Staff Writer

The bombing of an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., represents a serious threat to women everywhere, according to women's rights advocates speaking at a public forum.

The Jan. 29 bombing killed an off-duty police officer and critically wounded a nurse.

University of Houston associate professor of English Maria Gonzalez and leaders of two UH student organizations joined a panel of speakers Saturday at the Militant Labor Forum at Pathfinder Book store to discuss and protest the bombing.

Gonzalez commended the Militant Labor Forum for organizing the only public protest in Houston in response to the Birmingham bombing.

"It astounds me that this has been the only public speak-out," she said.

Authorities have not responded with "a fraction of the commitment, spirit and resources that they employed against the Unabomber, the Oklahoma Federal Building bombers or other terrorists," said Leigh Fought, a graduate student in history at UH and a representative of the UH National Organization for Women.

Fought also criticized media coverage of violent attacks on abortion clinics.

"They don't even use the word 'terrorism' in reporting on these attacks," she said.

Panelists identified attacks on abortion clinics as part of a broader offensive by anti-abortion forces including the U.S. government and the Roman Catholic Church.

State legislators have been passing laws to limit a woman's right have an abortion, said Jennifer Ponce, a representative of the UH Young Socialists. These laws include parental consent laws and limits on late-term abortions.

Panelists asserted that the media have begun an ideological offensive to undermine support for women's rights. The 25th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion has seen a spate of anti-abortion articles and columns, they said.

"The abortion debate is framed by the media in religious, moral or medical terms," Ponce said. "Who has the right to make these religious philosophical or medical decisions? Only the individual woman can decide about her own body. The right of a woman to control her own body is the right to control her own life and her own future."

Gonzalez said the last attempts to mobilize public opposition to close abortion clinics in the Houston area ended in defeat.

She recalled the confrontation between women's rights advocates and anti-abortion activists in Houston during the summer of 1992, when hundreds of pro-life activists converged to try to physically block the doors to women's-health clinics. NOW and other women's rights groups out-mobilized their opponents, Gonzalez said.

Regarding the bombing, Gonzalez concluded that "someone was clearly trying to send us a signal." She said the message is, "'You are under attack - we are at war.'

"We don't want war, but if it's war they intend, then we must be prepared to meet them."