Capital Abortion-Rights Rally Set Today

Abortion-rights advocates headed for the nation’s capital in droves Saturday, seeking to show a conservative Supreme Court that there still is strong public sentiment for legalized abortion in the United States.

The National Organization for Women predicted that hundreds of thousands of people would attend today’s abortion-rights march and rally, the first in the capital in three years.

The rally comes less than three weeks before the Supreme Court takes up a Pennsylvania case that anti-abortion and abortion-rights advocates have said could undermine--if not overturn--Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 court decision that legalized abortion.

“I don’t think there’s any question that this Supreme Court is prepared to withdraw recognition of abortion rights as a fundamental constitutional right,” said NOW President Patricia Ireland.

Organizers planned hours of speeches, appearances by dozens of movie stars and songs from Peter, Paul and Mary and Cyndi Lauper. Scheduled to attend the rally were Jane Fonda, Cybill Shepherd, Faye Dunaway and Buck Henry.

Susie Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for NOW, said Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. are “sending contingents,” and the campaigns have indicated that the candidates themselves may attend.

A coalition of women’s groups opposed to abortion said they would hold a counter-rally today at the west front of the Capitol, a couple of blocks from the NOW event. Spokeswomen said they did not plan a confrontation.

On Saturday, the anti-abortion group Operation Rescue blocked the entrance to a District of Columbia abortion clinic. Police arrested about a dozen protesters.

“Our adversaries realize that the days of legalized child killing are ending. They are frantic,” Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, said before Saturday’s protest.

The Pennsylvania law that the Supreme Court will consider requires doctors to tell women seeking abortions about fetal development. Women then must wait 24 hours before going ahead with the procedure. There also are requirements for minors to notify parents and wives to notify their husbands.

Ireland said the rally probably will have little effect on the justices, but it should impress people running for Congress and the White House in this election year.