July 12, 1974
BOSTON - "What we have before us is a fight common to all women. Tonight we are issuing a call to action," stated Carol Henderson Evans, a coordinator of the Ad Hoc Committee to Defend Abortion Rights.

She was speaking to an enthusiastic meeting of 250 people at Faneuil Hall June 26. The teach-in and protest rally, sponsored by the committee, was called in response to Massachusetts legislation that would restrict the availability of abortions and severely limit research and experimentation on fetal tissue.

A bill introduced by state Representative William Dellahunt would allow abortions after the twentieth week of pregnancy only for therapeutic reasons. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that states could not impose such restrictions on a woman's right to choose until after the twenty-fourth week.

Another bill, which was signed into law the very evening of the rally, restricts research of fetal tissue.

Dr. Leonard Berman, one of four doctors recently indicted under an 1814 "grave-robbing" law for using fetal tissue in a research project, spoke at the Faneuil Hall rally. He stated his opposition to the fetal research law, explaining that such research has led to the discovery of vaccines against German measles as well as means of diagnosing birth defects. Improved health care for both women and children, he stated, will be adversely affected by the law.

July 11, 1949
Shown above are five of the Trenton Six, whose death sentences were reversed in a unanimous decision of the New Jersey Supreme Court on June 30. [Above photo was of five Black men.]

The court's decision condemned the "confessions" extorted from the defendants while they were being held illegally and without warrants on "suspicion" of murdering a Trenton junkdealer.

It also criticized the prosecution for withholding fingerprint evidence requested by the defense and the trial judge for improperly charging the jury and for taking it on himself to pronounce the death sentence on them although the jury verdict was "guilty" and not "guilty in the first degree."

But while the court threw out the convictions, it did not free the six defendants, who are still in jail and many have to undergo another trial in the fall.

Mass protest has won a significant partial victory; but more and stronger protest is needed now to win cancellation of plans for another trial and immediate freedom for the defendants.  
 
 
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