WASHINGTON — From the Lincoln Memorial to the Golden Gate Bridge, abortion rights advocates rallied Sunday by the hundreds of thousands, warning politicians that they will be holding them accountable in next year's elections and beyond.

Their prime target, they said, is President Bush, an abortion foe who recently vetoed legislation that would have permitted the government to pay for abortions performed on poor women who are victims of rape or incest.

"No woman can be free to plan her life if she cannot decide when and whether to have children," National Organization for Women President Molly Yard told the rally at the base of the Lincoln Memorial. "As the Berlin Wall comes tumbling down, President Bush would enslave the women of this country by not allowing us to control our reproductive lives."

People were jammed along the reflecting pool on the grassy mall that stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument. Police estimated the crowd at 150,000 but organizers insisted that the number was twice that.

The day's events began with a sunrise candlelight vigil in Kennebunk, Me., near Bush's vacation retreat.

"In his inaugural address, George Bush spoke of a new breeze of freedom refreshing the nation," Planned Parenthood President Faye Wattleton said there. "This is no fresh breeze of freedom. This is a piercing gust of oppression."

Then came more than 1,000 events in 120 cities across the country. Rallies were held or scheduled in cities such as Lincoln, Neb.; Austin, Tex.; New Orleans; Charleston, W. Va.; Tallahassee, Fla.; Atlanta; Laramie, Wyo.; Oklahoma City; Milwaukee; Watertown, N.Y., and Seattle.

The final event was another candlelight ceremony--in San Francisco--on another coast. As many as 2,000 abortion rights activists filled a corner of Alamo Square for the rally, listening to speakers including Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Greenbrae), Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and former Rep. Bella Abzug of New York.

Many who gathered for the demonstrations were still euphoric over the victories of abortion rights supporters in last week's gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey.

"Did you get the message, George Bush?" Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose) asked at the Washington rally.

The New Jersey and Virginia gubernatorial races had been seen as the first big electoral tests of the abortion rights issue in the wake of last July's U.S. Supreme Court decision giving states more power to restrict the procedure.