On 31st anniversary, Roe v. Wade still riles

WASHINGTON — Abortion foes, buoyed by enactment of a law banning what they call "partial birth" abortions, are looking for new legislative victories as the nation marks the 31st anniversary Thursday of the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade.

Meanwhile, abortion-rights supporters are focusing on overturning the new ban, fighting President Bush's re-election effort and expanding access to emergency contraceptives.

They also are worried that the Supreme Court is just one or two votes away from dismantling Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that legalized abortion.

"The appointment of just one anti-choice Supreme Court justice, perhaps two, would be enough to overturn Roe v. Wade or gut its protections," said Kate Michelman, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.

Douglas Johnson, director of legislation for the National Right to Life Committee, disagrees.

"I wish that that were so, but it is demonstrably not so," Johnson said, adding that six of the Supreme Court's nine members support Roe v. Wade.

Since Bush signed the "partial-birth" abortion bill into law in November, abortion opponents have focused on a new legislative priority: a bill known as the "Unborn Victims of Violence Act" sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio. The bill would make it a federal crime to harm a fetus or an embryo in connection with an assault on a pregnant woman.

"It makes two victims, the mother and the baby, as victims of a crime," said Connie Mackey, vice president for government affairs at the Family Research Council, which opposes abortion.

"We think it will be one of the first issues out of the box" in Congress, she said.

Abortion-rights groups say the proposal is part of a strategy by abortion opponents to give fetuses the same legal status as children.

Last year, the Bush administration decided to make fetuses eligible for government-subsidized health care under the federal Children's Health Insurance Program.

Michelman described DeWine's proposal as "a very dangerous piece of legislation," and one clearly aimed at the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

"I know the anti-choice movement believes (it) will create the legal pathway to overturn Roe," she said.

The legislation passed the House in 1999 and 2001, but the Senate has never considered it. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has said he will bring it up this year.