The leading attorney in the landmark case that legalized abortion in every state says the ruling is in danger, and abortion rights activists need to speak up.

"I have never in 30 years been more concerned about the future" of the 1973 Supreme Court ruling of Roe vs. Wade, said attorney Sarah Weddington, who won the case.

Weddington was one of three national figures in town Wednesday for the first event of One Voice for Choice, a coalition to raise money and mobilize people in support of abortion rights in Kentucky and nationwide. She spoke to about 500 people at the Kentucky Center in Louisville.

She was joined by former U.S. rep Connie Morella of Maryland, a Republican critical of President Bush for his opposition to abortion and who served in Congress for 16 years, and Frances Kissling, president of Catholics for a Free Choice.

All three said that abortion opponents have made advances in the last thirty years, while abortion-rights leaders have taken for granted that Roe vs. Wade would always stand. But that is beginning to change, they said, as abortion-rights supporters begin to speak up and organize.

The women urged those in the audience to write letters to the editor, to call in to talk shows and to write their leaders in support of legalized abortion.

"We've got be more active," Weddington said.

Outside the Kentucky Center a group of about 20 abortion opponents protested. They held signs that read, "Roe v. Wade will die" and "Abortion Kills Children."

Margie Montgomery, executive director of the Kentucky Right to Life Association, questioned why the Kentucky Commission on Women, a state agency, was on of the 12 groups to join the One Voice coalition. She said the commission should be neutral on the issue.

Betsy Nowland-Curry, executive director of the Commission on Womens, said that her agency, whose 269,000 budget comes from state government, favors abortion rights and always has.

Nowland-Curry also noted that "abortions are legal."

Morella, warning that abortion rights are being eroded, said legislators are "chipping away at choice, circumstance by circumstance."

One Voice for Choice represents a recognition that abortion-rights supporters have not been as vocal or as active as opponents in Kentucky, organizers say.

This article courtesy of the Associated Press.