Demonstrators mark abortion decision

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 v. 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 anti-abortion 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 abortion rights protesters chanted, "We won't go back," drowning out testimonials at the other vigil from women who regretted having had abortions and now supported the anti-abortion movement.

Reason to cheer

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

"President Bush is just itching to put forward anti-choice legislation," said Polly Stamatopoulos, 32, of Washington, D.C., 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," Stamatopoulos said.

Earlier, 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 abortion 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 nonprofit corporation.

As is traditional, Bush broadcast a message to the anti-abortion 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.

Bush and the new Republican-controlled Congress have fueled the debate with promises to curb access to some abortions. First on their agenda is a ban on late-term abortions. Congress passed such a ban in 1996 and 1997, but former President Clinton vetoed it each time. Bush has said he would sign it into law.

The prospect of a resignation on the Supreme Court also has raised stakes because it would allow Bush to appoint a justice who opposes abortion rights. The court now favors abortion rights by a 5-4 majority.

The debate rages in legislatures across the nation, as states fight over measures that would protect or erode abortion rights. In Utah, for example, a state lawmaker marked the 30th anniversary of the Roe decision by introducing a bill to define at what stage of a pregnancy an abortion becomes "infanticide."

Shivering against a wind that made the temperature feel like it had dropped into the teens, protesters highlighted powerful images.

The lunchtime March for Life was dominated by billboard-sized color photographs of aborted fetuses, and hundreds of crosses symbolizing their deaths. Tens of thousands attended the event.

As onlookers gawked at the pictures -- and some expressed revulsion -- the man who posted them said he felt that images were the best way to spread the anti-abortion message.

"For people to understand the horror of what abortion is, they have to see it," said C. Fletcher Armstrong of the Center for Bioethical Reform. "It's just like people have to go to the Holocaust Museum here to see what the Holocaust was all about."