Pro-Choice: Rallying Campus Support

Thousands of students raise their voices in chants and songs of protest.

The long stretch of grass between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument is teeming with demonstrators who have come from universities across the country to demand that the politicians listen.

It sound like a newsreel from the 1960s. But it isn't.

Last Sunday, when hundreds of thousands participated in nationwide rallies for abortion rights, as many as one-third of the protesters were college students, according to organizers.

About 450 campuses sent delegations to the main rally in Washington, D.C., and to about 1000 other abortion rights demonstrations across the nation.

"The perception is that our generation isn't willing to fight for rights we've grown up with," says Ashley E. Abbott, a Dartmouth College sophomore who attended the Washington protest. "But we're fighting."

In fact, as the "decade of apathy" draws to a close, many say the U.S Supreme Court's recent Webster v. Reproductive Health Services ruling, which upheld Missouri laws restricting abortion, has reawakened political activism on college campuses.

At Princeton University, which sent 120 students to the demonstration, there has been a significant increase in political activity since the July 3 decision, according to student activist Jennifer Weiner. "I agree with people who say Webster was the best thing that happened to the pro-choice movement," she says.

Ellen Convisser, president of the Boston branch of the National Organization for Women (NOW), says students are "the heart of the [abortion rights] movement and will continue to be." She says about 6000 participants from the Boston area came to the Washington rally.

Harvard-Radcliffe Students for Choice sent 320 students to Washington in buses, according to Julia L. Shaffner '91, the group's coordinator. She estimates that 300 other students from Harvard went independently.

Laura E. Bowman, the national student coordinator of the rally, says that many new student groups have been formed this year around the pro-choice issue, including some on traditionally conservative campuses.

Sixteen Catholic colleges and universities, including Boston College, Georgetown University and Catholic University, sent representatives to the Washington mobilization, NOW organizers say.

Besides traveling to Washington for the rally, some students contributed to the effort by helping to plan local events, Bowman says.

For instance, when Wisconsin activists had difficulty coordinating a rally, students at the University of Wisconsin at Madison decided to hold one on campus, Bowman says. In the end, their enthusiasm sparked a rally at the state capitol.

"Students saying, 'We want to do this,' forced everybody to come together on it," Bowman says.

Some activists say it was difficult to get students to travel to Washington so soon after last spring's march, which was the largest abortion rights tion rights demonstration ever.

"It was a drain on their time, energy and money," says Nassim P. Assefi, co-coordinator of the Wellesley Women of Choice. To motivate students to attend Sunday's rally, Wellesley activists adopted the slogan "Once is not enough," she says.

And Cornell activist Janette M. Hillis was disappointed that only about 350 of the university's 12,000 undergraduates attended the rally. At Cornell, she says, "People are so uptight about work that they forget about the world out there."

NARAL

Bob Bingaman, national field director for the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), says his group hopes to mobilize students who are pro-choice but politically inactive.

"As evidenced by Sunday, we're just barely scratching the potential of students across the country," Bingaman says. He adds that NARAL recently hired a field organizer whose sole responsibility will be recruiting support for the pro-choice movement on college campuses.

Bowman says that college-age women are particularly interested in abortion issues since about 80 percent of the abortions in this country are performed on women aged between 15 and 29.

"People in that age group know women who've had abortions, and this contributes to a different understanding of the issue," Bowman says.

And students themselves say that the mood on America's campuses has changed since the Webster ruling sparked fear that students may lose a right that has existed for them for as long as they can remember.

"People who've never gotten involved, who've never picked up a sign, are getting involved," says Hillis. "For the first time, students feel like their rights are being taken away."