Women's groups at Penn held a vigil and protest yesterday on College Green. Yesterday's 25th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's historic Roe v. Wade decision aroused fierce emotions on both sides of the abortion debate, and the controversy spilled over to the University, where several groups marked the anniversary of the 7-2 decision -- which legalized abortion -- with speeches, vigils and other events. The Penn chapter of the National Organization for Women held a rally for abortion rights and a candlelight vigil, as well as littering the campus with hangers bearing signs reading "Never Again." NOW hoped to use the hangers to remind the University community of the time before the Roe decision, when women could not obtain legitimate abortions. Pro-life groups, on the other hand, counter by claiming that 35 million lives have been lost in a war on unborn babies. One of the largest and oldest feminist organizations in the nation, the 250,000-member, Washington, D.C.-based NOW was founded in 1966 by Betty Friedan, author of The Feminine Mystique. A Law School event Wednesday featured a teleconference of national women's advocates followed by a panel discussion on the case. Many of the activists recalled the days of "women's liberation" when the decision was passed down from the Supreme Court in 1973. Barbara DeTullio, president of the Philadelphia chapter of NOW, said the case thrusted the abortion issue into the limelight. She said she believes that "government should not be telling women what to do with their bodies at all." Yet while the discussion was grounded in the past, participants also confronted the future. Laura Cleland, the current head of the Elizabeth Blackwell Center -- a women's health center in Philadelphia -- said women face difficulties when trying to obtain an abortion. "Women don't have the money, there aren't enough doctors and a lot of clinics are unclean and unsafe," she said. One audience member, who requested anonymity, spoke up at the conference about her experience having an abortion in a place where there was "blood on the floor and you could hear women screaming." During a campus rally and vigil yesterday, NOW protested against these kind of situations. Carrying a banner celebrating 25 years of legalized abortion, they marched on Locust Walk shouting slogans such as "Not the church, not the state, women must decide their fate." Later last night, the NOW supporters met behind the Nursing Education Building to hold their vigil in honor of "all they had accomplished and all they had yet to achieve," according to a NOW statement. In addition to the abortion issue, Penn NOW has also been active in issues involving rape. The co-chairpersons of NOW serve as student representatives to a committee made up of a group of administrators who have historically dealt with issues of sexual and relationship violence at Penn.
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