The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 23, 1990 - Page 5
Crowd of over 200 celebrates
Roe v. Wade decision at rally
by Diane Cook
Daily Women's Issues Reporter
About 200 reproductive rights
supporters gathered on the Diag at noon
yesterday to celebrate the 17th anniversary
of the Roe v. Wade decision.
The crowd, which trickled down with
the change of classes, was addressed by
speakers from various groups who focused
on the legal, ethical and social aspects of
abortion.
Organizers said the rally was intended to
act as a unifying force for people who want
to keep abortion legal.
Organizations participating in the rally
included the Ann Arbor Committee to
Defend Abortion and Reproductive Rights
(AACDARR), the Latin American
Solidarity Committee, the Palestinian,
Solidarity Committee, the Pro-Choice
Coalition, Students for Social Change, and
Lesbian and Gay Rights Organizing
Committee.
"We wanted to let people know that
there are organizations on campus and we
do need to mobilize," said Athena Lee,
AACDARR member and LSA senior.
'We wanted to let people
know that there are
organizations on campus
and we do need to
mobilize.
-- Athena Lee
AACDARR member and LSA
senior-
The event marked the fifth activity
AACDARR has sponsored this week in an
attempt to counter-demonstrate the anti-
abortion activists' events, members said.
Last Friday AACDARR members
picketed the Operation Rescue/Pro-Life
Coalition dinner at the Marriott Hotel,
provided patient escorts at women's health
care clinics on Saturday, and appeared at the
Right-To-Life rally in Detroit on Sunday.
The rally was opened the "Guerilla
Theater" which performed an act depicting
differing views about the abortion issue.
The event marked the fifth
activity AACDARR has
sponsored this week in an
attempt to counter-
demonstrate the anti-
abortion activists' events,
members said.
Ann Arbor Committee to Defend Abortion and Reproductive Rights
member Athena Lee addresses the crowd in the diag at the rally
yesterday at noon.
AACDAR members demonstrated at
the Right-To-Life candlelight march last
night to close the Roe v. Wade anniversary
events.
President Bush declares his support of anti-abortion groups
WASHINGTON (AP) - Presi-
dent Bush assured tens of thousands
of anti-abortion demonstrators yes-
terday that "this president stands
-with you," as both foes and support-
ers of legalized abortion marked the
17th anniversary of the landmark
Roe v. Wade Supreme Court deci-
sion.
Bush, declaring his own "deep
,conviction" against the court ruling
that legalized abortions, spoke for
just 90 seconds by telephone hookup
VTIGIL
'Continued from page 5
didn't have to come out and support
their right," said Annette Brown, a
University graduate student in eco-
nomics.
Members of the Ann Arbor
Committee to Defend Abortion and
Reproductive Rights prevented anti-
abortion supporters from speaking
on the steps of the Michigan Union
-ast night by occupying the space.
AACDARR member Rhonda Laur, a
University graduate, said this was
the second consecutive year AAC-
DARR members had done so.
She said since the group formed
just over a year ago, it has operated
16 "clinic defense" projects to escort
women seeking services, and pick-
eted numerous "fake clinics" operated
by pro-life members.
Officers in three police cars fol-
flowed the crowd, periodically direct-
ing people out of the street and onto
the sidewalk.
- - - I p I I im I
to a midday crowd of marchers who
gathered at the Ellipse across from
the White House.
"Before you begin the march, I
want to take a minute to share my
deep personal concern about abortion
on demand, which I oppose," Bush
told demonstrators, saying the anti-
abortion movement reminds Ameri-
cans "of the self-evident moral supe-
riority of abortion over abortion."
"Let me assure that this president
stands with you on this issue of
life," he said.
Advocates of legal abortion,
meanwhile, celebrated the anniver-
sary of the 1973 Supreme Court de-
cision at a luncheon fund-raiser and
in an earlier ceremony on the Mall
remembering women who died as a
result of illegal abortions.
"The public is on our side," said
Sen. Robert Packwood (R-Ore.), a
supporter of legal abortions. "It will
be a cutting edge issue in this year's
elections."
The anti-abortion demonstrators
march up Pennsylvania Avenue to
the U.S. Capitol and Supreme Court
after hearing Bush, some members
of Congress and other speakers. The
U.S. Park Police estimated the
crowd at 75,000; the annual march
drew an estimated 67,000 people last
year.
Similar anti-abortion rallies and
pro-choice demonstrations were held
around the country yesterday.
"What we're going to do is show
to America that pro-life America is
here, awake, that we will not have
the women's libbers' death marches
in our country," said Nellie Gray,
president of the March for Life.
Even as Bush spoke, the Planned
Parenthood Federation was urging
Americans to call the White House
to register their support for legal
abortions. A group calling itself Re-
publicans for Choice held a small
rally outside the Republican Na-
tional Committee headquarters.
Leaders of the National Right to
Life Committee, a leading anti-abor-
tion group, praised Bush for remain-
ing firmly opposed to abortion and
said they had no differences with Re-
publican National Chair Lee Atwa-
ter, who has said the party is open tb
candidates on both sides of the abot-
tion debate.
"Romanians know firsthand what
most Americans can only imagine
- the deadly impact of government
bans on abortion," Michelman said.
Slovenians protest proposed
Communist political reform
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP)
- The liberal republic of Slovenia
walked out of a Communist Party
congress yesterday, declaring the
proposed reform plan did not go far
enough. Some delegates predicted the
party was doomed.
Earlier yesterday, delegates voted
to give up the Communists' 45-
year-old guarantee of power. Liberals
from Slovenia and elsewhere said
they would set their own ideological
course, which could lead to a split in
the ranks.
Slovenian delegates left the hall
as delegates prepared to vote on the
reform document after three days of
debate that emphasized deep divi-
sions.
Croatian party chief Ivica Racan
demanded the congress suspend its
work. Otherwise, he said, Croatia's
delegation would refuse to vote on
the reform document and other con-
ference papers.
President Slobodan Milosevic of
Serbia, largest of Yugoslavia's six
republics, said suspending work
would cause the party to "practically
disbanded and decapitated."
The congress took a 30-minute
recess after Milosevic finished a
speech in which he warned of "grave
consequences for the Communist
Party and the future of the country."
He urged the remaining delegates
to adopt the reform document and
choose a new leadership.
Milan Kucan, a leading Slove-
nian Communist, told journalists
the breakup of the Communist Party
"is the only possible consequences
of this action."
Slovenian party spokesperson
Peter Bekes said his party would
have a regional party conference Feb.
2 and establish an "independent party
on the basis of democratic social-
ism."
Ciril Ribicic, leader of the
Slovenian party, said before the
walkout the congress failed to accept
any of his delegation's ideas and "we-
are not going to take part in the
agony of the Communist Party in
Yugoslavia.
"The document on which we
pinned by far the highest hopes
turned out to be far below expecta-
tions and lagging behind reforms of-
fered by reform-minded leftist parties
in socialist (East European) coun-
tries."
"..NOW MORE BREATHTAKING THAN EVER ...
A STIRRING AND SPECTACULARLY
BEAUTIFUL EPIC."
-Janet Maslin, The New York Times
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NEWLY RESTORED DIRECTOR'S
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