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S P E C I A L : Roe vs. Wade After 25 years of Roe, debate still rages
Rallies for, against abortion rights held Thursday
January 22, 1998
Web posted at: 7:35 p.m. EST (0035 GMT)WASHINGTON (CNN) -- On the 25th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion, rallies and rhetoric around the country Thursday showed just how divisive the issue of abortion still remains.
On the streets of Washington, tens of thousands of opponents of the court's ruling in Roe vs. Wade turned out for the annual March For Life. Many carried wooden crosses and signs, directed at President Clinton, reading, "Bill, do you feel their pain?"
"We're not going away until we stop the abortions," said Nellie Gray, president of the fund that sponsors the march.
But in another part of town, Vice President Al Gore told a luncheon rally of abortion rights supporters that the key to decreasing the number of abortions lies not in rolling back the Roe decision but, rather, improving access to contraception.
"Let us try to join hands on a cause that unites us, the need for more and better family planning," Gore said. "Let us appeal to the common sense of the American people from all political persuasions. Let us pound home the point that the single most effective way to reduce the number of abortions is to reduce the number of unintended pregnancies."
Gore announced that the Clinton administration plans to increase federal family planning funds by $15 million in fiscal year 1999.
Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, said her group would also launch a new television advertising campaign, taking on political challenges to abortion rights.
The tag line of the ads will be, "What's life without choice," a takeoff on a slogan by an anti-abortion campaign that has aired for several years which ends with the tag line, "Life, what a beautiful choice."
"The pro-choice movement is going to be speaking up and speaking out," said Gloria Felt, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of American. "To those who oppose abortion, my message is, 'Join with us to prevent the need for abortion.'"
At a press conference held by the National Right to Life Committee, which opposes legal abortion, Douglas Johnson, the group's federal legislative director, said that rather than pushing to reverse Roe, the group would focus its energies on passing a federal ban on a late-term abortion procedure that anti-abortion groups refer to as "partial-birth" abortion.
Clinton has twice vetoed such a ban.
Johnson said anti-abortion advocates would also have a new bill introduced in Congress that would make it a federal offense for adults to transport girls 17 years or younger across state lines for an abortion, if that would circumvent parental notification laws in the girl's home state.
Wanda Franz, the group's president, said anti-abortion forces have been encouraged by some recent developments, particularly a decline in the abortion rate.
Pope John Paul II, in a message read during an overnight anti-abortion vigil at a Washington basilica, called legalized abortion a "destructive force" -- for both the children aborted and the women who choose to end their pregnancies.
"The 25th anniversary of the decision ... is a call to people of good will to reflect seriously on the devastating consequences of that step," he said. "Now is the time for recommitment to the building of a culture of absolute respect for life from conception to natural death."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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