Abortion

The efforts last month of a coalition of four Harvard groups asking students to ehlp stop the passage of a constitutional amendment which would endanger abortion rights in Massachusetts received an encouraging response, according to Anne S. Kastor '86, who organized the campaign.

Members of The Women's Center, the Radcliffe Union of Students, the Democratic Club, and the Democratic Socialists of America collected the signatures of nearly 900 students from all of the Houses, and from some faculty members, on "pro-choice" postcards which were then sent to members of Congress.

The postcards asked Massachusetts legislators as well as representatives from other states to oppose all proposed laws which would limit abortion rights.

The proposed Massachusetts amendment, which coalition members expect will be ratified at the May session of the Constitutional Convention, would give the State Legislature the power to outlaw abortion, or at least restrict or terminate both public and private funding.

Coalition members staffed tables in the Houses for a week. "We were prepared for nasty comments" from people who disagreed with the pro-choice stance. Kastor said, "but the people who were not pro-choice were very polite."

She added that many who signed postcards knew little about the national status of abortion rights, and that the educational function of the tabling proved effective.