
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990                   TAG: 9005010272
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: HARTFORD, CONN.                                LENGTH: Short

CONN. GOVERNOR SIGNS ABORTION RIGHTS LAW

Connecticut on Monday became the first state to give women the legal right to abortion in a law intended to stand even if the Supreme Court reverses its 1973 decision legalizing abortion.

The Roe vs. Wade decision said states cannot ban abortions, but if the ruling were struck down, states would then be able to make abortion illegal.

Without ceremony, Democratic Gov. William A. O'Neill, a Roman Catholic who personally opposes abortion, signed the bill into law Monday afternoon. It takes effect Oct. 1.

In a variation on the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade ruling, the new law allows abortions late in pregnancy, when the fetus is capable of living outside the womb, only when the life or health of the mother is in danger.

- Associated Press

by CNB