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WASHINGTON -- On the eve of the 34th anniversary of the U.S.
Supreme Court case of Roe v. Wade that legalized abortion, a leading abortion rights advocacy group on Friday hailed last November's congressional elections as a sign that the U.S. is moving toward more liberal abortion laws.
At a news conference releasing NARAL's annual "Who Decides?" report, Nancy Keenan -- president of the organization that advocates abortion rights -- said supporters of abortion rights won seats in state legislative bodies and in Congress -- 23 in the House and three in the Senate. This, she said, indicates a shift in American attitudes toward abortion.
"Quite honestly, I think that the other side has overstepped and overreached," she said, attributing the election victories to public rejection of government intervention in private medical decisions.
Keenan said the decision by South Dakota voters to overturn the state's controversial abortion ban was also evidence of such an attitude and she noted that voters in Oregon and California had defeated ballot initiatives that would have required parental notification for teenagers seeking abortions.
The anniversary of the Jan. 22, 1973, decision in Roe v. Wade provides a regular opportunity for both sides of the abortion debate to assess the strength of their respective causes.
Keenan's declarations were challenged by the National Right to Life organization, an anti-abortion group. Karen Cross, a spokeswoman for the organization, said NARAL's claim about national attitudes toward abortion was a "rhetorical smokescreen."
Cross said that a poll taken before the November elections in the Sioux Falls, S.D., Argus Leader indicated that if the state abortion ban had included an exception for rape and incest, 56 percent of South Dakotans would have voted to uphold the ban, as opposed to the 44 percent who actually did.
NARAL leaders indicated they are closely watching an upcoming Supreme Court decision in cases involving the federal ban on certain late-term abortions. Lower courts in the cases -Gonzales v.
Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- ruled that parts of the law banning those abortions -- called "partial-birth abortions" by abortion foes -- were unconstitutional.
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(E-mail: danduray@hearstdc.com)
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