Unborn

Your eyelids and your eyes,your lips and all that lieswithin my womb I prize.Little fish, little bird,flutter fin and wing. The Wordthrough this woman will enter earth,by this body, have its birth.Dream within, little one.What is willed will be done.Pub Date: 12/13/96

Desperate to end her pregnancy after six months, Kawana Ashley put a pillow against her abdomen, picked up a pistol and shot herself. After an emergency delivery, her baby girl lived only 15 days. The 19-year-old Florida mother was charged with murder and manslaughter.The case, which goes before the Florida Supreme Court tomorrow, represents a collision that had long been looming, a direct clash of a woman's right to abortion and the developing legal rights of her fetus.The criminal prosecution of the St. Petersburg woman is one of a growing number of court cases taking the fetus closer and closer to having a complete legal identity of its own, with rights in conflict with those of the pregnant woman.

Washington. -- It took the big media about a week to find a fanatic who would attempt to justify the murder of two women at a Massachusetts abortion clinic and the firing on a second clinic in Norfolk, Virginia. But their efforts did not go unrewarded.Donna Bray, the 34-year-old spouse of a convicted clinic bomber and mother of five, heads an organization called ''Defenders of Defenders of Life.'' She thinks convicted clinic killers like Paul Hill and Michael Griffin, and the accused murderer John Salvi, are theologically correct when they use violence to stop violence against the unborn.

Washington. -- The most frightening entry on any ballot next Tuesday is no candidate, but something in Oregon called ''Measure 16.'' It will, in effect, erase the few safeguards that separate human life from all other living things.If Measure 16 passes, doctors would be protected by law when they offered lethal drugs to ''terminally ill'' patients. Supporters claim that enough ''safeguards'' are built in, such as second and third opinions, written requests for the drugs by the patient and testimonies from others -- including at least one non-family member -- that the request for immediate departure from this life is rational and sincere.

A longtime anti-abortion activist from Bowie is leading a campaign to defend as "morally justifiable" the slayings of a doctor and his volunteer escort outside a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic in July.Donna Bray says she and her supporters, known as Defenders of the Defenders of Life, are seeking moral and financial support for the accused, former Presbyterian minister Paul Hill, and his family.Mr. Hill, 40, is charged with first-degree murder in the shotgun slayings of Dr. John B. Britton, 69, and retired Air Force Lt. Col. James H. Barrett, 74, as they arrived July 29 at the Ladies Center, one of two Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinics.

Rosty was cleared by the jurors he cares most about.Rabin always knew what he had to do. He also knew he needed for everybody to see Bill tell him.If Kurt runs for governor and Don runs for mayor, in a couple of years we can have another gubernatorial raid on The Block.The proposed welfare cap would punish babies for being born. The idea is that it should make unborn babies think twice before going all the way.

Houston's 'Legacy': photographs of his timeBaltimore photographer Robert Houston's "Legacy to an Unborn Son" is a project to record life in urban America in his time, primarily through photographs of the daily lives of ordinary people. A book by that title was published in 1971, but Mr. Houston has continued the project, and a show of "Legacy to an Unborn Son" opens at the Montpelier Cultural Arts Center on Wednesday. Mr. Houston, a photographer for 25 years, has used many locations in his work; some of the photographs in the show were taken in Baltimore.

WASHINGTON -- Lindsey Montague stands in the bright sunshine on the marble steps of the Supreme Court and holds up the tiny feet poster.The tiny feet poster is, depending on your point of view, one of the most moving or one of the most disgusting posters in the battle over abortion.It shows an enlarged color picture of an adult hand holding the two incredibly tiny feet of what is, presumably, a fetus. In large type on the poster is the biblical quotation: "I am fearfully and wonderfully made."

IN HER debut as a feature film maker, Julie Dash offers in "Daughters of the Dust" a welcome respite from the desperate images of gang violence that currently dominate black cinema.The movie, which opens today at the Senator Theatre in Baltimore, finds its resonance in the struggles of African Americans viewed from a historical perspective, just as last year's urban dramas -- Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever," John Singleton's "Boyz N the Hood" and Mario Van Peebles' "New Jack City" -- found theirs in forceful, tragic portrayals of contemporary inner-city despair.

ANNAPOLIS -- Setting up a repeat legislative struggle over the emotional issue of abortion, abortion opponents in the Senate introduced legislation last night that would prohibit abortions for birth control or sex selection and would otherwise restrict when the procedure could be performed in Maryland.The bill, introduced by Sen. John A. Cade, R-Anne Arundel, would permit abortions only if the life or physical health of the mother were endangered, in cases of rape or incest, or if it was determined the unborn child would probably be severely deformed or handicapped if carried to term.