THE US: Hundreds of thousands of women marched in Washington yesterday in the biggest pro-choice demonstration in 12 years, as the issue of abortion once again took centre stage in American politics.
In Boston, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, a strong supporter of women's choice, received communion from a Catholic priest on Saturday, a day after a Vatican cardinal said politicians who support abortion rights should be denied the sacrament.
The politicisation of the choice issue was underlined by the support from senior Democratic figures for the rally against the erosion of reproductive rights under President Bush.
Democratic Senator Hillary Clinton told a pre-march breakfast that the Bush administration was "filled with people" who wanted to reverse the 1973 Roe vs Wade Supreme Court ruling legalising abortion.
Senator Kerry told rally organisers on Friday, "We are going to have a change in leadership in this country to protect the right of choice."
Scores of abortion opponents lined the march route along Pennsylvania Avenue, clutching rosaries and holding aloft pictures of aborted foetuses as more than half a million women walked by.
The voice of an anti-abortion activist, Ms Mary Parker Lewis - who called continuously into a loudspeaker "This is a death march" - was often drowned out by a cacophony of jeers and chanting which lasted throughout the afternoon.
Mr Randall Terry, founder of "Operation Rescue", a militant anti-abortion group, told The Irish Times, "They know we're rolling back Roe vs Wade. We will prevail, that's why they are so frightened." He said he believed abortion would be made illegal if President Bush got a second term and appointed new pro-life judges to tip the balance in the 9-member Supreme Court.
Both sides agree that the pro-choice movement has lost ground in the 12 years since the last major women's rights march in Washington. States have enacted hundreds of laws restricting access to abortion, and President Bush has cut off federal funds from pro-choice international organisations. He has also signed into law measures prohibiting "partial birth" abortions and making assault on a pregnant woman a separate crime against the foetus.
The marchers, who included many men and children, carried thickets of placards with slogans such as "Abort Bush in the second trimester". They chanted "Pro-life is a lie, you don't care if women die." One counter demonstrator, holding up a poster saying "Hitler loved planned parenthood", attracted particularly loud boos from the marchers.
Francis Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice told supporters, "You will hear our pro-choice voices ringing in your ears until such time that you permit all women to make our own reproductive choices."
Women took part from across the United States and nearly 60 other countries, according to the organisers, which included Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and the National Women's Organisation. Celebrities included Whoopi Goldberg, Kathleen Turner and Ted Turner.
Senator Kerry took communion at the liberal Paulist Centre in Boston, where he regularly attends Mass. The Rev Joe Ciccone told reporters, "We're following the directive of our archdiocese; they have said we should give him communion." The Archdiocese of Boston does not publicly refuse communion, a spokesman said.