Home > Nearly a million people from more than 60 countries...
It’s Personal
Skye Perryman
Nearly a million people from more than 60 countries
flooded Washington, D.C. Sunday to participate in the
March for Women’s Lives, a demonstration that called
for reproductive freedom, healthcare, family planning,
and rights for women both in the United States and
abroad. The march issued a call to action against the
Bush Administration’s persistent efforts to thwart
reproductive choice and streamline healthcare and
resources for women.
Prior to the march a long list of speakers, including
Hollywood actors such as Whoopie Goldberg and Cybill
Shepherd, public officials Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, and choice movement pioneers
like Gloria Steinem, spoke to crowds of people at a
rally on the National Mall. Yesterday’s march is
estimated to be one of the largest in US history,
surpassing the 1992 women’s march in Washington in
which half a million activists participated.
In Solidarity
Sponsored by a broad coalition of groups, including the
National Organization for Women (NOW), the American
Civil Liberties Union, the Black Women’s Health
Imperative, the Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice
America, the National Association for the Advancement
of Colored People (NAACP), the National Latina
Institute for Reproductive Health, and the Planned
Parenthood Federation of America, the march saw
significant participation from people of color. Among
the more than 1400 cosponsoring organizations were
college groups, faith councils, gay rights groups, and
pro-choice Republican groups.
The march focused on more than reproductive choice,
with a large emphasis placed on women’s health, public
education resources, and the rights of women abroad.
Marchers were united against President Bush’s policies
against women. Marcher Caroline Gabel said that she was
demonstrating because she feels that President Bush and
other right-wing lawmakers were "arrogant" in assuming
authority over women’s lives. Another marcher, Donna
Clark, noted that she was participating so that future
generations of women will have the rights they deserve.
Some were compelled to march against specific policies
instituted by the Bush Administration, including the
international gag rule and the ban on late term
abortions. However diverse the marchers seemed, all
were chanting in unison throughout the streets of the
nation’s capitol.
Women’s Lives, Women’s Stories
Rallying chants weren’t the only things echoing through
the streets of Washington DC. Hundreds of thousands of
personal stories — told by hundreds of thousands of
unique voices — emerged from the marching crowd.
I marched alongside Marcia Carter, who recalled
protesting the War in Vietnam and participating in
civil rights sit-ins when she was a college student at
Vassar. Drawing upon her activist roots, Carter
remarked that she was marching because it is "hard to
watch what the Bush Administration is doing to women."
Another woman, Marylu deWatteville Raushenbush, helped
fight a Wisconsin law in the 1960s that restricted
unmarried women from obtaining birth control and
defined birth control as "indecent." She and a small
group of activists founded Wisconsin Citizens for
Family Planning, an organization that fought until the
law was declared invalid by a federal court.
Young women told stories about having to walk through
picket lines just to receive contraceptives at Planned
Parenthood clinics in their hometowns. One young woman
said that she was grateful that her Planned Parenthood
clinic provides free educational seminars.
March participant Andy Dodds said she was marching for
her newborn granddaughter. She and her friend, Winsome
Macintosh, opened their homes on Sunday morning for
women to stop by before the march and eat breakfast.
"It’s about strength in numbers," I heard one woman
say. "We want to make sure there are as many people at
the march as possible."
Two women marching, Lorraine Bucy and Carla
Raushenbush, are the great-granddaughters of the late
Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who fought
famously for the rights of women in the early twentieth
century. They see marching as a continuation of their
family’s progressive tradition and fight for human
rights. "It’s important that we — and all people —
stand up for liberty and choice," remarked Bucy.
Standing as one among thousands, I heard only a
fraction of the stories being told yesterday. There
were more...thousands of stories permeating the crowd
of energetic marchers.
"We’re Here, Mr. President"
Heard loud and clear at the march were the voices of
young women who made up approximately one third of the
participants. One young activist, speaking from the
podium at the post-march rally, called for the crowd to
chant "We’re Here, Mr. President," sending a message to
President Bush that young women were active and voting
in the next election. With data indicating that young
unmarried women are an untapped political constituency,
politicians are courting the votes of this group for
November. Young women at the march made it clear that
in this election they will be voting for a new
President. Such sentiments weren’t only expressed by
young women, all participants seemed galvanized by the
need to defeat Bush in November.
Democratic Presidential Nominee Sen. John Kerry rallied
with women’s rights supporters on Friday in preparation
for the march. At the march, Kerry volunteers lined the
streets passing out campaign stickers that read "Women
for Kerry." Veteran activist and early NARAL board
member Irene Crown said that she believed the stakes
are high in the next election. President Bush is
already "taking away the rights" of women, she noted.
Another marcher, Donna Gerstenfeld said that "another
four years of Bush" would be "detrimental" to women’s
rights and civil liberties for all Americans.
Few women’s rights supporters can rid their minds of
the picture last November when President Bush sat among
his friends — all males — and signed the Partial
Birth Abortion Ban. The measure would prevent a
physician from making a decision about his or her own
patient. After years of struggle for rights and
equality, decisions about a woman’s body can be
legislated. Throughout the march, I heard countless
references to that photograph and the long list of
policies that the Bush Administration has instituted
against women. Marching past the White House the
hundreds of thousands of demonstrators were unanimous
in their call for new leadership. Message to President
Bush: "This time....It’s Personal."
Skye Perryman is a contributor to AlterNet. She lives
in Washington, D.C. where she works as a Policy Fellow
at the Campaign for America’s Future.
AlterNet