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

DATE: SATURDAY, March 7, 1992                   TAG: 9203070015
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

COURT URGED TO SAVE LEGALITY OF ABORTION

The Supreme Court should protect the rights of all women by reaffirming its 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion, 147 members of Congress told the court Friday.

"For two decades, Roe vs. Wade has been part of the fabric of our national law, permitting all women to live secure in the knowledge that difficult and personal reproductive choices will be theirs to make," the legislators said. "And so it should remain."

The 29 senators and 118 House members joined in a "friend-of-the-court" brief written by Duke University law professor Walter Dellinger in a Pennsylvania abortion case.

The court will hear arguments in the case April 22, and is expected to announce a decision by July.

Those on both sides of the abortion debate have said they expect the court to use the case to undermine, if not overturn, its Roe vs. Wade ruling.

The brief filed Friday warned of the "harsh consequences" of such action. "A myriad of conflicting state and local laws will continuously subject the health and lives of women throughout the country to the vagaries of the political process," it said.

Even if some states decide not to outlaw or severely restrict abortions, the legislators said, "there is nonetheless a compelling need for a national constitutional standard."

by CNB