National Abortion

The Rev. Beatrice Blair, 64, one of the first women to be ordained in the Episcopal Church, died Saturday of a heart attack in New York. She was ordained in 1978 and served for the last four years as associate priest at St. George's Episcopal Church in Manhattan. In the early 1970s, she was executive director of the National Abortion Rights Action League. More recently, she served as president of the Monroe County League of Planned Parenthood in upstate New York. She was the founding president of Eleanor's List, which raises money for women candidates who support abortion rights.

An old fight resurfaced yesterday in Annapolis as opposing sides of the abortion debate squared off on a proposal to toughen the state's parental notification law for minors. The bill by Del. Carmen Amedori, a Carroll County Republican, would change current law so that only a judge - not a doctor, as is now allowed - could permit girls to bypass the state's parental notification requirement. "If my kid goes in for oral surgery, I have to be notified," Amedori said as she prepared to testify before the House Health and Government Operations committee hearing on the bill.

The political arm of the national abortion rights movement yesterday endorsed Del. Kenneth C. Montague Jr., a Democratic legislator from Northeast Baltimore running for the 7th District congressional seat in the March 5 primary.In a rare move in a primary, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) threw its support behind Mr. Montague, citing his efforts as a "tireless and unyielding pro-choice advocate."Kate Michelman, NARAL's executive director, made the announcement yesterday at a fund-raiser in North Baltimore for Mr. Montague, a member of the group's national board since 1991.

WASHINGTON - Galvanized by the Republican takeover of the Senate, opponents of abortion are preparing a major push for new abortion restrictions in the next Congress, beginning with a ban on the type of medical procedure they call "partial-birth abortion." Abortion opponents say they will also push for several other measures already passed by the Republican-controlled House, including a bill making it a crime to evade parental notification laws by taking a minor across state lines for an abortion, and legislation making it a separate crime to harm a fetus during an attack on a pregnant woman.

Gov. William Donald Schaefer, who has pledged to veto legislation that restricts the right to abortion, and Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., a longtime advocate of abortion rights, yesterday won the endorsement of Choice PAC, a group dedicated to electing candidates who favor keeping abortion legal.Since its formation in May, Choice PAC has raised about $40,000 for legislative candidates who support abortion rights. This week, the group decided to make endorsements in the governor's and attorney general's races as well.

ANNAPOLIS -- Saying the Maryland Senate is still one vote shy of the number needed to shut down an anti-abortion filibuster, a major abortion-rights group endorsed 15 candidates yesterday for election to the General Assembly Nov. 6.Abortion-rights candidates won several big victories -- including wins in four hard-fought Senate races -- in the September primary. But Karyn Strickler, head of the Maryland affiliate of the National Abortion Rights Action League, said abortion-rights backers still need to elect two sympathetic senators to guarantee the 32 votes needed to cut off a filibuster.

An old fight resurfaced yesterday in Annapolis as opposing sides of the abortion debate squared off on a proposal to toughen the state's parental notification law for minors. The bill by Del. Carmen Amedori, a Carroll County Republican, would change current law so that only a judge - not a doctor, as is now allowed - could permit girls to bypass the state's parental notification requirement. "If my kid goes in for oral surgery, I have to be notified," Amedori said as she prepared to testify before the House Health and Government Operations committee hearing on the bill.

Twenty-five years ago, Norma McCorvey gave birth to something she wishes she hadn't: Roe vs. Wade."I had never really put a face to abortion," the former Jane Roe told several hundred congregants yesterday at Bishop Cummins Memorial Reformed Episcopal Church in Catonsville, where she discussed her 3-year-old conversion to the anti-abortion movement. "If the Lord can forgive a person like me, who was hard-core, pro-abortion, who never thought of anyone besides herself maybe there's hope for others."

Four years have passed, but the District 14 Senate race is a rerun.Once again, Republican Chris McCabe is challenging Democrat Edward J.Kasemeyer for the Senate seat he holds in the district that includes Ellicott City, west Columbia, Clarksville, West Friendship and a portion of Montgomery County.As in 1986, McCabe has spoken against what he sees as the growing power of lobbyists and special-interest groups on the legislative process, attacking Kasemeyer for accepting campaign contributions from political action committees.

THE LIFE of a symbol is a deceptively simple life. In exchange for a place in history, you need only surrender that slice of yourself which serves the purpose of "the cause."Through just such selective editing, the poster girl of the national abortion rights movement is being repackaged as a crusader in the anti-abortion army.With an Operation Rescue baptism in a suburban Dallas swimming pool, we are told, the woman whose efforts to end her unwanted pregnancy led to the legalization of abortion exchanged her pro-choice button for a pro-life placard.

The early-abortion pill, RU-486, was approved for use yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration, a milestone victory for abortion-rights advocates who fought for more than a decade to bring the drug to the United States. Proponents said the drug will make abortion a more private matter for thousands of women each year because it can be taken in the home, away from family planning clinics and hospitals. There are 1.5 million abortions performed in this country each year. They said it will also make abortion more accessible to women who live far from family planning centers and other clinics that offer surgical abortions.

Twenty-five years ago, Norma McCorvey gave birth to something she wishes she hadn't: Roe vs. Wade."I had never really put a face to abortion," the former Jane Roe told several hundred congregants yesterday at Bishop Cummins Memorial Reformed Episcopal Church in Catonsville, where she discussed her 3-year-old conversion to the anti-abortion movement. "If the Lord can forgive a person like me, who was hard-core, pro-abortion, who never thought of anyone besides herself maybe there's hope for others."

THE ADMISSION BY a prominent abortion advocate that he lied about the number of babies killed by "partial-birth abortion" is surprising only in its candor. Ron Fitzsimmons, executive director of the National Coalition of Abortion Providers, said he feared the truth would damage the abortion rights cause.Recalling a November 1995 appearance on ABC's "Nightline," Mr. Fitzsimmons said, "I lied through my teeth" when claiming the procedure was rarely used and that only women who sought such abortions were those whose lives were in danger, or whose unborn children were severely damaged.

The political arm of the national abortion rights movement yesterday endorsed Del. Kenneth C. Montague Jr., a Democratic legislator from Northeast Baltimore running for the 7th District congressional seat in the March 5 primary.In a rare move in a primary, the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) threw its support behind Mr. Montague, citing his efforts as a "tireless and unyielding pro-choice advocate."Kate Michelman, NARAL's executive director, made the announcement yesterday at a fund-raiser in North Baltimore for Mr. Montague, a member of the group's national board since 1991.

THE LIFE of a symbol is a deceptively simple life. In exchange for a place in history, you need only surrender that slice of yourself which serves the purpose of "the cause."Through just such selective editing, the poster girl of the national abortion rights movement is being repackaged as a crusader in the anti-abortion army.With an Operation Rescue baptism in a suburban Dallas swimming pool, we are told, the woman whose efforts to end her unwanted pregnancy led to the legalization of abortion exchanged her pro-choice button for a pro-life placard.

WASHINGTON -- It should come as no surprise to anyone that Republican conservatives in Congress are mounting another full-bore attack on abortion rights.You might have imagined the abortion issue was settled for the foreseeable future by the Supreme Court decision in a Pennsylvania case. The court essentially upheld Roe vs. Wade, but ruled that states could impose restrictions on abortion so long as they did not impose an "undue burden" on women.The beauty of that decision was that it seemed to reflect with remarkable accuracy the opinion of the nation.

State Sen. Mary H. Boergers, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, urged Gov. William Donald Schaefer yesterday to reconsider his refusal to lift restrictions on Medicaid abortions for poor woman.She also promised a Senate floor fight if the governor cannot be persuaded to change his mind, saying, "I just think enough is enough. . . . I feel very strongly that it's time."Ms. Boergers said current law contains "a hypocritical double standard" that effectively denies abortions to some poor women even though Maryland voters in 1992 affirmed a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The first major federal trial involving the 4-month-old law designed to curb violent and disruptive demonstrations at abortion clinics will start here today in the case of a 40-year-old former minister charged in the shooting deaths of an abortion doctor and his bodyguard.The trial of Paul Hill comes just two months after he was arrested in the deaths of Dr. John Britton, 69, and James Barrett, 74, who were killed with a shotgun as they sat in a parked car outside the Pensacola Ladies Clinic on July 29. And it comes well before the state trial on murder charges, in which a guilty verdict could mean the death penalty.

A FUNNY THING happened on the way to the midterm elections.Abortion rights, the stepchild issue of campaigns past, became a stepping stone to elected office. While once candidates wanted the whole subject to simply go away, in 1994 it was a linchpin of both gubernatorial and congressional campaigns, for those who had previously soft-pedaled the incendiary issue -- and those who had once shown little or no support for legal abortion at all.As recently as 10 years ago, recalls Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion Rights Action League, candidates eschewed the league's endorsement or asked it to keep its support low-key.

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- The first major federal trial involving the 4-month-old law designed to curb violent and disruptive demonstrations at abortion clinics will start here today in the case of a 40-year-old former minister charged in the shooting deaths of an abortion doctor and his bodyguard.The trial of Paul Hill comes just two months after he was arrested in the deaths of Dr. John Britton, 69, and James Barrett, 74, who were killed with a shotgun as they sat in a parked car outside the Pensacola Ladies Clinic on July 29. And it comes well before the state trial on murder charges, in which a guilty verdict could mean the death penalty.