Abortion Killings Raise New Concerns

The second deadly shooting at a Florida abortion clinic in less than two years has activists on both sides of the abortion controversy agreeing on one thing: It looks like even more violence to come.

Although mainstream anti-abortion groups expressed horror at the Friday killings of Dr. John Bayard Britton and James Herman Barrett, they acknowledge that a militant minority may be escalating the violence.

``It is ... the kind of thing people involved in the anti-abortion movement now consider a viable option,'' said Catherine Albisa, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy in New York. On Friday, Britton and his escort were fatally shot by former minister Paul Hill as they entered the Ladies Center in Pensacola. Hill had appeared on TV calling for ''justifiable homicide'' against abortion doctors. First lady in Boston

Hillary Rodham Clinton was to be in Boston yesterday afternoon to help kick off the Northeastern route of the Health Security Express.

The bus caravans are heading to Washington from different parts of the country, carrying ``reform riders'' urging Congress to push President Clinton's plan for universal health care coverage. Mrs. Clinton has been putting the focus on the bus riders.