THOUSANDS MOBILIZE FOR ABORTION RIGHTS

SHOW OF STRENGTH PROMISED AT THE BALLOT BOX

Correction: In a story yesterday about the abortion-rights rally at the Lincoln Memorial, the date of last spsring's abortion rights march here was incorrect, because of an editing error. The march occurred April 9. (Published 11/14/89)

With a spirited rally at the Lincoln Memorial here, a gospel revival in New Orleans and a "back alley" protest in Milwaukee, hundreds of thousands of abortion-rights demonstrators around the nation served notice yesterday that they will take revenge at the ballot box against candidates who oppose freedom of choice in reproductive decisions.

The gatherings were among 1,000 "Mobilize for Women's Lives" abortion-rights events held in more than 150 cities and towns across the country.

Beginning with a sunrise service in Maine, near President Bush's vacation home, and ending with rallies in several Alaskan cities, the daylong activities also included a celebrity-studded rally in Los Angeles and a door-to-door voter canvassing drive in Michigan that targeted elected officials who have not supported abortion rights in the past.

"We say to the political leadership of this country and to the Supreme Court and particularly to President Bush, we will not go back," Molly Yard, president of the National Organization for Women, told cheering, banner-waving abortion-rights supporters at the Lincoln Memorial.

The rally drew the biggest turnout among the day's abortion-rights events, although, as usual, police and rally organizers did not agree on the crowd count. U.S. Park Police said 150,000 demonstrators attended, while NOW leaders put the number at 300,000.

In April, at an abortion-rights march here, organizers said they had 600,000 in attendance. Police estimated the crowd size at half that.

In any case, rally participants -- many of them college students -- encircled the reflecting pool yesterday and camped in the nearby trees and beyond. There was standing room only at the Lincoln Memorial end of the reflecting pool, but those at the Washington Monument end had room to spread their blankets, picnic and stretch out in the sunshine.

Most of the rally speakers and the crowds who came to hear them wore purple and white, the colors of the suffragette movement. Many wore buttons and sashes and carried the official "Keep Abortion Legal" rally signs or their own homemade posters with similar, if blunter, messages.

"George, Read Our Lips: Never Again" was one. "Motherhood by Choice, Not Chance" was another.

The rally and other abortion-rights events were organized to protest the Supreme Court's decision allowing states to consider restricting abortions. And in issuing a warning to legislators who might be thinking of doing that, many speakers took delight in citing the elections last week of abortion-rights candidates in Virginia, New Jersey and New York.

New York Mayor-elect David N. Dinkins came to Washington to say thanks and to pledge his continued support for abortion rights.

"The people said we believe in choice, we believe in liberty and we will never be denied," Dinkins, who will be New York's first black mayor, told the cheering crowd. He called on Bush to reverse his veto of federal funding to pay for abortions for poor women and said New York will use city funds if necessary to ensure equal access to abortions.

D.C. Council member Hilda H.M. Mason (Statehood-At Large) appealed to the crowd to support statehood for the city, noting Bush's veto of an appropriations bill that would have used local funds to pay for abortions.

"We pay taxes and we cannot control how our taxes are spent," Mason said.

Senate Majority Leader Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) also focused on the political liabilities of being "anti-choice."

"The majority of Americans don't want the government dictating the most personal decision a woman can make in her life," he said.

About 20 antiabortion demonstrators stood on the periphery of the crowd shouting slogans. No clashes were reported.

Between speakers, the crowd was entertained by musical performances, including appearances by some veterans of civil rights and antiwar protests.

Pete Seeger and Ronnie Gilbert led the crowd in "This Land Is Your Land," with Seeger throwing in some social services verses he said had never made it into school music books. Helen Reddy drew a roar of approval from the crowd when she broke into her signature song, "I Am Woman." Mary Travers and Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary, also performed.

Organizers of the Lincoln Memorial rally had billed it as the major abortion-rights gathering on the East Coast. A survey of signs showed a representative attendance from the Eastern Seaboard and beyond. Signs represented colleges from across the nation.

"I've never marched before, but this is an important issue to me," said Catherine Kim, 22, a student from Columbia Medical School in New York, who carried a handmade sign, "Future Physician for Choice . . . Pro Choice is Pro Child."

The abortion-rights rally drew participants of all ages. Members of the Gray Panthers, a rights for the elderly group, sat in a special place of honor near the stage.

Out in the thick of the crowd, a Berwyn, Pa., couple, Ralph and Ruth Earnest, both 59 and festooned with abortion-rights buttons, said they were attending their second demonstration ever. The first had been April 5.

"We feel there's a shrinking of our rights to privacy and choice," Ruth Earnest said, explaining why she has begun writing lawmakers.

Before the rally, a wreath was laid near the Washington Monument at a wooden memorial remembering women who have died from illegal abortions. Later, rally participants, led by former NOW president Eleanor Smeal, took a Feminist Voters Pledge, a promise not to support candidates who don't work for abortion rights.

The old-time gospel revival in New Orleans was held in a tent and attended by 15,000. Milwaukee's rally for several hundred was held in an alley to symbolize the days of illegal abortions. The rally in Los Angeles drew about 50,000 and caused a worse-than-usual traffic jam. Among the participants was actor Peter Horton of the television show "thirtysomething," who read an appeal to Bush to reverse his antiabortion stance.

Staff writers Maralee Schwartz and Peter Baker contributed to this report.

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.