WASHINGTON — Women’s rights supporters rallied near the Capitol Sunday to protest “violence against women” — a term they applied not only to rape and battering but also to political assaults on welfare spending, abortion and affirmative action.

“As women have been able to take some small measure of power, we’re facing a fierce backlash,” Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, told the crowd.

Thousands of people, including several bus loads from Maine, spread across the National Mall for the rally, organized by NOW and endorsed by more than 700 groups, including abortion-rights supporters, labor unions, civil rights groups, gay and lesbian organizations, environmentalists, socialists, victims’ rights advocates, and welfare recipients.

The U.S. Park Police, using helicopters, counted 50,000 people at the rally. Ireland gave a much larger estimate of 200,000.

Coming at the end of the first 100 days of the new GOP-led Congress, the “Rally for Women’s Lives” focused heavily on the conservative agenda of House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.

Speakers voiced fears that Congress would curtail abortion rights, cut spending on welfare programs for women and children, dismantle affirmative action programs for women and minorities, and cut funding to prevent domestic violence and aid its victims. They equated what they called “political violence” with physical attacks.

In Maine, 14 deaths were attributed to domestic violence in 1994, and already in 1995, five deaths have been added to the list.

The state has 10 shelter services that are counting on the funds included in the Violence Against Women Act in last year’s crime bill. The funds would be distributed in October.

“Without federal funding, the whole shelter and protection network in Maine is in danger of collapse. … We don’t have waiting lists. We have beepers. Our commitment is to be there. We need help,” said Chris Fenno, executive director of the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project in Lewiston and Auburn in a press release issued before the weekend’s march.

“Be it personal terror or political terror, it has just one purpose — control,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of The Feminist Majority during speeches in Washington Sunday. “We are the majority. Our rights will only be taken away if we allow the terrorists to reign.”

Hoisting signs that read “NOW, Not Newt” and “Republicans Don’t Need Abortions, They Eat Their Young,” demonstrators chanted “We won’t go back.” A few women stripped to their bras, and some went topless in the warm sun. Men and children also were sprinkled through the crowd.

“There should be as many men here as women here,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. “Men must know that none of us are secure until all of us are secure.”

Among the speakers were relatives of people killed in anti-abortion shootings, including June Barrett, whose husband James was shot to death while escorting a doctor into a Pensacola, Fla., abortion clinic.

“I survived that horrible nightmare and I am here today to say to you, help stop the violence and defend a woman’s right to choose,” said Mrs. Barrett, who was injured in the attack.

An assortment of celebrities, including Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly of television’s “Cagney and Lacey,” rock singer Joan Jett, rapper Mama, and musical groups BETTY and Toad the Wet Sprocket also appeared.

Timed to coincide with the rally, more than 6,000 T-shirts representing victims of rape, murder, battering, child abuse, and other violence against women were strung across the Mall as part of the nationwide “Clothesline Project.”

Denise Brown hung a white T-shirt covered with colorful handprints and handwritten messages in honor of her sister Nicole Brown Simpson, the slain ex-wife of O.J. Simpson.

“Mommy, I miss you and I love you. Justin,” read the note from Ms. Simpson’s 6-year-old son.

Tammy Murphy of Luray, Va., brought two shirts that she said represented emotional abuse inflicted by her husband, from whom she is now separated. Hand-copying a poem about her experiences onto a white T-shirt was a therapeutic experience, she said.

“When I put it on the shirt, for the first time I wasn’t ashamed to sign my name,” Murphy said. “That was a big step.”