Abortion Foes March, Protest Roe Decision

Thousands of abortion opponents marched on the Supreme Court building amid bitter cold and high emotion Friday to mark the 21st anniversary of the decision affirming a constitutional right to abortion.

“We are not fair-weather friends of our unborn brothers and sisters,” Nellie Gray, president of the March for Life, said at a pre-march rally on the ice-covered Ellipse, south of the White House grounds.

The National Park Service estimated the crowd at 35,000. March organizers had hoped for 50,000. Temperatures were in the teens as the march from the Ellipse to the Supreme Court got under way.

Police officers lined the steps of the ornate court building, but the marchers stopped at barricades, chanted for a few minutes, then dispersed without incident.

The rally and march came one day before the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision, which said a woman had a constitutional right to end a pregnancy through abortion.

President Clinton was the target of many of the speakers and marchers, with much of the criticism directed at the Administration’s health care proposal.

“Clearly the Clinton plan would vastly expand abortion on demand, and it would require everyone to pay for it,” said Douglas Johnson, legislative director of the National Right to Life Committee.

Other attacks were more personal.

“Bill Clinton, the abortion President, is a deceiver,” said Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-N.J.). “He is a fast-talking, silver-tongued master of doublespeak.”

He called Clinton and his wife, Hillary, “the President and First Lady of abortion”

Clinton’s health care plan does not specifically mention abortion, but the President has said abortion would be included in the basic benefits that all Americans would be guaranteed. Doctors and hospitals could refuse to perform abortions on grounds of conscience.

Supporters of legal abortion say the procedure and contraceptives must be included in any health care plan to help reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies.

“The bottom line is that we are resolved not to be held up by a minority of zealots,” said Pamela Maraldo, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which supports the right to abortion. “I think that the women of America are resolved that we are entitled to comprehensive health care, including reproductive care.”

At the rally, Tom Forr, an attorney from Altoona, Pa., and a veteran of 15 abortion anniversary marches, said Clinton’s health plan has given abortion opponents a new sense of urgency.

“We don’t want Clinton to ram this thing down our throats,” he said while listening to speakers.

Nearby, a Vermont teen-ager said the story of his own life helped him believe that abortion is wrong.

“I came because I was adopted at 2 1/2 months old,” said Jay Swank, 16, of Johnson, Vt. “My mom was very young. My mom had a choice. She could abort me or she could give me up for adoption. She gave me up for adoption. She gave me a chance.”

Cheryl Dykstra of Chicago said she was moved to attend the march after one of her two adopted children made a poster for school that said: “I’m glad I was adopted and not aborted.”

Standing on a steam grate, shifting from foot to foot to try to stay warm, Dykstra said she was marching “to support people in prayer and hope that the government has a change of heart.”