Feminist leaders said Friday the clock would be turned back 25 years on women's rights if David Souter is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. ``If we lose this one, we'll never get it back,'' said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, who is lobbying the Senate to reject the nominee. Smeal said she had read all 200 of Souter's legal opinions and believes he would work to cut off women's access to birth control and abortion. Molly Yard, president of the National Organization for Women, said Souter revealed his opposition to abortion by calling it the ``killing of unborn children.'' ``That's the language of the right wing,'' Yard said. Souter did not use the words during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings this week, but while New Hampshire attorney general he signed a brief that contained the language. However, during the hearings Friday, Souter said he has not made up his mind on the abortion rights issue and would consider both sides if he is confirmed. ``I have not got any agenda on what should be done with Roe vs. Wade,'' Souter in reference to the case that legalized abortion. ``I would listen to both sides of that case. I have not made up my mind and I would not go on the court saying I must go one way or I must go the other way.'' But Yard said that Souter's repeated reference to the abortion rights position as ``the other side,'' was evidence of where he stood. Smeal and Yard, who have attended most of the hearings, said Souter's answers to questions on constitutionally protected privacy rights concerning birth control indicated he believed in the concept for married couples, but left open whether single people had the same right. Smeal said the addition of Souter to the court would create the majority needed to whittle away at a woman's right to abortion and birth control until access no longer existed. ``It would take about 10 years,'' she said. ``First would be a requirement that teen-agers get parental consent for an abortion, then spousal consent.'' She predicted the court then would restrict the time period in which an abortion could be performed and then limit the kind of facility that could do the operation. Those decisions would be followed by requirements that teen-agers get parental consent for birth control requiring a physician's prescription and later that women get their husbands' consent, Smeal said. ``The last step would be outlawing the sale of birth control to single people,'' she said. ``That would take us back to 1965.'' That year, in Griswold vs. Connecticut, a case involving the sale of contraceptives, the court for the first time recognized a constitutional right of privacy. The decision led to widespread availability of birth control for married and unmarried people. Smeal said women's ability to get out from under the burden of unwanted pregnancies have been the key to the many advances they have been able to achieve outside the home. Smeal and Yard spoke to a rally organized by NOW across the street from the Capitol. About 150 people opposing the Souter nomination attended.
