More than 350 supporters of an antiabortion group, wearing black armbands and carrying red roses, met on the Boston Common yesterday to commemorate the deaths of the 1.5 million fetuses aborted since the Supreme Court decided to legalize abortions last January.
Fifty counter-protestors marched across the street in front of the State House chanting "Abortion, Freedom Now." Twelve women dressed in white robes, chained together and carrying a ten-foot wooden cross, led the line of picketers from the pro-abortion Parent's Aid Society.
William R. Baird, director of the society, explained the costumes: "We are trying to free women from the cross of religious oppression," he said, "so we think that it is about time in history to have twelve female disciples."
Baird accused Massachusetts Citizens for Life, the anti-abortion group, of attempting to make "every woman's uterus a ward of the state."
Accompanied by muffled drum rolls, Roy R. Scarpato, president of Citizens for Life, led his supporters in five minutes of silent prayer at noon. Four clergymen from different faiths then addressed the crowd, each expressing opposition to abortion and calling for God's forgiveness.
Rabbi Samuel Fox, president of the Massachusetts Council of Rabbis, compared the liberalized abortion attitudes to the willingness of the German people to exterminate 6 million Jews during World War II. "We are turning our doctors and nurses into accessories to murder," he said.
At the end of the service, Scarpato spoke again and called for support of a constitutional amendment to override the Supreme Court decision.
A number of the anti-abortion demonstrators, including school children with signs written on the backs of book covers, then began to march between the Parent's Aid Society picket lines. Others went up to the State House to talk with their legislators.
Read more in News
Alumni Choose Five Overseers To Fill PostsRecommended Articles
-
Standing Up for Roe V. WadeT oday is National Abortion Providers Day, honoring those who routinely place themselves in the line of fire to make
-
Blocking Clinic DoorsLast Saturday morning an abortion clinic in Asheville, N.C. was bombed. While no one was hurt in the blast, the
-
Author Criticizes 'Contradictions' Of Abortion-Opponent ExtremistsBunting Fellow Carol A. Mason discussed the contradictions posed by abortion opponents who kill for their cause during a Bunting
-
LettersSome Abortion Protestors Overstep Free Speech Bounds To the editors: I am shocked and dismayed that Jenny E. Heller (Dissent,
-
The Silent Majority: Harvard's Unusually Quiet Debate About AbortionIt's nine-thirty on a chilly morning in January, and four Harvard students are yelling at the tops of their lungs.
-
Raising the Abortion IssueToday is National Abortion Provider's Day. It marks the anniversary of Dr. David Gunn's murder. Dr. Gunn was the first