SAN FRANCISCO - One of the nation's biggest abortion advocates warned Monday that if the next president elected supports the right to life that the so-called "right" to abortion could fall. Kate Michelman, president of the radically pro-abortion National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, made her prediction after addressing several hundred boisterous supporters gathered in San Francisco.

The event celebrating the 30th anniversary of NARAL resembled a political pep rally with rhetorical speeches by pro-abortion California Gov. Gray Davis and Michelman, underscoring the national effort to make abortion a pivotal issue in the 2000 presidential campaign.

"If we get an anti-choice president in the year 2000, we will see the overthrow of Roe vs. Wade,'' said Michelman after the luncheon, referring to the landmark 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion on demand. She noted that if two of the justices who form the majority supporting abortion are replaced by pro-life supporters, it will mean the end of Roe v. Wade.

For instance, she said, it is possible that Justice John Paul Stevens, a pro-abortion member who is 78, could leave the court in the next few years, as well as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a crucial swing vote who has sided with abortion proponents. O'Connor, 69, has had a history of health problems.

These retirement possibilities make the 2000 presidential election all the more important for pro-life advocates. In its last major decision on the issue (Casey v. Planned Parenthood), a divided Supreme Court in 1992 reinforced the so-called right to have an abortion but allowed states to impose certain pro-life protections.