LOS ANGELES - On the thirtieth anniversary of Roe v. Wade, over twenty-five reproductive rights and civil rights organizations in California are calling upon women's advocates in the state's Congressional delegation to ensure that the Bush Administration does not dismantle the protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade.

In an open letter, the groups urge, 'With your help, our granddaughters may mature in a nation that respects their freedom, not one that offers only the stunted choices and unconscionable risks of earlier generations.' Since taking office, the Bush Administration has pursued a steady, though stealthy, campaign to eliminate reproductive freedom in the U.S. and around the world.

Roe v. Wade has been the cornerstone of dramatic increases in women's participation in the economic, social and political life of our nation since 1973. Legal abortion has become one of the safest clinical procedures performed in the United States and is 11 times safer than childbirth. For those reasons and others, more than 7 in 10 Californians identify themselves as pro-choice.

'A woman's right to choose is one of our most critical and hard won liberties in a generation,' said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. 'Unfortunately the Bush Administration does not share this view. Today we send a clear message to those who seek to banish women to the dark ages of back-alley abortions: we will not go back, we will fight to keep our right to choose.'

California has resisted the national trend toward growing inequality in reproductive freedom, because it has a state constitutional right to privacy, a court system that enforces that right, and a pro-choice Governor, Legislature and Attorney General. The groups say that Californians must now turn their attention to the federal government, which is poised to enact draconian new restrictions on abortion access.

Signatories to the letter include ACCES/ Women's Health Rights Coalition, ACLU of Southern California, ACLU of Northern California, ACLU of San Diego, Asians & Pacific Islanders for Reproductive Health, California Commission on Status of Women, CARAL, California NOW, California Catholics for Free Choice, California Women Lawyers, California Family Health Council Inc., National Council of Jewish Women, Planned Parenthood Golden Gate, Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, Physicians for Reproductive Health & Choice, and Women's Leadership Alliance.

LOS ANGELES - In a unanimous vote last night, the City Council of West Hollywood passed a resolution regarding the civil liberties dangers of the USA PATRIOT Act, the first Southern California city to join a growing movement across the nation of local jurisdictions voicing dissent and exploring ways of responding locally to USA Patriot's civil liberties threats. Twenty-six other cities and counties have passed such resolutions, including Oakland, Denver, and Detroit, in part of a national movement led by the ACLU and other groups.

The City of West Hollywood was also one of 5 cities in the nation to address the issue of library privacy explicitly in its resolution and has instructed city librarians to notify patrons about the impact USA PATRIOT has on the privacy of patron records, including Internet searches. Librarians across the country have been expressing concern about the ways in which the PATRIOT Act compromises patrons' privacy.

'Libraries should be a bastion of intellectual freedom,' said Ramona Ripston, 'but when federal law enforcement authorities have the power to conduct secret searches, then everyone's intellectual freedom is compromised.'

'Your library card should be your passport to a world of your own, a private world, and your librarian should be the trusted custodian of that privacy. But changes in federal law have altered that basic understanding,' said Ripston. 'In the cold war, we saw that libraries across the nation were visited and searched; people with foreign-sounding names were automatic suspects. Unfortunately, we've returned to that era under Attorney General Ashcroft.'

Since 9/11, library patrons have far fewer protections against privacy violations. Business records, including library records, are subject to searches authorized by secret courts, and librarians are prohibited from informing individual patrons whose records are seized. In addition, searches of library Internet use records potentially expose all library patrons to law enforcement scrutiny.

The City of West Hollywood also instructed its Public Safety staff to review all of the ways in which the city can ensure the First Amendment rights of its residents.

'The First Amendment provision of the West Hollywood resolution is critical,' said Ripston. 'So many of the provisions of the PATRIOT Act chill freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and even, potentially, the free exercise of religion. When government agents spy on domestic groups, as they are authorized to do now, individuals take real risks in participating in dissent. Likewise, mosques or other religious establishments may, as a result of Attorney General Ashcroft's power grab, be targeted with domestic surveillance.'

LOS ANGELES - Today, a coalition of civil liberties and advocacy groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Iranian American Lawyers Association, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Muslim Public Affairs Council, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Asian Pacific Legal Center, the Progressive Jewish Alliance, People For the American Way, and the Japanese American Citizen's League called on the Department of Justice to scrap the flawed and misguided INS Special Call-In Registration program or, at the very least, to extend the deadlines for registration so that the regulations in the program can be corrected.

The coalition's statement comes on the heels of the arrest and detention of hundreds of Arab and Iranian men who voluntarily reported to the INS to be fingerprinted, photographed and interviewed by the December 16 registration deadline for National's of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, and Syria. Deadlines are approaching for 15 additional countries that were recently added to the INS list.

'An immense number of law-abiding individuals have been unjustly detained and imprisoned in unacceptable and inhumane conditions as a result of this registration process,' said Kayhan Shakib, president of the Iranian American Lawyers Association. 'As other communities confront upcoming registration deadlines, we want them to be aware that the basic principles of fairness and equity are not being upheld.'

'The actions undertaken by the INS only serve to underscore the fact that some people in the Administration still don't understand the values we are all fighting to protect,' said Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California. 'This is the United States of America; we have to remember that many of these people came to this country fleeing political and religious persecution. What kind of message are we sending them?'

According to reports from family members and lawyers, some detainees have been held in facilities where there is not enough room to move, walk or sleep, and some have been denied food and necessary medicines. There are also concerns that even people believed to be in compliance with immigration regulations are being detained.

'This INS roundup is confused, ineffective and deceptive,' said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC). 'It is clear these measures erode our freedom, yield no enhanced security, and serve to damage America's global image.'

'Despite our collective desire for security, and despite our current fears, we must not allow ourselves to repeat the shameful excesses of the past,' said Ken Inouye, vice-president of public affairs for the Japanese American Citizen's League. 'Rounding up immigrants based on nothing but their religion or national origin shows only that we have not learned from ourmistakes and is inconsistent with the core values of our Constitution.'

'This flawed operation seems to be repeating the problems of other mass detentions by the federal government,' said People for the American Way California Deputy Director, Marcos Barron. 'It singles out people for different kinds of treatment based on their ethnicity and national background, and it is carried out with excessive secrecy, which prevents oversight and accountability.'