NEWPORT BEACH : Allred Encourages ‘Choices’ for Women

Feminist attorney Gloria Allred drew cheers and applause from a capacity crowd Monday for her lively defense of women’s rights.

More than 400 women and a sprinkling of men packed the Four Seasons Hotel where Allred was the keynote speaker at an annual fund-raising luncheon for the Jewish Federation of Orange County.

In keeping with the event’s theme, “Choices,” Allred urged the women to become more actively involved in issues affecting their lives--namely, by preserving their right to an abortion, running for elected office and educating others about the Holocaust.

“These are empowering ideas, things you can do to bring change for women, “ Allred said. “And I mean immediately.”

She also warned of a U.S. Supreme Court hearing based on a Pennsylvania case that could severely limit a woman’s right to an abortion. She told her audience to join an April 5 march in Washington to protest any weakening of the current law.

“We won this right in 1973 with Roe vs. Wade,” Allred said. “Notice I didn’t say they gave us this right. . . . Men never gave us the right to vote, either, in 1920. We won that right.”

Allred drew loud applause when she criticized the treatment of law professor Anita K. Hill by the Senate confirmation committee during the fall hearings on the Clarence J. Thomas nomination to the Supreme Court.

Allred, a family rights attorney and social activist from Los Angeles, also discussed the Senate victory of Carol Mosley-Brown (D-Illinois) last week over a male incumbent who had supported Thomas. She called the victory “poetic justice.”

“You’ve got to start thinking of running for office. Could we do a worse job than these guys?” she asked. “We have nowhere to go but up,” she said, evoking laughter from the crowd.

“OK, maybe you don’t want to run for U.S. Senate, (but) God knows Orange County needs more women--more Jewish women--in office,” she said.

Allred closed her hourlong talk with a reminder that some people do not believe that Jews were killed during the Holocaust and gave an example from a court case that her firm handled several years ago. “We hope (the case) is a testament that the truth will live forever and that the Jewish people will never have to suffer another Holocaust.”

A portion of the proceeds from the annual fund-raiser are sent to Israel to assist in the resettlement of Jews there.