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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Utah Education Association is under fire for the National Education Association's support of a pro-choice rally in Washington this weekend.
"This march (The March for Women's Lives) is further proof of the UEA's true agenda," said Elisa Clements Peterson of Parents for Choice in Education, a group that promotes tuition tax credits.
"The UEA is a liberal, pro-abortion organization that is more concerned with 'reproductive freedom' than the needs of Utah's children, teachers and parents," she said. "The UEA should condemn NEA involvement in this event and separate itself from this agenda."
The UEA denies any involvement with the march.
"UEA is in no way participating in this rally," UEA President Pat Rusk said. "People are trying to make UEA look bad ... when it has nothing to do with UEA."
Rusk said she has not heard of any Utah teachers planning to attend the march.
She said few teachers have contacted UEA offices with questions or complaints about the matter.
The NEA is listed among 1,100 other groups as supporting the march, NEA spokesman Michael Pons told the Deseret Morning News.
"We're not a sponsor, in the sense we did not provide for the logistics at the march," Pons said. "March coordinators contacted the NEA, asked if they could put NEA down as a supporter of the event, and we said yes."
The NEA also plans to open its headquarters near the parade route to members as a gathering place.
People also are expected to gather in protest of the march, Rusk said. "If they are NEA members, they will be welcome to use the building as well."
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
