Thousands of anti-abortion protesters stormed the nation's capital yesterday -- the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling -- to urge the federal government to turn back the controversial decision.
Encouraged by a possible retirement in the Court and the Republican Party's new hold on the White House and Congress, an estimated 50,000 activists, some wearing crosses and waving posters of aborted fetuses and slogans reading "abortionists kill more than terrorists," attended this year's annual March for Life demonstration.
The event began with the presentation of 30 baby-sized white coffins representing the one million-plus abortions performed each year since 1973.
A phone call from President George W. Bush elevated the abortion opponents' hopes further as biting winds swept through the lunchtime crowds.
"[Americans] must protect the lives of innocent children waiting to be born," Bush said in the call. He also expressed his support for a ban on the practice of late-term abortion, dubbed "partial-birth abortion" by its foes.
Such a move ranks high on the current GOP agenda. Former President Bill Clinton vetoed similar legislation passed by Congress in 1996 and 1997.
Supporters of abortion rights, including a large counter-protest group led by the Planned Parenthood Foundation of America, also spent yesterday rallying in Washington. On Tuesday, six Democratic presidential contenders stressed the importance of maintaining reproductive freedoms at a forum held by NARAL Pro-Choice America.
NARAL representative Lisa Horowitz argued that the main problem facing abortion-rights supporters today is ignorance about Roe's tenuous state, not the size of its opposition.
"The problem for us is that while the majority of Americans support reproductive freedoms, they do not understand how that right has been eroded -- they do not understand the threats we currently face," Horowitz said. "It's not part of the American way to take away fundamental rights."
Dartmouth students on both sides of the abortion issue held demonstrations last night to mark the ruling's anniversary. About 20 students attended the Coalition for Life at Dartmouth's somber candlelight vigil on the Green, while a more sizeable and vocal group of abortion supporters spoke by the Collis Center porch.
"Our goal in holding the vigil was to mark this sad day in American history with a reflection on the repercussions of those decisions over the last 30 years. We also wanted to raise awareness about the abortion issue on campus and show that there is a pro-life presence here," said Coaltion for Life secretary Sam Kepler '06.
From statistics alone, it appears that only a tiny fraction of the College's population has firsthand experience with Roe's effects.
Dick's House rarely receives requests for abortion counseling, said women's health department manager Elizabeth Hirsh. "It's been like two [instances] in the fall -- that's it."
While the College's health service provides counseling about medical and surgical abortions, Dick's House staff does not perform such procedures. Rather, women seeking abortions nearby must go to Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center or the Planned Parenthood of Lebanon.
"We do provide care for women in the case of bleeding or problems with pregnancy or if they are choosing to have a medical abortion and they don't wish to be in their dorms," Hirsh added.
Across the United States, abortions are becoming less common. 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 nonprofit Alan Guttmacher Institute.
The Guttmacher Institute also found that 87 percent of U.S. counties do not have a single abortion provider, and that the number of U.S. abortion providers too has dropped, to its lowest level in 30 years. Many physicians attribute this trend to such factors as a hostile political environment and mergers between secular and religious hospitals.
