Groups to Gather for Abortion Rights Rally

For years, the leaders of the abortion rights movement believed their success was secure. Limits on abortion rights were handily turned back in Congress. Roe vs. Wade took its place as part of the national culture, and public opinion on maintaining a legal right to abortion was holding at a favorable majority.

But, as abortion opponents have built momentum in recent years -- including nearly 400 laws passed by state legislatures adding requirements for women who want abortions and for abortion providers -- its proponents have decided it is time to draw new attention to the issue.

On Sunday, the abortion rights lobby will hold its first Washington rally in 12 years, an attempt to rouse a campaign that has seen its foes chalk up victories at state and federal levels.

For the first time since the high court’s landmark ruling in 1973, the White House and both chambers of Congress are occupied by leaders who favor outlawing abortion.

Kate Michelman, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, noted the change since the Clinton administration. “We elected a pro-choice president [in 1992], and many pro-choice Americans relaxed for eight years,” said Michelman. “This is a wake-up call.”

The “March for Women’s Lives” is the fourth of its kind in Washington in the 30 years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe vs. Wade that guaranteed a woman’s right to abortion. Organizers, who include seven of the nation’s most prominent abortion rights and civil rights groups, say they hope to match and even top the attendance at the last major abortion rights rally, which according to police drew at least 500,000 people to the capital in 1992.

The demonstration comes amid a campaign pitting President Bush, a committed opponent of abortion, against his presumptive Democratic challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), an equally committed friend of the abortion rights movement.

The demonstration also comes as abortion opponents, as part of their political gains, have adopted new legislative strategies that include persuading some states to adopt parental consent requirements for minors, waiting periods and insurance coverage restrictions, among other regulations.

“The pro-abortion forces have felt somewhat arrogant that Roe vs. Wade had become established policy and they didn’t need to work on that anymore,” said Janice Crouch, senior fellow at the Beverly LaHaye Institute in Washington, a conservative think tank. “I think they are seriously out of touch with where young people in general are today.”

The altered political landscape was in part the result of hard work by conservatives organizing at colleges. A UCLA poll last fall found 55% of freshman at more than 400 campuses believe abortion should remain legal, down from 64% a decade ago.

In addition, college-age women who favor abortion rights, and who grew up with Roe vs. Wade on the books, have seen little reason to become activists. Their antiabortion counterparts, however, have been motivated to forge change.

“We did not keep pace,” Michelman said. “Never since Roe vs. Wade have we faced such a hostile political environment.”

Last fall, Bush signed a law prohibiting a medical procedure opponents call “partial-birth abortion.” This month, Bush signed legislation making it a crime to harm a fetus in the commission of a federal offense, a measure abortion rights supporters said could build a precedent that the fetus has “personhood.”

In Congress, abortion rights activists have lost all but 31 of 145 votes on the issue since 1995. And the Supreme Court remains narrowly divided on the wisdom of its historic ruling.

“We don’t have the same level of protection we had in 1973. It has been whittled away by the court and the legislatures,” Michelman said. “Many people still do not realize their right to privacy and a woman’s right to choose are threatened.”

Michelman and Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, resisted calling for a march in the past, fearing any event would pale in comparison to the 1992 rally.

Seven major groups joined forces to organize this weekend’s march: the National Organization for Women, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Feminist Majority, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Black Women’s Health Imperative and the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.

A storefront center was set up in downtown Washington last year to coordinate the event, which has about 1,400 co-sponsoring groups. Demonstrators are scheduled to arrive by plane, car and 1,600 chartered buses.

Antiabortion groups have said they plan to line Sunday’s march route with placard-carrying protesters.

Unlike past rallies where abortion was the sole issue, Sunday’s march promises to address a full platform of women’s reproductive and social issues. New government policies aimed at restricting abortion have also curtailed funding for family planning clinics and access to reproductive healthcare here and overseas, organizers said.

“This is not just about abortion. It’s about sexually transmitted diseases and birth control, prenatal care, women’s healthcare,” said Helen Grieco, executive director of NOW in California. “We want to make sure reproductive services are funded and protected, safe and legal throughout women’s lives.”

Groups ranging from the Sierra Club to faith-based organizations and the NAACP have endorsed the march, but recruitment has focused on the young men and women of the post-Roe vs. Wade generation. The founders of the women’s movement are aging and looking to pass the torch to the next generation. After the march, Michelman plans to step down as NARAL’s president, a post she has held for 18 years.

Students at hundreds of high school and college campuses were recruited by organizers, who expected young people to make up about one-third of the participants.

“This is the teens’ and the 20-somethings’ movement. They are the ones who are going to get pregnant and make those choices,” said Grieco, noting that the California NOW chapter recently elected its first president who is under 30. “We’ve done the best we can to hold down the fort, now it’s the next generation’s chance to step up. And they are doing that, by the thousands.”