Apr. 25, 2004 – An estimated 1,110,000 people took part in a "March for Women’s Lives" today, taking a united demand for women’s rights to the nation’s capitol.
In what was possibly the largest and most diverse demonstration in US history, women’s rights advocates drew together the myriad issues that affect women’s lives and demanded that policy makers in Congress and the Whitehouse take heed.
"We demand an end to coercive and punitive policies that prevent us from making informed decisions about our health, our lives and our futures," said Silvia Henriquez, addressing the demonstrators. Henriquez is the executive director of the National Latina Institute of Reproductive Health, an organization advocating access to reproductive health care for Latinas, their families and communities.
Calling themselves "pro-choice," "pro-family," "pro-children" and "pro-freedom," the participants in the "March for Women’s Lives" were diverse in age, race, gender, religion, ability and national origin. According to organizers, over 1,400 organizations and 57 countries were represented at the gathering, and the diversity of the speakers resembled the crowd.
The main organizing coalition for the march consisted of the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Women's Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
"We are here to proudly announce that young women, women of color and poor women are here to lead. We are not here as foot soldiers, we are here to lead. We are not here to hold signs, we are here to make decisions." -- Caricia Catalina
The mood at the gathering was both triumphant and determined. Women’s movement and civil rights leaders and feminist celebrities addressed the crowd on the National Mall. They seemed buoyed by the sheer size and enthusiasm of the crowd. Though they leveled strong criticism at the Bush administration for its recent legal attacks on women’s rights, orators exuded a confidence in the power of the women’s movement to reverse the setbacks and move toward increased equality.
Hoisting a coat hanger into the air, actress Whoopi Goldberg recalled the days when abortion was illegal and women died from illegal or "back ally" abortions. "Does anybody remember this? Do you remember what this was used for?" she said to the crowd, brandishing the coat hanger. "There is a whole generation out there standing with us who don’t know what this is for. People asked me why I was carrying a hanger and I said because this is what life was like before choice. This was the choice, and I’m here to tell you never again. Never again! Never again will this be the choice of any woman in our hemisphere or in our world… We are not going back; we are going forward!"
Organizers say they estimated the number of demonstrators using the standard method of counting participants in grids on the National Mall, known to hold a predetermined number of people. The count was verified by 2,500 volunteers, who counted demonstrators and marked them with stickers as they entered the March area.
Organizers estimated that over one third of participants at the march were under the age of 25, and youth leaders from half a dozen organizations addressed the crowd. Many stressed the importance of combining women’s reproductive issues with the plethora of issues facing women.
"I’ve always been taught that you’re not a freedom fighter unless you are fighting for all oppressed women," said Nitche Ward, a field organizer for the National Organization of Women. "When you choose an organization, make sure they are fighting for more than just your womb -- that they’re fighting for you as a holistic person."
Speaking on behalf of the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, youth organizer Caricia Catalina said, "We are here to remind everyone that choice is about more than legal freedoms. It means access to doctors. It means access to education. It means access to care in your language.
"We are here to proudly announce that young women, women of color and poor women are here to lead," she continued. "We are not here as foot soldiers, we are here to lead. We are not here to hold signs, we are here to make decisions. And we are here to build a broad social justice movement."
Genevive Aguilar from the American Civil Liberties Union spoke about the importance of healthcare that addresses the needs of women of color and the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community. "As a Latina and as a lesbian, I have often felt invisible in the eyes of doctors and nurses because they have not recognized my reproductive health needs as a lesbian. But I know that I am not invisible to illness, I know I am not invisible to cervical cancer, I am not invisible to breast cancer, and I am not invisible to sexually transmitted diseases."
Organizers said the largest contingent of women of color in US history marched today and the issues facing Black, Latina, Asian Pacific and other women of color were front and center.
"The reproductive health of Black women is in a state of crisis. Black women are suffering and dying too often, too soon and needlessly," said Dr. Lorraine Cole, president and CEO of the Black Women's Health Imperative, an African American health education, research, advocacy and leadership development institution. "This crisis spans a broad range of issues: maternal mortality, infant mortality, HIV/AIDS, access to health, policies that interfere with reproductive health care, and many more."
Cole said Black women die from pregnancy related causes more than any other group of women, that there are twenty Black women suffering from HIV/AIDS for every one white woman, that babies born to Black women die at rates as high as in Third World Countries and that one out of every three Black women in the US has no health insurance.
"All these numbers have names and faces, they represent women’s lives," said Cole. "Just like Sojourner Truth more than 150 years ago, we have sojourned here to speak the truth. The time is now to answer Sojourner Truth’s question ‘Ain’t I a woman?’ with a resounding ‘yes!’"
Speaking to the Latina women in the crowd, Henriquez said, "We are emerging as a vibrant civic and political force. We are a critically important constituency and we will not be ignored or silenced. We are here today to ensure that no Latina will live in a climate of fear or oppression or without basic access to comprehensive and affordable health care. The time is now, our lives are at stake!"
Nellie Pearson from the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, a women’s rights and social justice organization said, "We have come from across the country representing progressive Asian Pacific American Women. We are here to march for all aspects of women’s lives. We are here to have our voices heard. This is what the movement looks like."
Many of the speakers expressed solidarity with women worldwide and condemned the Bush administration for policies they said hurt women in other countries. "We are determined to see the global gag rule eliminated so that women in the developing nations do not suffer because of our short sited policies," said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation, which engages in research and public policy education and organizing. "That’s why women and men are marching with us today from 57 nations to say women of the world need the United States to stop its mean spirited policies that are cutting family planning funding and turning it into abstinence only policies."
The so-called "Global Gag Rule" is a policy enacted by President Bush in January 2001, which prohibits family-planning agencies overseas that receive US funding from performing abortions except in cases where the life of the woman is endangered or in pregnancies resulting from rage or incest. It also forbids organizations from providing counseling about abortions or working to legalize abortion.
Though several hundred counterdemonstrators protested the event, holding large photos of fetuses and shouting shame, shame, shame; these images were countered by testimonies from family members and friends of women who had died from illegal abortions.
Bill Bell and Bill Bell Junior, father and brother of Becky Bell, who died at the age of 17 from an illegal abortion in 1998, also addressed the crowd. Becky Bell is known as the first women to have died as a result of the Parental Consent or Parental Notification Laws, which are currently on the books in 32 states and require minors to notify and in many cases gain the consent of their parents before obtaining an abortion. "No more Becky Bells! No more Becky Bells!" chanted her father into the microphone, leading the crowd in a mourning chant for the lives of young women lost to unsafe and illegal abortions.
The 1977 death of 27 year-old Rosie Jimenez in Texas from an illegal abortion was also remembered. Jimenez is known as the first woman to have died after passage of the Hyde Amendment, which currently restricts federal funds for abortions. Jimenez, who died because she could not afford a private clinic and underwent an illegal abortion instead, was a mother of a five year-old at the time of her death.
Joanie Santoro Griffine, remembered her mother Gerri Santoro who died from an illegal abortion in 1964. "My mother was just one of countless women who died in this lonely and desperate way prior to Roe vs. Wade," said Santoros. "The only thing that made my mom outstanding was the publication of a photograph of her dead body, bloody and naked and speaking volumes of undeniable truth. She was dead on the hotel floor where they found her." She said her mom’s image symbolizes every woman who died without choice. "How else can we show our daughters and their daughters what can happen to women when they have no reproductive rights?"
Invoking and celebrating memories of the historical and ongoing struggle for women’s equality, speaker after speaker honored feminists who worked to bring issues concerning women to the forefront of US politics. Many women brought their daughters onto the stage with them, expressing hope for a future where women enjoy the right to affordable reproductive and general health care, education, control over their bodies, free decision making about their families, freedom to love and live with whomever they choose regardless of gender.
"I have my daughter here and I’m here for her and for all of your daughters," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. "If we succeed, they will grow up in charge of their bodies and their lives and their destinies. They’ll decide whether and when to have children, they’ll decide whether to marry and they’ll marry who they want to marry."
"We hope and dream that they’ll grow up with clean air and clean water, a good education, full health care, and freedom from bigotry, hatred and violence. And equal access to the bounty of this country without taking it from the pockets of the rest of the world. And all of this in a world at peace."
A major theme throughout the demonstration was a call for women and their allies to take their political opinions to the ballot boxes come election day. Voter registration tables were set up at the event and organizers called for massive registration and turnout for the upcoming presidential elections.
Last November Bush signed a federal law banning abortion procedures after the 12th week of pregnancy, for restrictions since Roe vs Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision giving women the right to legal abortions. Enforcement of the law is currently halted pending the outcome of several legal challenges across the country. In April he signed the Unborn Victims of Crime act, which gives legal rights to a unborn fetuses.
"This march is a call to action for all of us," said Dolores Huerta, Co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farmworkers’ Union. "In the Farmworkers’ Union we have a phrase that says ‘every worker is an organizer.’ Today I want to say that every feminist is an organizer."
"We have to harness the power that we have today," said Huerta. "We have got to take this energy not only to our homes but to our neighborhoods and to our communities and make sure that every single person is registered to vote and that every single person gets out to vote."
