Q&A: Eleanor Smeal - On the Line

Progressive, The, Jan, 2003

Eleanor Smeal served as president of the National Organization for Women in the 1970s and 1980s and went on to become a cofounder and president of the Feminist Majority Foundation. Smeal led the national abortion rights march in 1986 that drew more than 100,000 demonstrators to Washington, D.C. She visited our offices in November during a stop on the "Never Go Back" tour. It will travel to college campuses, women's health clinics, and community groups in Nevada, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, South Dakota, and West Virginia. The Feminist Majority is also hosting a student leadership conference January 22 to 23 in Washington, D.C.

Q: What is the support for abortion rights nationwide?

Smeal: Approximately 70 percent of the electorate are for keeping abortion legal. If you look at thirty years of polling, there's very little difference in the results. Our biggest opponent is not public support; our biggest opponent is that our majority does not think it can be taken away. They think this is modern life and that the pill will never be made illegal and abortion will never be made illegal.

Q: How tenuous are abortion rights?

Smeal: Very tenuous. We had a 5-to-4 Supreme Court decision the last time abortion came up. We have a President who has vowed to appoint Scalia- or Thomas-type judges who are totally opposed. The eldest justice is Stevens, and he's pro-choice. Basically, we have real problems.

Q: Do you have commitments from Democratic Senators to filibuster an anti-choice Supreme Court nominee?

Smeal: I believe that we will have. We've talked to many Senators on this subject. They're not going to say this on the hypothetical. Do we have the forty-one? It's going to be tough but not impossible.

And we've got to believe that we can win. I think one of our problems is that we get almost used to losing and that can't be--not with something this important.