Monday, Feb. 04, 1985

Abortion: New Heat Over an Old Issue

By Robert T. Zintl

To the thousands of demonstrators on the Ellipse south of the White House, the message was a high point in their struggle against abortion: an open endorsement from the President. "I feel a great sense of solidarity with all of you," Ronald Reagan said in a telephone call broadcast to the crowd by loudspeakers. "Our response to the twelfth anniversary of Roe vs. Wade . . . must be to rededicate ourselves to ending the terrible national tragedy of abortion . . . I feel these days, as never before, the momentum is with us."

His listeners were participating in the...