Actress, Pro-Choice Leader Hit Bishop’s Ban

A leader in California’s abortion-rights movement and a well-known actress traveled to San Diego Monday to blast Roman Catholic Bishop Leo T. Maher for denying Communion to Lucy Killea, a Catholic pro-choice candidate for the vacant 39th District seat in the state Assembly.

“This is an absurd battle, and we’re outraged,” said Holly Hunter, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role in the movie “Broadcast News” and who later appeared as the woman whose fight for abortion rights took her to the U.S. Supreme Court in the television movie “Roe vs. Wade.”

Maher released a statement about his views Monday that, although not referring to Killea, compared abortion to the killings of six Jesuit priests last week in El Salvador.

In the case of the priests “we raise our voices in shock and horror,” Maher’s statement said.

“However, when similar savagery takes place in the abortion clinics of our own land, we allow it to happen without a whimper.”

In a press conference at the Horton Grand Hotel, Hunter and Robin Schneider, executive director of the California Abortion Rights Action League, said Maher was out of line in trying to intimidate Killea, a 67-year-old practicing Catholic, and for “going out of his way” to align himself with “anti-choice fanatics.”

“We’ve had hundreds of angry calls,” Schneider said. “It’s obviously a case of a public official trying to make an example of a woman. People came to this country to flee religious persecution, and now you have a graphic example of it in San Diego County.”

Hunter conceded that abortion is an emotional issue but said that, of the thousands of letters she has received since taking a pro-choice position in 1982, only two have been “hostile” and were from anti-abortionists who oppose her views.

Asked if Killea might benefit from the bishop’s stance and gain the votes to defeat Republican Assemblywoman Carol Bentley, her opponent, Schneider said, in this case, it didn’t matter.

“Obviously, her religion is dear to Lucy,” she said. “Lucy Killea did not deserve this kind of attack. We admire her for her courage, her integrity and decided to stand up for her.”