AUGUSTA — Days after bombs ripped through an Atlanta abortion clinic, Maine’s pro-life leaders urged hundreds of people gathered at the State House Saturday to use peaceful but persistent ways to end abortion in the state and nation.

Addressing more than 600 pro-life supporters who left the warm comforts of their homes for the frigid air and icy steps of the capitol, speakers distanced themselves from the bombing and denounced the shooting of Bill Cosby’s son.

“The abortion clinic bombing is as wrong as the ruthless murder of Bill Cosby’s son, is as wrong as the act of abortion,” said Mike Heath, executive director of the Christian Civic League. “All three are violent, cruel and unconscionable and all three deserve the equal condemnation of the law and our leaders.”

Drawing people from all over the state, the rally marked the 24th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion in this country. Bundled up in coats and hats and anything else that would keep them warm, participants concluded the hour-long rally by clasping hands in a circle that enclosed the State House.

The rally used a mixture of Christian rock music, a skit by teen-agers and testimonials and speeches to help fire up the pro-life supporters in anticipation of what is expected to be a difficult year ahead for their cause.

Asked after the rally for a prediction for antiabortion issues this year, former state Rep. Lisa Lumbra, a Republican and pro-life advocate ousted in November by a Bangor Democrat, said “not good.”

Christopher Coughlan, executive director of the Maine Right to Life Committee, concurred that this next session will be difficult in light of already wide support for abortion among the Legislature’s leadership.

Speakers vowed to press on with their efforts for a renewal in faith and a renewal in America.

“We aren’t going to go away and this issue isn’t going to go away until life is respected in all places and in all ways, including in this house,” said Heath, pointing to the state capitol building behind him.

It was quiet on Saturday, but later this year the capitol building will again be the site of continued, heated debate over abortion as pro-life supporters push forward their agenda and fend off opponent’s efforts to support partial-birth abortions and physician-assisted suicides.

Legislators have initiated a number of bills aimed at curbing abortion in Maine. One would require parental notification of minors seeking an abortion and another would require a 24-hour waiting period before anyone underwent an abortion procedure. Both issues have been rejected by the Legislature in the past.

Meanwhile, The Family Planning Association of Maine is opening a center in Augusta that will perform abortions. An affront to some was the center’s location, about 200 yards from a Pentecostal church.

Rep. Adam Mack, R-Standish, a freshman legislator, is sponsoring a bill that would pull the plug on state funding for family planning facilities like this that perform abortions. According to Maine Right to Life Committee literature, more than $1.5 million in Maine taxes fund Family Planning programs each year.

As well as a difficult year, pro-life supporters also saw 1997 as a year of renewed vigor because a handful of young pro-life legislators were elected over their Democratic opponents.

Tarren Bragdon, R-Bangor, is the state’s youngest legislator and one of a few legislators born after the landmark Roe vs. Wade decision. Bragdon told the attentive audience that he had been a tough pregnancy for his mother. With his father going back to school at the time, the 21-year-old said, it would have been a lot more convenient for his parents to have an abortion than have him. That relevation “really impacted me a lot,” said Bragdon, who urged the audience to keep fighting for future generations.

“We have no idea how different our world would be today if they were alive,” Bragdon said.

While some speakers Saturday tried to get across to listeners the vastness of the 1973 abortion decision — there have been an estimated 35 million abortions since then — Lumbra tried to put it in a more personal perspective.

Thirty-four years ago, she said, an unwed 16-year-old was pregnant with a child diagnosed with mental handicaps. The woman chose to have the child, although later Lumbra said the young mother might have succumbed to aborting the baby had the procedure been more readily available back then.

The baby was “the apple of my eye and also my sister,” said Lumbra, who then watched as her sister gingerly walked down the State House steps toward her.

“We will never, never give up, ever,” Lumbra said a few moments later to the roar of the crowd.