Jan. 20, 1998 Editor's Note: Mohr can be reached Tuesday, Jan. 20, and Wednesday, Jan. 21, in Washington, D.C., at (202) 966-6331 and is returning to the Eugene, Ore., campus on Thursday. University of Oregon historian James Mohr will testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee at a special hearing on Roe v. Wade on Wednesday, Jan. 21. The hearing begins at 11 a.m. in Room 226 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. Sen. Ted Kennedy asked Mohr, who is head of the UO Department of History, to appear at the hearing. Mohr is a nationally recognized expert on the abortion issue and the author of "Abortion in America: The Origins and Evolution of National Policy" published by Oxford University Press. He says Roe v. Wade "turned abortion into a symbolic focal point for a host of social agendas and, as a result, abortion politics have begun to influence Congress, the federal judiciary and even American foreign policy." All of this is somewhat ironic, he observes, since the United States tolerated the practice of abortion from the founding of the republic through most of the 19th century. SOURCE: James C. Mohr, head, UO Department of History, (541) 346-5903; E-mail, <jmohr@oregon.uoregon.edu> -30- #T-6045/Daybook,NB,NN,NW,Special