c. 1998 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ Partisans on both sides of the explosive abortion issue took their case to an increasingly ambivalent American public Thursday (Jan. 22) as the nation marked the 25th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing most abortions.

In perhaps the nation’s most visible expression of the anti-abortion movement, thousands of abortion foes gathered at the Ellipse behind the White House to listen to remarks by prominent abortion opponents and members of Congress before the annual March for Life to the Supreme Court.

Although the weather was particularly dreary _ overcast skies and chilly temperatures edging toward 40 degrees _ the mood of the throng, comprised largely of youths and seniors, was generally upbeat.”It’s always a hopeful year every time we march,”said Dr. Lolly Sorra, a diminutive pediatrician from Lutherville, Md., who sported a home-made”Physician for Life”sign around her neck.”We’re hopeful for change. And I personally want to be faithful to my Hippocratic oath … to preserve life from birth to the grave.” Nellie Gray, the 73-year-old president of March for Life who since 1974 has hosted the pre-march rally, urged the cheering crowd to”stay the course,”while stressing her organization remains undaunted in its commitment to eradicate abortion.

But Gray and the anti-abortion movement face formidable opposition, including President Bill Clinton, who supports abortion rights and has twice vetoed bills passed by Congress that would ban a late-term abortion procedure called”partial-birth”abortion by its opponents. “I’m committed to keeping abortion safe, legal and accessible, and to making it rare,”Clinton said via videotape to a group of abortion rights activists and Hollywood celebrities gathered Tuesday (Jan. 20) for breakfast on Capitol Hill before a congressional lobbying effort.

But Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, who attended Thursday’s March for Life rally with a number of others in Congress sympathetic to the anti-abortion cause, called on the president to sign the”partial-birth”abortion ban that he predicted would soon cross the president’s desk for a third time.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., told the crowd that for the first time since the Roe decision, momentum has shifted in their direction.”Like the Titanic, the pro-abortion movement is going down,”Smith told the largely Roman Catholic and predominately white crowd, many of whom toted neon orange anti-abortion placards, church banners, red balloons and plastic red roses, the March for Life symbol.

Smith’s rhetoric may have some bite. According to an analysis of eight USA Today/CNN/Gallup Polls taken since 1994, public opinion for the first time since Roe has made a”significant”move away from allowing unrestricted access to abortion, partly due to the late-term abortion debate. And a recent Associated Press poll found that just 47 percent of Americans support the High Court’s landmark abortion ruling, while 43 percent said they opposed it.

In other events marking the 25th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the Planned Parenthood Pro-Choice Religious Network and the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) teamed up to sponsor what they billed as”A Week of Faith in Choice,”a series of events in support of abortion rights running Jan. 16-25. Organizers said they expect clergy and congregations nationwide to participate”in observances that will focus on family planning and a woman’s right to choose abortion.” At a Washington teleconference Jan. 13 announcing the effort, the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale, president of RCRC, defended her group’s abortion rights stance as one based on religious values.”I can’t stress enough that we, these national religious organizations, denominations and faith groups, are pro-choice, not in spite of our faith but because of it,”she said.”We’re pro-choice because we know that the Bible says absolutely nothing about abortion. Nothing. … We can’t deny women the health care they need.” Meanwhile, at a Senate subcommittee hearing on abortion Wednesday, Norma McCorvey, who was Jane Roe in the High Court case, told lawmakers of her stunning reversal on the abortion issue.”I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name,”said McCorvey, who also attended the March for Life rally and apologized to the crowd for her part in the case. “It is my sincere prayer that there be no 30th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade,”she told the Senators.”I would like nothing more than to have this law overturned, either by an act of Congress or a reversal in the Supreme Court.” Pope John Paul II, on the second of a historic five-day visit to Cuba, earlier said in a statement sent by the Vatican to Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston, chairman of the U.S. Bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities, that the 25th anniversary of legalized abortion presented”a call to people of good will to reflect seriously on the devastating consequences”of the High Court’s decision.”As the experience of the past 25 years has shown, legalized abortion has been a destructive force in the lives of many individuals, especially women who are often left alone to bear the deep sorrow and regret which follow the decision to destroy the life of an unborn child,”the pope said.

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At a ceremony Tuesday (Jan. 21) at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception here, three Roman Catholic anti-abortion activists were honored for their efforts in the movement.

March for Life’s Gray of Washington; the Rev. Edward Bryce of Pittsburgh, former executive director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops; and Sally Reynolds of Detroit, who initiated the annual prayer vigil against abortion held at the basilica each Jan. 21, received the pontiff’s apostolic, administered by Law. All but Reynolds were present for the ceremony.

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In a statement, the nation’s U.S. Roman Catholic bishops used the milestone anniversary to liken abortion to the atrocities of slavery.”Our nation stands in judgment now, as it did more than a century ago: Are we to be a nation that honors its commitments to the right to life, or not? And if not, then just what does our nation stand for?””As we strive to assure peace and justice, too often it is forgotten that the common good can only be served when the right to life, the right on which all other inalienable rights of the individual rest and from which they develop, is acknowledged and defended,”the bishops said.

But at a news conference in Washington Jan. 13, Kate Michelman, head of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, expressed another view of the impact legalized abortion has had on the nation.”Roe vs. Wade is a symbol of freedom for women in America,”said Michelman.”It was a necessary step in women’s progress toward full and equal participation in American life. … It is the essence of freedom for women. Roe realized that without reproductive freedom, we couldn’t have any other freedom.” But for many of the grassroots abortion foes assembled on the Ellipse, 25 years of Roe vs. Wade represents what they call”crimes against humanity,”requiring a response, even if only taking a public stand against it.

Tom Angell, a 41-year-old lawyer from Clinton Corners, N.Y., said he made the more than 6-hour bus ride to the frigid nation’s capital with his wife and their eight children, ages 14 to 6 months, because the family needed to express their anti-abortion sentiments concretely.”We have to do something to end abortion,”he said.”And if people can go to jail (for protesting abortion), the least we could do as a family was come to Washington.”

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