Abortion foes ask O’Connor to quit

DALLAS (AP) – Anti-abortion leaders urged yesterday that Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O’Connor remove herself from consideration or that President Reagan withdraw her name before Senate confirmation hearings begin next week. Nellie Gray of March for Life assailed O’Connor’s nomination at a news conference beginning a 12-hour rally by a coalition of conservative Christians. She called the upcoming confinnation process for the Arizona judge “fatally flawed.” Gray said if Reagan and O’Connor ignore her ~roup’s deman~s’. “The Senate should recognize its out~ as an adv1smg and consenting body to bring the important questions about the nomination before the hearings and to get the full facts before the Senate.” _About 200 people showed up at a Rally for Choice to counter the anti-abortionists . Pro-choice activist Bill Baird told the crowd that the Moral Majority ‘s attempt to block O’Connor’s nomination was “tyrannical.” Baird challenged the Moral Majority’s founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, to a debate at a “celebration of freedom” get-together later in the day. Falwell was here for the conservative gathenng. Convention center officials said about 1,200 P:DPle were at the afternoon anti-abortion rally, with 6,800 attending the main evening event. Religious Roundtable President Ed McAteer organizer of the anti-abortion rally, said: “Here i~ a woman who has dealt out the death penalty, yet the official anti-death penalty crowd and the ACLU praise the nomination, and only right -to-life