ELECTIONS 20TH STATE SENATE DISTRICT : Roberti Receives Endorsements of Women Leaders

State Senate leader David A. Roberti, seeking to defuse his anti-abortion image as he battles an abortion rights advocate in a June 2 runoff, collected endorsements Tuesday from a battery of women political leaders who praised his support for a broad range of programs benefiting women and children.

Roberti picked up the endorsements amid an increasingly vitriolic campaign against Republican Carol Rowen, a Tarzana abortion rights activist. The two are competing in a special election to replace Alan Robbins in the San Fernando Valley’s 20th Senate District.

Roberti, a Roman Catholic who opposes legalized abortion for personal reasons, has long been a target of abortion rights groups. Rowen has attacked him repeatedly on the issue, at one point noting a 1986 speech that he made comparing Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan.

In an interview Tuesday, Rowen, who has made abortion a cornerstone of her campaign, angrily denounced the women endorsing Roberti, saying they were betraying other women on an issue of critical importance to their gender.

“Everyone has a price. If those women are willing to ignore the right to choose and would sell that--something that every one of them feels so strongly about--then I find nothing they say credible,” she said.

Rowen’s comment came after Roberti held a news conference at which more than a dozen prominent women--including state Treasurer Kathleen Brown, Secretary of State March Fong Eu and L.A. school board member Roberta Weintraub--endorsed him, saying his strong support for legislation favoring women and children more than offsets his abortion stance.

“Everyone here is pro-choice,” said state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), nodding at other women leaders. “But David’s record on other issues is such that they overwhelm this whole pro-life thing.”

Other women speakers noted Roberti’s sponsorship of legislation establishing after-school programs for “latchkey” children and requiring doctors to advise breast cancer patients of alternatives to radical mastectomy.

The women supporters said that although Roberti has been a powerful foe of abortion-related legislation in the past, he has largely dropped his opposition in recent years.

“Although he is not pro-choice, he has in the past few years either taken a walk on the issue, or has supported us or has appointed pro-choice people to committee posts,” said Marilyn Kizziah, a representative of Women For, which lobbies for liberal causes including women’s rights.

“We feel we can trust him. . . . He has just backed off that issue,” she said.

Kizziah said Roberti even went so far recently as to shepherd a bill through the Senate that makes it a misdemeanor to prevent someone from entering an abortion clinic.

Roberti acknowledged that the endorsements were in part an attempt to take the bite out Rowen’s criticisms of him on abortion.

But Roberti charged that Rowen is running a “single-issue campaign” and is beginning to alienate voters who are concerned with other issues such as creating jobs, which he has highlighted in his campaign.

Rowen said that abortion is such an important issue that women politicians should be willing to defy Roberti.