Protests Mark Roe vs. Wade Anniversary : Abortion: About 12,000 anti-abortion activists form a human cross in Orange County. Southland pro-choice activists also mark the 1973 Supreme Court decision.

Carrying identical white placards that said “Abortion Kills Children,” about 12,000 anti-abortion activists formed a miles-long “human chain of life” in the shape of a cross in Orange County on Sunday to protest the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

The protest was one of several events around the Southland and the nation marking the 17th anniversary today of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which first recognized the constitutional right to an abortion.

In Orange County, more than 200 churches participated in the anti-abortion chain, said Donald Shoemaker, senior pastor of Grace Community Church in Seal Beach.

Similar chains were formed in Bakersfield, Riverside and parts of Northern California last year, he said.

Police said at least 12,000 people lined the sidewalks along Beach Boulevard and Katella Avenue, stretching more than five miles north to south and two miles east to west through parts of Buena Park, Anaheim, Stanton, Garden Grove and Westminster.

Organizers from the religious community estimated that as many as 20,000 people participated. They hailed the event as a rebuke to critics who question the strength of the anti-abortion movement.

Regardless of its size, the demonstration saw no mishaps except for traffic congestion, police said.

First-time demonstrator Stacy Smith of the Community Baptist Church in Yorba Linda said: “I just felt the need to be involved in something that gets across the idea of the sanctity of life in a peaceful and well-organized manner.”

“We’ve never had anything like this before; it’s a great day,” said the Rev. Norman Lund of the Lutheran Bible Institute in Anaheim, who helped organize the demonstration.

“The cross is the symbolization of Christ’s sacrifice to reveal the truth,” said Susan Finn, a representative of Operation Rescue.

In the crowd were about half a dozen pro-choice activists who organized at the last minute in opposition. They carried through the streets a sign and a banner espousing a woman’s right to choose, but one of the activists said those were taken from him and ripped by an abortion opponent.

That was virtually the only sign of trouble at the event.

Meanwhile, in Hollywood on Sunday, about 300 people listened to British actress Tracey Ullman exhort them to prevent California from modifying its laws allowing abortions at an annual fund-raiser in Hollywood for the California Abortion Rights Action League-South.

The group has been campaigning heavily for pro-choice political candidates in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Webster decision that gave states new powers to regulate abortions.

Although the July 3 high court ruling did not change California law on abortion, many activists believe it could open the door to more legislative restrictions.

The brunch fund-raiser marked Ullman’s political debut, she said.

“I just hate turning on the television and seeing those toupeed chaps waving a Bible--it just drives me crazy. How dare they tell me what to do?” Ullman said. “I say, ‘Onward girls.’ ”

Among the supporters paying $150 each to attend the gathering were California Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, Congressman Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), Assemblyman Tom Bane (D-Tarzana), Assemblyman Mike Roos (D-Los Angeles), Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), feminist attorney Gloria Allred and state Sen. Lucy Killea (D-San Diego).

Killea, whose narrow victory last year in a heavily Republican state Senate district was seen as a referendum on abortion and how far Catholic leaders may go in opposing it, called Sunday on fellow Roman Catholic elected officials to also take a pro-choice stand.

Three weeks before the special election in December, Catholic Bishop Leo T. Maher made Killea a national cause celebre by denying her Holy Communion because of her pro-choice views.

“Our political philosophy should not be confused with our religion,” said Killea, adding that she still has not received Communion. “I hadn’t anticipated becoming a symbol of the concern . . . for privacy, but I realized I had a responsibility to show Catholic elected officials, ‘Yes, you can stand up for what you believe.’ ”

Robin Schneider, executive director of the California Abortion Rights Action League-South, said the group will continue campaigning for pro-choice candidates, regardless of their party affiliation.

“It’s the best of times and the worst of times,” Schneider said. “Legally, we’ve come full circle, but politically, we are more sophisticated. We’ve got to win everywhere--in Orange County and statewide.”

Schneider said a convoy of three buses and several cars left Los Angeles on Sunday for Sacramento to attend a pro-choice demonstration today on the steps of the state Capitol. In Washington on Sunday, pro-choice supporters erected a women’s memorial, designed after the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, in memory of “courageous women who died from unsafe abortions,” said Sheri O’Dell, vice president of the National Organization for Women.

O’Dell said photographs of the women, as well as their biographies, also would be on display “to show they are not statistics, they are people.”

At least one woman’s family was expected to attend a march in connection with the Roe vs. Wade anniversary today, she said.

U.S. Park Service police said about 50,000 activists, on both sides of the issue, were expected to take part in the demonstration in the nation’s capital.