AREA ANTI-ABORTIONISTS TO ATTEND NATIONAL RALLY

Missouri Right to Life chapters from the Southeast Missouri will send delegates to the "March for Life" rally Jan. 23 in Washington.

Members of the group will leave Jan. 22 from the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau to attend the annual anti-abortion rally.

Members of the group will leave Jan. 22 from the Holiday Inn in Cape Girardeau and return Jan. 24.

They will attend the rally and talk to Missouri's congressional delegate and return Jan. 24.

"We just thank them for their support and encourage them to continue to vote for bills that are pro-life," said Joyce Brown, a Missouri Right to Life member.

The purpose of rally is to keep legislators alert, said Margie Eftink, another member of Missouri Right to Life. The rally has always been a peaceful demonstration.

Members of the organization don't agree with shooting abortion doctors, regional chairwoman Connie Drury said.

"It's not the way to solve the problem," she said. "That needs to be done through legislation and education, especially education of young people."

Since the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortions, more than 30 million have been performed.

And with the shooting of Planned Parenthood clinic workers in Massachusetts, security measures have increased at the St. Louis clinics.

"We are looking at procedures since the violence has escalated," said Stacy Guadagano, Planned Parenthood community affairs associate for the St. Louis region.

"I think it's just a matter of watching out for each other and ourselves," she said. "We are trying to keep it as safe as we can. It's not a guarded state, yet."

Planned Parenthood operates clinics across the state, with sites in St. Louis, Rolla, Columbia, Kansas City and Kirksville. Guadagano said the clinics will continue to provide information to the public.

Even though the shootings have brought negative attention to the abortion issue, members of the Right to Life chapters are not discouraged.

"We are not a violent movement," said Eftink, who has been involved with the anti-abortion movement for about 20 years. "It hurts to know you can't do anything to stop it when a few steps away they are killing babies."

"Every movement in history has wound up with violence," she said. "I don't condone it, but I can see how it came about."

And with increasing violence at women's clinics across the nation, the abortion controversy has once again escalated.

Louis Veneziano, psychology professor at Southeast Missouri State University, said the killings are just rare events that attract a lot of publicity.

He said it is often hard for the killer to differentiate between the importance of life of the doctor and the fetus.

"They can compartmentalize so easily that they don't see the contradiction," Veneziano said.

For more information about the "March for Life" rally, call Brown at (314) 547-8515.