E-Mail This Article to a Friend Gloria Steinem: still a feisty bombshell after all these years 500 delegates and activists turn out for a pro-choice get-out-the-vote party BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI

MONDAY, JULY 26, 2004 -- "I’m a female. How could I not be here?" is how Erin Cornell, a 30-something Bostonian donning hip, dark-framed glasses, initially explains why she showed up this past Sunday at the World Trade Center West, in South Boston, the setting of a get-out-the-vote party for pro-choice advocates. But then, after a short pause, Cornell confided in the real reason why she trekked all the way down to the rather isolated office park: "I’m here for Gloria Steinem. She’s a bad ass."

That matter-of-fact observation pretty much sums up the headlining appearance by the country’s ultimate feminist. When Steinem, still a feisty bombshell at age 70, ascended the podium some two hours into the affair, the 500-strong crowd went wild. People stomped their feet on the ground; they raised their hands in the air in solidarity. This election, Steinem told them, is so crucial to women’s reproductive rights that "we cannot say it enough." After all, she said, reproductive freedom isn’t just a hot-button political issue. Rather, it amounts to a fundamental civil right. "It determines whether we can have power over our own lives," she exclaimed, adding how an unwanted pregnancy can have an adverse affect a person’s job, education, and family life. Said Steinem, to rousing applause, "Only when we have the right to decide when to have children do we have the right to decide our destiny."

Such spirited words topped off this spirited pro-choice event. Before Steinem had even reached the podium that night, the new, seaside offices of Foley Hoag -- the Boston law firm that has fought legal battles on behalf of women’s advocates for 25 years --buzzed with energy. Hundreds of Kerry/Edwards supporters, women and men, young and old, mingled through the 13th floor ballroom as the sound of jazz floated from speakers. Audience members, all of whom donned red, circular stickers that said STAND UP FOR KERRY. STAND UP FOR CHOICE, huddled at cocktail tables festooned with red, white, and blue balloons. They drank glasses of white wine and bottles of Heineken. And they ruminated on the attacks against a woman’s right to choose -- and the need to boot the anti-choice Bush administration out of office to reverse the trend.

The celebration, organized by Planned Parenthood and its political arm, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, represented a first for these advocates. Never before had the advocacy groups endorsed a presidential candidate. Although Planned Parenthood had given the thumbs-up to those politicians running for US Congress, as well as state offices, it had always sat on the sidelines during presidential elections. Says Steve Smith, of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, "We never felt a sense of urgency to get involved in the presidential elections like we do this year. But this election is too important to us."

Indeed, George W. has made for great motivation among those who care about women’s reproductive rights. Bush had set an anti-choice tone for his administration from the outset. On his first day in office, he reinstated what pro-choice advocates call the "global gag rule," which cuts off funding to any international family-planning organization that provides abortions or even provides information about the procedures. Over four years, the administration has continued to chip away at choice. Most recently, Congress passed, and Bush signed, two insidious pieces of anti-choice legislation -- the first restricts a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy that is endangering her own health (known as the "partial-birth" abortion ban); the second confers unprecedented legal status on fetuses (the Unborn Victims of Violence Act).

At the rally, Steinem wasn’t the only headliner to dub the Bush administration a "danger" to women’s reproductive health. John Kerry’s sister, Peggy, whose long, oval face bears a striking resemblance to the official Democratic presidential nominee, wasted no time in outlining the differences between Kerry and Bush on the issue. Her brother, Peggy stressed, would do three things as soon as he takes over the White House. First, he would lift the global gag rule -- a promise that earned her a round of applause. Second, he would re-fund the United Nations population fund, which funnels money into family planning services in third-world countries across the globe (louder applause). Third, he would appoint pro-choice judges to the US Supreme Court and the federal courts (even louder applause). "This is the most important election of our lives," Peggy exclaimed, reminding the crowd that there are only 100 days left until November 2. "It’s up to all of us to get involved. It’s up to all of us to mobilize" to help the Kerry/Edwards ticket take back the White House.

Already, the pro-choice pep rally seemed to have an effect. Elizabeth Downey, 28, a Boston University fundraiser, for instance, found Steinem and friends "inspiring." She and her roommate, 26-year-old Melissa Coomber, have been trying to urge friends who are Independents to relinquish support for Bush, albeit with little success. Still, as Downey relayed, "I feel like Bush just doesn’t give a shit about women, so it’s extremely critical that we get him out of office." Now, after listening to pro-choice leaders, she said, "I’ll have to go home and try to work on my friends again."