Home > Massive Protest Decries Bush Abortion Policies
WASHINGTON - Protesters crowded the National Mall on
Sunday to show support for abortion rights and
opposition to Bush administration policies on women’s
health issues in one of the biggest demonstrations in
U.S. history.
MARCH FOR WOMEN’S LIVES: MASSIVE PROTEST IN DC
With the US Capitol in the background, hundreds of
thousands of pro-choice supporters take part in the
’March For Women’s Lives,’ on the Mall in Washington,
April 25, 2004. Protesters massed to show support for
abortion rights and opposition to Bush administration
policies on family planning and other reproductive
health issues. Photo by Stephen Boitano/Reuters
There was no official crowd count, but organizers
claimed more than 1 million people participated.
Pink- and purple-shirted protesters raised signs reading
"Fight the Radical Right," "Keep Abortion Legal" and
"U.S. Out Of My Uterus" and covered the Mall from the
foot of Capitol Hill to the base of the Washington
Monument.
Speakers ranged from actresses Whoopi Goldberg, Ashley
Judd and Kathleen Turner to philanthropist Ted Turner,
feminist icon Gloria Steinem and former Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright.
Goldberg raised a wire coat hanger — a symbol of
illegal abortions in the days before the Supreme Court’s
1973 Roe vs. Wade ruling recognizing abortion rights —
and told the crowd, "We are one vote away from going
back to this!"
She was referring to the nine-member high court, which
has frequently decided abortion-related cases on a five-
four vote.
The abortion issue was the centerpiece of the march’s
broad protest against the policies of President Bush,
including his stance on funding international family
planning. No U.S. funds may be used for any family
planning agency that mentions abortion to patients.
"Vote That Smirk Out of Office," was a
characteristically political placard targeting Bush, but
Dorothy Smith, 76, of Eldridge, Missouri, carried an
emblem she made herself — a wire coat hanger draped
with a sign reading "Never Again."
"I can remember when abortion was just as common as it
is now, but it killed a lot of women," Smith said.
Major sponsors included stalwarts of the abortion rights
movement — NARAL Pro-Choice America, Feminist Majority,
National Organization for Women, Planned Parenthood
Federation of America — as well as the American Civil
Liberties Union, the Black Women’s Health Imperative and
the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health.
’OLD BROADS FOR CHOICE’
Hundreds of thousands rally on the Mall in Washington,
Sunday, April 25, 2004, for an abortion-rights rally and
march. The rally, which focused on protecting women’s
reproductive rights, included men and women from across
the country along with activists from nearly 60
countries (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
Some 1,400 groups attended the event, including an
international contingent with marchers from 57
countries. There were medical students who carried signs
saying they planned to be the next generation of
abortion providers, and there was a Texas group marching
behind a banner that read, "Old Broads for Choice."
As the march wound from the Mall toward the White House
and then turned onto Pennsylvania Avenue and toward
Capitol Hill, abortion rights groups encountered anti-
abortion protesters.
These protesters carried posters showing photographs of
fetuses at eight weeks gestation and signs reading
"Abortion Kills Babies."
March organizers claimed double the turnout of the last
big abortion rights march in 1992, which drew 500,000,
according to the U.S. Park Police, who no longer gives
official crowd counts. The biggest demonstration was an
anti-Vietnam War rally in 1969, which drew 600,000. The
largest gathering on the National Mall was the 1976 U.S.
bicentennial celebration.
Though the march was billed as nonpartisan and included
a contingent called Republicans for Choice, much of the
day’s rhetoric was plainly aimed at Bush, a Republican
who opposes abortion in most cases.
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry vowed on
Friday to champion abortion rights if elected. He
received the endorsement of Planned Parenthood’s Action
Fund, the organization’s political fund-raising arm.
Neither Bush or Kerry attended the march, but U.S. Sen.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, a New York Democrat and former
first lady, drew roars of approval when she exhorted the
crowd to register to vote. Volunteers were on hand to
register new voters.
Bush addressed an anti-abortion march in January, saying
the effort to overturn the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v.
Wade ruling, which recognized a right to abortion, was
"a noble cause."