Fight over Roe vs. Wade ready to heat up again

By LAURIE KELLMAN, AP NorthJersey.com from the Web, January 23, 2003

WASHINGTON - Opponents and supporters of abortion rights rallied at the nation's symbols of freedom Wednesday, energized on both sides by Republican hopes of curbing the procedure 30 years after the Supreme Court legalized it.

Dueling protests are a ritual in the nation's capital on the anniversary of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision. But both sides said there was greater urgency this year with the GOP now controlling Congress and the White House.

Abortion opponents see their best chance in years to erode, if not overturn, Roe.

"It just seems like it's more optimistic this year after the November elections," said Dennis Voglesong, 50, of Hagerstown, Md., who has attended the antiabortion March for Life for five years. He and others bundled against the bitter cold said they see a surge against abortion rights among a new generation.

"Every year it seems the youth gets to be a larger part of the movement," he said.

Both sides held competing candlelight vigils in front of the Supreme Court.

Several hundred pro-choice advocates chanted, "We won't go back," drowning out testimonials at the other vigil from women who regretted having had abortions and now support the antiabortion movement.

Abortion rights advocates acknowledged that their opponents have reason to cheer this year.

"President Bush is just itching to put forward anti-choice legislation," Polly Stamatopoulos, 32, of Washington said outside the Supreme Court. She and about 20 other abortion rights advocates found themselves outnumbered by roughly 50 women carrying signs that said, "I regret my abortion."

"They're pumped. It's almost like a football game pep rally," she said.

Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women, said, "We will not be the generation that both won and lost reproductive rights in our lifetime."

The flash point comes as abortions become less common in the United States - particularly among teenagers - in part because of better contraception. The overall rate fell from 1994 to 2000, from 24 abortions for every 1,000 women of childbearing age to 21, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, which was begun by Planned Parenthood but now is an independent non-profit corporation.

As is traditional, Bush broadcast a message to the antiabortion rights rally, saying Americans "must protect the lives of innocent children waiting to be born."

Bush, who was in St. Louis to give a speech on his tax cut plan, noted that the gathering on the National Mall was near the memorial to Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence.

"The March for Life upholds the self-evident truth of that declaration - that all are created equal, and given the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," he said.

Three GOP congressmen from New Jersey - the most from any state - appeared at the antiabortion rally. They were freshman Rep. Scott Garrett of Wantage; Rep. Christopher H. Smith of Robbinsville, co-chairman of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus; and Michael Ferguson of Warren, who is in his second term.