WESTCHESTER CHAPTER OF
THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR
WOMEN
P.O. Box 1135
White Plains, New York
10602-1135
Press
Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: CONTACT: BETH
A. LEVY,
Planning
Committee Member
NOW Phone: 914-428-7744
Email:
WestNYNOW@aol.com
Sylvia Eusebi, Press Release
Distribution
914-949-2339
or Sylvia123E@aol.com
ANNIVERSARY OF ROE v. WADE
January 22, 2002
The
Westchester Chapter of the National Organization for Women, to commemorate this
year’s Roe v. Wade anniversary, joins activists across the nation to
raise awareness of current threats to legal abortion. NOW will speak out
against these threats on January 22, 2002 starting at 5 p.m. at the White
Plains Train Station. NOW members will hand out letters to be signed and sent
to Senators Schumer and Clinton.
The
extreme views expressed by President Bush’s judicial nominees concern us,
according to Beth Levy, Planning Committee Member. At least three of President
Bush’s nominees are anti-choice and would restrict access to legal abortion.
Professor Michael McConnell signed a petition asking Congress to outlaw all
abortions and opposed the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act; Judge
Carolyn Kuhl, was in favor of the infamous ‘domestic gag rule’; and Judge Charles
Pickering has tried to overturn Roe v. Wade.
According
to NOW sources*, whether legal or illegal, abortion has been a part of life in
the United States since the Colonial period. The full impact of illegal
abortions on women’s lives before Roe v. Wade is not possible to
determine. Reliable statistics are not available since the cause of death was
often misreported. Safe and legal abortion saves women’s lives. Each year, half
of all pregnancies in the United States are unintended, and half of these are terminated
by abortion. In 1973, the risk of dying from an abortion was 3.4 deaths per
100,000 abortions. Today the death rate from legal abortion is 0.2 deaths per
100,000 for abortions performed before eight weeks of pregnancy. This is 11 times safer than carrying a
pregnancy to term.
Legal
abortions are still inaccessible to many women in this country. As his first
presidential act, Bush signed the Global Gag Rule on January 22, 2001, to deny
funding to family planning clinics that even mention abortion or contraception
to their clients. President Bush’s determination to restrict legal abortions
would result in women’s deaths. Westchester NOW will stand up for justice on
January 22 to awaken the Senate not to confirm these Supreme Court justice
nominees.
NOW
invites all people who support legal abortion to join in the demonstration.
When:
January 22, 2002 from 5 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
Where:
White Plains Metro North Train Station
*NOW
sources: Alan Guttmacher Institute
(2000), Warren Hern (1995), Planned Parenthood, Katha Pollitt (1997) in The
Atlantic Monthly, and Voters for Choice