Women recount & plan new struggles

A standing-room-only crowd of 75 women and allies turned out for “The Past and Future of the Right to Abortion in New York State,” a meeting in honor of the 35th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion. The event was co-sponsored by the Women’s Liberation Birth Control Project of Redstockings Allies and Veterans and the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Andrea Costello, a Redstockings activist and CCR staff attorney, opened with an appeal to learn from past battles of the women’s liberation movement to preserve and extend reproductive rights today. Nancy Stearns and Rhonda Copelon, former CCR attorneys who litigated major abortion-rights cases in the 1970s, recounted the key role of activists in the progressive women’s movement to putpressure on the courts, and also the strategy pursued by the religious right to undo the gains of that era. Annie Tummino, co-chair of the Women’s Liberation Birth Control Project, spoke on the recent women’s mobilizations that forced the Food and Drug Administration to make the morning-after pill available over the counter. A lively discussion followed with remarks from young women and feminist veterans, including several original Redstockings activists.

For more info, visit the Redstockings Women’s Liberation Archives for Action Web site at www.redstockings.org.

—Greg Butterfield