CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : RIVERSIDE : Foes of Abortion Draw Thousands

Tony Melendez, a man born without arms who touched Pope John Paul II in 1987 by singing and playing the guitar with his toes, joined a weekend anti-abortion march in Riverside attended by thousands. “Life is so precious. Because of a drug, I was denied arms, but I still feel in my heart that my mother would have had me even if she had known,” Melendez said. Melendez, 27, of Chino, was a thalidomide baby. He joined an estimated 6,000 people who lined the streets near a mall in a protest organized by the Inland Empire Pro-Life Coalition. A smaller group of pro-choice advocates waved banners nearby.