to man.” Also present at the event were a number of Roman Catholic bishops and other religious leaders.

Cardinal John O’Connor of New York, in his speech, repeated his well-known promise to cover the medical and other expenses for any woman, regardless of religion, who feels financially pressured into abortion.

O’Connor said his pledge has been matched by other bishops across the nation,”so that no woman anywhere need yield to the pressure of the destruction of her child.” In addition to anti-abortion slogans, people waved signs trumpeting the presidential aspirations of the Family Research Council founder Gary Bauer.

At a ceremony Thursday night, Bauer, who is in the midst of deciding whether to make a run for the Republican presidential nomination, presented an award to a young women from Virginia who became pregnant after she was raped but refused to get an abortion.

In other events marking the 26th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice released a statement calling for the end to abortion clinic violence. The National Abortion Federation took the opportunity to praise the 1973 ruling, calling the decision an end to”close to a century of illegal, unsafe abortions for women.””As a result of this historic decision, abortion today is one of the safest surgical procedures for American women,”Vicki A. Saporta, executive director of the NAF, said in a statement.”Abortion providers continue to provide women with both the highest quality medical care, and the dignity and respect that they deserve.”

DEA END ROCKWOOD

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