A BOMB scare near an abortion clinic in Washington led to a huge security alert as thousands of pro choice and anti abortion supporters were marking the 24th anniversary of its legalisation.
For a time police feared that there was also an explosive device planted near a hotel where the Vice President, Mr Al Gore, and Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton were to address an abortion rights lunch meeting.
But later in the day, the police said there was no evidence of a link between the explosion of a small device used for military training and the abortion events.
Thousands of protesters gathered on the Mall outside the White House to denounce the Supreme Court decision of 1973 which made abortion legal. They later marched to the Capitol to lobby members of Congress. Speakers denounced violent attacks against abortion clinics.
The anniversary led to extra security for abortion clinics across the US. Bombs have been set off at clinics in Atlanta and Tulsa during the past week.
The security scare in Washington started when a hotel worker found what looked like a grenade in a rubbish pile as he was walking to a bus stop near a building where abortions are performed. When the device exploded wounding him slightly it was first assumed it was intended for the Planned Parenthood clinic.
A police spokeswoman said that the device was a fuse assembly for a practice grenade and was not classified as a destructive device. It makes a loud noise and produces a bright flash.
Violence against abortion clinics increased in recent days in the lead up to the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalising abortion - though in recent years such violence has been on the decline.
The two explosions last Thursday at the clinic in Atlanta were early part of a campa to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v Wade decision. These pipe bomb explosions, which injured seven people, were followed by two bombs at a Tulsa, Oklahoma clinic on Saturday and the Washington device yesterday. The Tulsa clinic was hit by two Molotov cocktail blasts on January 1st.
The Atlanta bombs were seen as especially serious, as the second blast was delayed in an apparent attempt to kill or injure rescue workers.
Ironically, on the same day as the Atlanta bombings, pro choice organisations were releasing figures in Washington showing that violence against abortion clinics had been declining.
Out of 312 clinics surveyed the proportion experiencing acts of violence had declined from over 50 per cent in 1995 to 30 per cent last year, the president of the Feminist Majority, Ms Eleanor Smeal, said.