Coalition attacks Republicans on abortion

[UPI / MICHAEL KIRKLAND]

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- As Republican presidential candidate Bob
Dole tries to put the abortion issue behind him, an abortion-rights
coalition pledged Wednesday to keep it front and center during the
political campaigns.
The coalition of more than 40 abortion-rights groups said it is
beginning a $2 million national drive to expose what one leader called
the ``relentless attack'' on abortion by the Republican-dominated
Congress.
Dole, the likely GOP presidential nominee, has acquiesced to
preconvention efforts to remove tolerance of varying views on abortion
from party platform language.
The fight over the removal of platform language that Dole had
strongly advocated threatened to overshadow his promise earlier this
week of across-the-board tax cuts.
Meanwhile, President Clinton said Wednesday he sees the possibility
of a Dole victory as clearly threatening abortion rights.
Asked as he was leaving the White House on a West Coast trip whether
abortion are rights in grave danger, Clinton replied, ``They're only
under grave danger if the election results in a change of the occupant
of the White House...We believe this is a matter that should be left to
private conscience.''
Blocks away at a news conference in the National Press Club,
abortion-rights leaders assailed the Republican majorities in Congress.
``Since 1994 (when the GOP gained majorities in the House and
Senate), Congress has unleashed the most unprecedented, relentless
attack on our reproductive freedom in history,'' said Kate Michelman,
president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action
League.
Michelman cited coalition polling that she said showed most voters do
not know their representatives' positions on abortion.
``...Only 16 percent -- 16 percent! -- of Americans know that their
Congress member's position on abortion is a bad one,'' Michelman said.
``They don't know that the 104th Congress has cast 50 votes so far on
reproductive choice, and we've lost all but four.''
Gloria Steinem, writer and consulting editor for Ms. Magazine, said a
classic example of the misunderstanding is Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-
Texas, whom she said the major media describe as being for abortion
rights.
``She's voted anti-choice 80 percent of the time,'' Steinem said.
NARAL's Michelman said the congressional anti-abortion activity
included trying to eliminate federal family planning programs,
prohibiting U.S. servicewomen and military dependents overseas from
having abortions at military hospitals, blocking federal employees from
choosing abortion coverage in their health plans, erecting obstacles to
abortion training for OB/GYN residents, trying to ban speech about
abortion on the Internet and trying to ban late-term abortions ``used in
medical emergencies to protect the woman's health, including her future
fertility.''
Steinam, Michelman and other abortion-rights advocates called the
press conference to announce the campaign.
The campaign includes a television commercial, beginning Wednesday in
seven major markets, attacking Congress on abortion, and a grass-roots
effort to reorganize abortion-rights groups across the country.
Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation and
former president of the National Organization for Women, said coalition
members would be in San Diego for the Republican convention next week
and in Chicago for the Democratic convention later this month.
Smeal said the coalition would not be involved in protests, but would
work to stop ``'anti'(abortion) extremists (who) have threatened to
close down clinics in San Diego.''
Michelman referred to the GOP platform fight.
``In San Diego, the smoke and mirrors campaign on tolerance is over,
the threat posed by the intolerant Republican Party platform is stark
and strong,'' she said. ``The platform's support for a constitutional
amendment to criminalize abortion will jeopardize the lives and health
of every American woman.''
Though their campaign has a strong partisan flavor, coalition
organizers insist they are not breaking any federal election laws.
The Christian Coalition, which is vehemently against abortion, is
being sued by the Federal Election Commission for allegedly coordinating
its efforts with recent Republican campaign organizations.
Abortion-rights organizers said their campaign, called the Pro-Choice
Public Education Project, will not use voter guides on candidates, which
they said was the main reason the Christian Coalition is being sued by
the FEC.
Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America,
spoke at Wednesday's news conference from Phoenix via closed circuit TV.
She said Congress not only attacked abortion last year, but posed a
``threat to family planning and responsible sex education. I believe
this threat is really the iceberg underlying the tip of the debate about
reproductive choice.''
Feldt said she was ``on my way to San Diego,'' and praised the
sophistication of the abortion rights group's effort.
``Whoever defines the issue wins the debate,'' Feldt said.