Pro-Choice Groups Plot Course

BOSTON--Pro-choice groups in the Boston area are redoubling their efforts after Congress failed to override President Bush's veto of a bill that would have lifted the socalled "gag rule" on abortion advice.

At the annual meeting of the Coalition for Choice here Tuesday, about 30 people representing several interest groups met to discuss their strategy to further the prochoice movement over the next year in spite of the setback.

"We need to be working to elect more pro-choice representatives," said Pam M. Nourse, executive director of Mass. Choice and organizer of the meeting.

Nourse said that the gag rule, which prevents federally-funded medical clinics from discussing abortion as an option with pregnant women, is an insult.

Five students from Harvard-Radcliffe Students for Choice attended the meeting, including co-directors Julie D. Bornstein '92 and Jessica S. Yellin '93.

"The country is overwhelmingly pro-choice and Congress is skirting the problem rather than addressing the real issue, which is, Do women in this country have the right to make decisions about their own bodies?'" Yellin said. "[The gag rule] is un-American in its most basic sense."

Yellin also said the coalition was very effective because it brought people of different backgrounds together to work on a common issue.

Nourse said the Coalition for Choice will hold a rally in January to celebrate the 19th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing a constitutional right to abortion.