BOXER CITES ABORTION BATTLES.

Byline: Martha Bellisle Associated Press 

Instead of attacking abortion rights head on, anti-abortion forces are slowly chipping away at a woman's right to choose, Sen. Barbara Boxer said Saturday.

As recently as Thursday, anti-abortion members of Congress made it a little more difficult for women to exercise their constitutional right to end unwanted pregnancies, the California senator said at the National Women's Political Caucus Convention.

The Senate last week rejected an effort to overturn a law that prohibits abortions in military hospitals overseas. Instead, women stationed overseas must continue to fly back to the United States for the procedure.

``A woman serving her country can't go and pay out of her pocket at a clean military base,'' Boxer said. ``Instead, she has to go to her commanding officer and tell the whole story, then hitch a ride on a cargo plane to take care of the situation.

``She's putting her life on the line for her country and she has to go through this humiliating situation. It's a pathetic situation when a woman is treated like a second-class citizen.''

Boxer, an outspoken liberal finishing her first Senate term, faces Republican Matt Fong in November's primary. She took advantage of the three-day convention in Los Angeles to urge supporters to help her raise funds for an election that Republican strategists say will be a tough battle.

Boxer, 57, received about 44 percent of the vote in California's open primary June 2. Conventional political wisdom holds that unopposed incumbents who get less than half the vote are in trouble in the general election.

The rejection of last week's bill was one of several anti-abortion moves by Congress recently, she said.

``Abortion is no longer an insurance option for federal employees,'' she said. ``Poor women on Medicaid may not use their coverage to choose abortion, and women in Washington, D.C., cannot have the help of city resources to pay for abortion.

``What they want to do is knock it down, knock it down, knock it down.''

Boxer said only 33 senators are solidly in support of abortion rights. State Treasurer Fong opposes abortion. For that reason, Boxer urged caucus members to help send her back to Washington, D.C.

``I need to go back to the Senate to hold the line against assaults against choice,'' Boxer said.

Boxer has $3.4 million in the bank, while Fong has nearly nothing. She consistently gets strong fund-raising support from President Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, to whom she is related by marriage.

Boxer was virtually unopposed in the primary and was able to save her money by making the potentially risky decision to not purchase any television ads. Fong fought a costly battle against multimillionaire Darrell Issa in the primary.

The National Women's Political Caucus is California's largest grass-roots organization dedicated to electing and appointing women abortion rights supporters to public office. The 25-year-old group has endorsed Boxer's candidacy for re-election.

The California chapter is holding its three-day convention in Los Angeles this weekend.

Boxer has introduced the Family Planning and Choice Protection Act to codify Roe v. Wade, she said.

Besides repealing the recently passed bills that limit abortions, the act increases funding for family planning programs and calls for increased safety at reproductive health clinics, she said.

CAPTION(S):

Photo

PHOTO Barbara Boxer

Says abortion rights threatened