More than 100 people flocked to the Institute of Politics' ARCO Forum last night to hear National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) President Kate Michelman speak on "Women's Issues in the 1992 Elections."

Lauding the Kennedy School of Government's recently formed prochoice group, Kennedy School Students for Choice, Michelman warned that "the situation [today] may look grim. That's because it is, but we can make a difference."

Describing the unequal treatment of women in the areas of education, Social Security and compensation for discrimination, Michelman said women's rights are "under assault on every front... Women are no longer able to work [even] for small steps forward."

Decrying right-wing "demonization" of women, Michelman said that the "New Right" has managed to portray feminists as "confused, selfish and anti-family...[while] equality and respect remain but a distant dream."

Citing such incidents as the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the veto of the Family Leave Act and denial of abortion funding for rape victims on Medicaid, Michelman called President Bush "the most anti-woman president in our nation's history."

Women Should Vote

Michelman called on women to "use the power to vote to [protect] our freedom," especially on the "right to choose," which she named "the single most powerful politically charged social issue [of today]."

The 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision "gave women control over our futures," Michelman said. "Women will never achieve equality without the right to choose."

Michelman spoke at length about her own pre-Roe abortion in 1970. "I know first-hand how absolutely essential Roe is to women's rights... Roe vs. Wade saved women from the shame, degradation and horror [of illegal abortions]," she said.

"The right to choose will be a more important issue in this election than ever before. In New Hampshire [the candidates] could only talk about the economy, [but they] know that it's going to be an issue," Michelman said.

But Michelman said she was not optimistic about the future of abortion rights. "The court won't write `we overturn Roe vs. Wade,' but they'll uphold the Pennsylvania [challenge to Roe vs. Wade] and we'll lose our right to choose," said Michelman.

Michelman said that NARAL's goals for 1992 are to "move towards a veto-proof Congress and elect a prochoice President."

"We are going to lose that right [to an abortion], but we will get it back. Our plan is to educate the American public between now and the Pennsylvania decision...then mobilize them to vote," said Michelman.

"We will endure and we will prevail. We won't prevail, though, if you all don't get going!" she said.