Abortion Foes Mark Court Ruling

Hundreds of abortion opponents gathered in Mission Hills on Saturday to mark the 28th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe vs. Wade.

Sponsored by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles but including an ecumenical array of grass-roots organizations, the sixth annual “Commitment to Life Conference” tackled other themes activists view as contrary to what they call “a culture of life,” including euthanasia, bioengineering and cloning.

In his opening remarks, however, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony saved his strongest words for the Jan. 22, 1973, decision that legalized abortion.

The case of Roe vs. Wade, he said, “profoundly changed our society, and weakened the attitude toward the sanctity of life for a full generation.”

Mahony praised the participants--many of them antiabortion counselors, parish antiabortion group leaders and seminarians--for their continued commitment.

“I salute you for your dedication . . . to a cause that will eventually reverse the culture of death,” he said.

Event veterans said this year’s meeting at Alemany High School was made especially festive by the simultaneous ascendance of George W. Bush to the presidency.

“Oh, it’s very hopeful,” said Joan Noyes, 49, of Sunland, who counsels families on natural family planning techniques. “I think it’s a result of prayer that he prevailed in the election.”

But Joseph Shephard, a first-year seminary student, noted that for Roman Catholics, Bush’s presidency could be a mixed blessing.

“He agrees with us on abortion,” he said. “But his death penalty record in Texas speaks for itself.”

In an interview before the conference, Mahony spoke of his belief that changing “hearts and minds” was more important than focusing on politics. But he was interrupted by a participant who happily shouted: “I have an announcement: Bill Clinton is no longer the president of the United States.” The room burst into applause.

Mike Spence, vice president of the California ProLife Council, said that although overturning Roe is a longshot, he hoped the new administration will reverse Clinton-era executive orders, such as those that loosened restrictions on fetal tissue research and allowed for abortion counseling at federally funded family planning clinics.

“It’s been a battle for us for years, having to deal with a president who’s had the most extreme abortion views of any president in history,” Spence said.

After opening remarks from Mahony and Bernard Nathanson--a former abortion doctor who has become an outspoken antiabortion crusader, the crowd attended seminars that covered topics from the RU-486 “abortion pill” to state legislative matters.

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Clarke Forsythe, president of Americans United for Life, told one packed classroom that activists’ most practical bet in coming years is to push for a “federalism amendment,” giving states the power to decide the abortion question.

Participants like Louisa Millington, coordinator for Women’s Resource Network California, said the meeting was a chance to challenge stereotypes of antiabortion activists as uncaring and sometimes violent. Her group’s booth featured a video of its TV ad, which lists abortion providers killed by abortion foes. It concludes by saying, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of life--especially at abortion clinics.”

Others made it clear that a battle is on--if only in the spiritual and rhetorical sense.

“It is only the pro-life side that prays,” Mahony said. “What does a prayer sound like on the lips of a pro-abortion person?

“The other side does not pray,” he said, “and so ultimately will lose.”