Actress rallies abortion-rights advocates to fight law

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat ^ | November 7, 2003 | MARY CALLAHAN

[nickcarraway]

Kathleen Turner tells SR crowd women's health

Denouncing the abortion law signed this week as the latest volley in "George W. Bush's War on Women," actress Kathleen Turner exhorted abortion-rights advocates to fight back during a Thursday night appearance in Santa Rosa.

Returning to Sonoma County, where she filmed scenes from "Peggy Sue Got Married," one of about 40 films she's made in her Hollywood career, Turner told 130 Planned Parenthood donors that the future of women's health care hangs in the balance.

Temporary restraining orders granted in three federal courts, including one Thursday in San Francisco sought by Planned Parenthood's Golden Gate division, Turner's host, may mean the so-called "partial birth" abortion law will never take full effect, she said.

But the war is "raging on every front," threatening access to accurate sex education, contraception, counseling, safe abortions and the right of a woman to make medically appropriate decisions without federal intervention, she said.

Turner, a longtime abortion-rights advocate and a high-profile volunteer for Planned Parenthood, said the Bush administration and its allies on the religious right repeatedly have moved to restrict women's choices through such actions as reviving a global gag order that prevents recipients of U.S. international family planning assistance from discussing abortion, naming ultra-conservative judicial nominees and administration appointees and posting inaccurate information about contraception and abortion on federal Web sites.

"A war has been declared, and it is time to fight," she said, "because we can never go back."

Known for her throaty delivery and theatrical versatility, for 12 years the New York actress has been the chairwoman of the Board of Advocates for the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, having first volunteered at one of its clinics in college, she said in an interview before her appearance at the Fountaingrove Inn in Santa Rosa.

Coming off a whirlwhind three years of theater productions of "The Graduate" and "Tallulah," a one-woman show, she's been traveling intermittently across the country since May for Planned Parenthood to mobilize abortion-rights forces.

She and other Planned Parenthood officials also are touting an eight-year, $340 million fund-raising campaign to promote "a new level of comfort" in discussions of sexual health and to mobilize abortion-rights forces in 15 "pivotal" areas, including Southern California.

Dian J. Harrison, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, said the group hopes more than a million people will converge for a march on Washington next spring "to let this country and this administration know that we are in the majority."

Turner and Harrison said they were shocked and discouraged by the new law, which they said would prohibit medically mandated procedures used only when a fetus was fatally damaged or the life of a mother was at risk.

The law outlaws a procedure generally performed in the second or third trimester of pregnancy in which a fetus is partially delivered before being killed, usually by puncturing its skull. President Bill Clinton twice vetoed similar bills.

Turner and Harrison said the government should leave an already difficult situation to a woman, her doctor and her family to resolve.

"What it says to me is that we have a president and a Congress who believe women can't make these decisions for themselves," Harrison said.

"We have to get the word out," Turner said. "The oposition is very, very well organized, and we have not done that."

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mcallahan@pressdemocrat.com.

[nickcarraway]

ping

[Tall_Texan]

Turner and Harrison said they were shocked and discouraged by the new law, which they said would prohibit medically mandated procedures used only when a fetus was fatally damaged or the life of a mother was at risk.

Another liberal lie.

[Fledermaus]

Shoot Turner in the head and call it a "post term abortion" and the liberals would back it.

[wita]

Lets see, my first thought, wonder how many children Kathleen has? Second thought, how many abortions has Kathleen had, probably none of my business. Third thought, neither side of the issue is dealing with all the cards in the deck, and the hope of that situation ever coming to pass in todays corrupt world is an oxymoronic situation at best and impossible at worst. Fourth thought, the old "womens health" scam. Words have meaning and the words "womens health" has nothing to do with health. I could go on but I would be accused of preaching to the choir.

The supremes continue to sit on their unconstitutional decision of 1973 that was base on testimony, that has long since been exposed as an outright fabrication, ok, an outright lie, by the very perpetrator of the lie, and yet no retraction of that decision is yet forthcoming and I ain't holding my breath waiting, if you know what I mean. What I find astounding, is that this decision is still referred to as if it was a landmark case based on anything other than falsehood, deception, and lies.

This attempt to outlaw what every physician that I have talked to, and anyone with any brains, knows is detrimental to "womens health". shows the abject wasteland that is the foundation of those who desire abortion on demand. When a woman has gone nearly full term, birth is the far safer means of getting rid of what you desire, but unfortunately the conundrum of life becomes the issue they unfortunately cannot, nay must not be forced to deal with at any cost. Oh the sad situation of humans gone stupid. Not unlike swimming in the middle of the largest ocean without a life preserver.

[ClancyJ]

Gee, what will they ever do if they could not puncture their son or daughter's skull just minutes before it got to experience the world - not life - because it was alive - but just as it would get to see the world.

Such utter joy they would have to forfeit.

[Maurice Tift]

medically mandated procedures used only when a fetus was fatally damaged or the life of a mother was at risk.

Good heavens, if the life of the mother was at risk, how many doctors would say.... hmmmm.... let's try a breach delivery, then we'll remove the baby's brains before it starts breathing.... if we do that, we can save the mother's life!

Too many people are calling murder a medical procedure.

[Maurice Tift]

...  or the life of a mother was at risk.

 On second thought, this is a misprint. I'm sure she must have said lifestyle of a mother was at risk.

[Siamese Princess]

It's not surprising that an actress would favor abortion -- they were and are usually trollopes and frequent had abortions even when it was illegal in most cases and completely unacceptable to most Americans.

[jmaroneps37]

Of course you don't hear about Melba Moore PRO LIFE actress. BTW she is pro life NOW because she has had an abortion and KNOWS the damage it does to women.

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

When I saw the headline I thought of several actresses who could have been named in the article. Add another one to the boycott list.

These people are sick, very, very sick.

[nickcarraway]

Add another one to the boycott list.

It's going to be hard to do in Turner's case. She can't get a part as an extra at this point in her career. I guess her theater work can be boycotted.