5,000 Activists Protest Clinic ‘Gag Order’ : Abortion: Members of NOW, unions and gay rights groups march in the rally. Opponents stage two counterdemonstrations.

About 5,000 protesters rallied Saturday against a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that bars employees of federally funded clinics from discussing abortion with patients.

Some marchers wore gags or tape across their mouths to dramatize what they view as the high court’s infringement on free speech.

“We are nearing the end of legal abortions unless women are heard,” said Patricia Ireland, vice president of the National Organization for Women.

“We have finally come to the point where it is not only illegal for the federal government to provide abortions, it is even illegal to talk about it,” she said.

Marchers carried signs that said, “Reproductive health care is a right, not a privilege” and “My uterus is not government property.”

The rally was part of NOW’s 25th anniversary national convention over the weekend in New York.

Hundreds of activists from other groups, including unions and gay rights organizations, joined in the protest near Central Park.

Jon Nally, a member of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, or ACT UP, said the Supreme Court’s increasing restrictions on abortion affect everyone.

“If women do not have the choice to control their own bodies, where does it stop?” he asked. “The right to privacy is central and a society that limits options for women is a society that limits options for everyone.”

Organizers and police both said the crowd numbered about 5,000.

Two counterdemonstrations aimed at the annual NOW convention also took place. About 20 anti-abortion protesters were arrested after chaining themselves to the door of an abortion clinic.

Among the women leading the abortion rights rally was Bella Abzug, an early leader of the women’s movement and a former New York congresswoman.

Ann Snitow, a professor at the New School for Social Research, led a group of women dragging chains. They had pillows under their clothes to make them look pregnant.

“We don’t want to be enslaved by unwanted pregnancies,” she said.

Another protester, Linda Zoontjens, dressed as a Statue of Liberty and carried a torch spouting coat hangers, symbolizing the pre-1973 era when abortions were illegal and some women resorted to back-alley procedures.

She pulled the tape off her mouth and said: “Liberty is being gagged by this ruling by the Supreme Court where women can’t have the right to adequate medical advice. It’s just outrageous.”