Stars Fall on UCLA Rally on Abortion

Perhaps it was the ethereal beauty of “Equal Justice” television star Sarah Jessica Parker that drew more than 2,500 students to a rally Wednesday at UCLA’s Westwood Plaza. Or maybe it was the polished sensuality of “La Bamba” heartthrob Esai Morales.

But the students at the abortion-rights rally reserved their greatest applause and loudest cheers for the woman who was recently named by teen-oriented Sassy magazine as one of “the 20 coolest women of all time”--Faye Wattleton, the president of Planned Parenthood.

“Today we are witnessing a great and stunning phenomenon,” Wattleton told the students, most of them young women. “George Bush, eat your heart out. The feminists have reproduced!”

Wattleton and about 30 television and film celebrities were at the rally to kick off a nationwide abortion-rights tour that will take teams of actors to eight college campuses in New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and other states.

The tour is being organized by the Hollywood Policy Center Foundation--a group of liberal actors, producers and directors--and the National Abortion Rights Action League with the goal of registering students to vote. The organizers hope some students will also volunteer to campaign for candidates who support abortion rights.

Organizers hope that with Hollywood celebrities they can reach what they call the “silent majority” of students who believe that women should have the right to an abortion but who are not politically active.

“On a college campus, big names are a draw. They’re a way to draw attention to the larger issue,” said Kelly Davis, a 21-year-old student who helped organize the rally by passing out leaflets to 20 UCLA sorority and fraternity houses. “It’s a spark to have people they’ve seen on TV.”

Predictably, a few of the students at Wednesday’s rally were a little star-struck.

Jodi Yamamura, 21, and Emi Gusukima, 19, scanned the row of stars on the podium for Parker, whose show began airing last week.

“There she is, the one with the long hair,” said Yamamura, a political science major, as she prepared to take a snapshot.

Parker, 25, plays the role of a prosecuting attorney on the series “Equal Justice.” She was philosophical about the role of celebrities in the abortion-rights movement.

“I think my function is to be a voice,” she said. “For good or for bad, people have a tendency to listen to people who they recognize.”

Some of the students expressed regret that 30 actors were the principal drawing card to a demonstration about an issue as serious as abortion rights.

“In a way, it’s too bad that we need them (the stars) to promote the event,” said Vanessa Shimmoto, 19, a women’s studies major. “We should come out because we believe in the issue, not because the stars are here.”

Shimmoto and other demonstrators watched with a mixture of curiosity and thinly veiled disgust as two anti-abortion protesters raised large placards at the back of the rally. When several abortion-rights demonstrators tried to block the signs with placards of their own, a brief War of the Signs ensued.

Eventually, placards reading “Greeks for Choice” blocked out others reading “Bruins for Life.”

One of the anti-abortion students, Mark Bourgeois, a 22-year-old political science major, said: “I think most of the people are here to see the stars.”

Marge Tabankin, director of the Hollywood Women’s Political Committee, a group affiliated with the policy center, said the success of Wednesday’s rally bodes well for the tour, which will include visits to the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State University.

“If we received this much support in a city like L.A., where they see a lot of celebrities and they hear a lot of political speeches, the energy will be even greater in Columbus, Ohio.”