A third of a century after the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision, the case that overturned existing state laws that made abortion illegal, abortion remains a contentious issue.
Even as senators grill Samuel Alito in hearings regarding his nomination to the Supreme Court, both camps of the abortion debate are rallying.
People are voicing their opinions, unleashing a flurry of letters, e-mails and petitions to their state senators. Legislative staffers in both Ohio Republican Sens. Mike DeWine and George Voinovich's offices said they are receiving communication from those for and against abortion.
Some of those letters are coming from Ohio State students.
A group called "VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood," an abortion-rights group at OSU, has levied a war on the Alito confirmation. The group has set up a table at the Ohio Union to encourage students to call and write Ohio's senators in an effort to stop the Alito confirmation.
"We see Alito as a huge threat to our freedom of choice," said VOX president Lauryn Shipp, a senior in English and women's studies. "We're not an effective democracy if people don't take an active role. We want people to get educated and take action appropriate for their views."
Shipp said in three days VOX collected more than 500 letters addressed to DeWine and Voinovich. The letters were planned to be hand delivered to the senators' offices on Thursday.
President Bush's nomination of Alito to replace the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the 33rd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision bring the abortion debate to the forefront of political and social discussion.
Senate Judiciary Committee members, including DeWine, will vote Jan. 24 on the nomination of Alito to the Supreme Court. If there is a majority vote to approve Alito, the committee will then send the debate to the full Senate.
On campus, it is not just abortion-rights groups speaking out.
Justice for All-Students for Life, an anti-abortion group, distributes fliers throughout campus for the Pregnancy Decision Health Center, which provides free and confidential services, such as pregnancy tests and ultrasounds, to its clients.
"We call ourselves life affirming," said Cindy Violet, community outreach manager for Pregnancy Decision Health Center. "We believe it's in the best interest of the mother and, of course, the child to bring a pregnancy to term."
Mary Teegarden, a junior in accounting and the president of Justice for All, said that by sponsoring large, attention-getting events such as the Genocide Awareness Project, which displays large photo murals depicting aborted fetuses juxtaposed with holocaust victims, the group reaches out to people who are undecided on the issue of abortion.
"People are uninformed, and that's one of the biggest problems," she said. "Our driving force is to be the voice for all unborn children."
Teegarden said some Justice for All members are traveling to Washington, D.C. this weekend to attend the March for Life, the annual event held on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.
Mark Harrington, executive director of the Midwest region of the Center for Bio-ethical Reform, which sponsored the Genocide Awareness Project, said his organization supports the confirmation of Alito.
"No one has a crystal ball," Harrington said. "But our hope is, from his testimony, that he will strictly interpret the Constitution. That means there is no right to abortion. You can't find it in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights."
Sean Phillippi, a senior business and VOX member, said abortion is an issue for everyone - not just women.
"Everyone has a mother, or a grandmother, or a sister," he said. "It's not just an issue of abortion, it's an issue of freedom."
"I heed the words of Republican President Teddy Roosevelt," he said. "Mr. Roosevelt said, 'The welfare of each of us is dependent fundamentally upon the welfare of all of us.'"
The abortion issue might eventually boil down to state's rights.
Wendy Smooth, assistant professor of women's studies, said, historically, individual states have had the ability to get around federal policy.
"We haven't been as focused as we need to be at the state level, as some are trying to curtail the reproductive rights of women," Smooth said. "We are turning back the strides made in the '70s. Small changes add up to big changes, and we are already seeing things, restrictions, like waiting periods, which are shaping reproductive policy. We need a strong state-by-state strategy."
Some state politicians reached out to anti-abortion supporters at a press conference held Wednesday. State Representative Tom Brinkman, R-Cincinnati, spoke about House Bill 228, known as the Ohio Abortion Ban Bill.
From the proposed legislation: "To prohibit abortions in this state, to increase the penalties for the offenses of unlawful abortion, unlawful distribution of an abortion-inducing drug, and abortion trafficking, to enact the offense of facilitating an abortion, and to make conforming changes in related provisions."
Nancy Scherer, an associate professor of political science at OSU who has researched the judicial appointment process, said special interest groups on both sides of the spectrum place enormous pressure on their state representatives.
"Both sides of this issue can mobilize a lot of voters. For instance, the National Organization of Women can mobilize hundreds of thousands of votes and so can the pro-life side," Scherer said. "This issue is literally tied to federal judges."
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