WASHINGTON (AP) -- Abortion-rights supporters marched in the hundreds of thousands Sunday, galvanized by what they see as an erosion of reproductive freedoms under President Bush and policies that hurt women worldwide.
Amid the clamor of an election year, the throng of demonstrators flooded the National Mall. Their target: Bush, like-minded officials in federal and state government and religious conservatives.
Speaking beyond the masses to policy-makers, Francis Kissling of Catholics for a Free Choice declared, "You will hear our pro-choice voices ringing in your ears until such time that you permit all women to make our own reproductive choices."
Women joined the protest from across the nation and from nearly 60 countries, asserting that damage from Bush's policies is spreading far beyond U.S. shores through measures such as the ban on federal money for family-planning groups that promote or perform abortions abroad.
The rally on the National Mall stretched from the base of the U.S. Capitol about a mile back to the Washington Monument. Authorities no longer give formal crowd estimates, but various police sources informally estimated the throng at between 500,000 and 800,000 strong.
That would exceed the estimated 500,000 who protested for abortion rights in 1992.
Carole Mehlman, 68, came from Tampa, Florida, to support a cause that has motivated her to march for 30 years, as long as abortion has been legal.
"I just had to be here to fight for the next generation and the generation after that," she said. "We cannot let them take over our bodies, our health care, our lives."
(note, what about the unborn babies lives ?)
Advocates said abortion rights are being weakened at the margins through federal and state restrictions and will be at risk of reversal at the core if Bush gets a second term.
"Know your power and use it," Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, House Democratic leader, exhorted the masses. "It is your choice, not the politicians'."
And feminist Gloria Steinem accused Bush of squandering international good will and taking positions so socially conservative that he seems -- according to Steinem -- to be in league with the likes of Muslim extremists or the Vatican.
Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, referring to the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, said the administration is "filled with people who ... consider Roe v. Wade the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history."
(note : thats right Hillary, it was)
President criticized on the Mall
Organizers set up voter registration tables; supporters of John Kerry, the Democratic presidential candidate, handed out stickers. The event was not overtly partisan but denunciations of Bush set the tone from the stage and the ground.
The throngs gathered by the Washington Monument for opening speeches and set off along Pennsylvania Avenue, looping back to the Mall near the Capitol. They moved slowly, bottlenecked by their own numbers.
A much smaller contingent of abortion opponents assembled along a portion of the route to protest what they called a "death march." Among them were women who had had abortions and regretted it; they dressed in black.
Tabitha Warnica, 36, of Phoenix, said she had two abortions when she was young. "We don't have a choice. God is the only one who can decide," she said.
Actresses Heather Thomas, left, and Whoopi Goldberg march in the abortion-rights rally.
Police used barricades and a heavy presence at that site to keep it from becoming a flashpoint. Both sides yelled at each other as the vanguard of the march reached the counter-demonstration.
"Look at the pictures, look at the pictures," shouted abortion opponents, holding up big posters showing a fetus at eight weeks.
"Lies, lies," marchers shouted back.
Police arrested 16 people from the Christian Defense Coalition for demonstrating without a permit and another anti-abortion protester for throwing ink-filled plastic eggs at rally signs.
Celebrities familiar to the abortion-rights movement led the parade, among them Whoopi Goldberg, Kathleen Turner and Cybill Shepherd.
Although Roe v. Wade still anchors abortion rights, some states have imposed waiting periods before abortions, requirements that girls under 18 notify their parents, and other limits that have closed abortion clinics or discouraged doctors from performing abortions.
Bush has signed a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortion, and the first federal law to endow a fetus with legal rights distinct from the pregnant woman.
Abortion-rights supporters say a fragile Supreme Court majority in favor of Roe v. Wade could be lost if Bush is president long enough to fill vacancies that come up in the court. Kerry supports abortion rights.
(note: another reason to vote GW in 2004)
Kate Michelman, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said the march was about more than the right to a safe abortion.
"The march is about the totality of women's lives and the right to make decision about our lives," she said.
GW Bush has abortion supporters afraid ... afraid that if elected he might very well work something to overturn Roe Vs Wade - and what a great day that would be !
RE: Hot Damn GW ! (Abortion rights protest packs National Mall )
Women say they should have a choice. They do before having sex they have several. Are they saying they can't control themselves.
I am not for abortion except in extreme cases where it could be for the mothers health.
I have seen several women and school girls that have had abortions and it effects them drastically, maybe not physically but mentally. Everyone!
Maybe this is not a good comparison but I'll say it any way.
They are killing babies everyday "lagally" but want to take our firearms because they MAY hurt someone. BS[:'(]
RE: Hot Damn GW ! (Abortion rights protest packs National Mall )
Quote:
ORIGINAL: aunsaber
Women say they should have a choice. They do before having sex they have several. Are they saying they can't control themselves.
Maybe this is not a good comparison but I'll say it any way.
They are killing babies everyday "lagally" but want to take our firearms because they MAY hurt someone. BS[:'(]
I'll vote for BUSH!
Two excellent points Aunsaber!
The time to be pro-choice is BEFORE going to bed, and most of these liberals that support baby killing, are also gun grabbers too! How hypocritical!!!!!
And here is a question for those who say GW Bush is not a conservative: Why are the liberals so afraid of him?
Four more years,four more years,four more years!!!
__________________
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty or Safety!
Ben Franklin
I LOVE my country, I FEAR my government!
If your mother was an abortion proponent, would you be reading this right now?
RE: Hot Damn GW ! (Abortion rights protest packs National Mall )
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They are VERY afraid that He will get Roe vs Wade repealed. What an awesome day that would be, it really would be.
I don't see an increase in the # of dumpster babies as an awesome thing. I don't see an increase in illegal and possibly dangerous "back alley" abortions as awesome.
It is estimated that women have been aborting unwanted children some way or another for ten's of thousands of years. Just because there is a law against it doesn't mean that it will stop.
Yes, abortion does put a woman through emotional hell, but it is her burden to bear, for the rest of her life...and maybe more.
I'd rather see that then an unwanted kid having to bear that burden.
RE: Hot Damn GW ! (Abortion rights protest packs National Mall )
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I don't see an increase in the # of dumpster babies as an awesome thing.
1 million babies killed evry year as opposed to maybe a few thousand ... plus the addes bonus of the woman killing the baby getting charged for it and sentenced to prison if caught. Yeah, I think thats a good thing. Fetal genocide needs to stop.
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I don't see an increase in illegal and possibly dangerous "back alley" abortions as awesome.
What better place to committ murder ? What better place to kill an innocent human life ? Yes, I think thats exactly what should happen.
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It is estimated that women have been aborting unwanted children some way or another for ten's of thousands of years. Just because there is a law against it doesn't mean that it will stop.
It will greatly reduce the genocide of unborn babies - I think that is an awesome thing. Might even forec people to (shudder) accept responsibility for thier actions and once again learn to respect life.
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Yes, abortion does put a woman through emotional hell, but it is her burden to bear, for the rest of her life...and maybe more.
No, its more than that. Condoning and allowing murder is absoluely ridiculous and should be unacceptable in todays world. That it is shows a lot about where we are as a country. In fact, all laws to my knowledge PROTECT the unborn with only one exception - if the mom chooses to have it killed. i use the word killed correctly too - like it or not
I'd rather see that then an unwanted kid having to bear that burden. [/quote]
RE: Hot Damn GW ! (Abortion rights protest packs National Mall )
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I don't see an increase in illegal and possibly dangerous "back alley" abortions as awesome.
I hate this argument more than any other. It's like saying that burglery is dangerous. The burgler has to work in the dark, could fall out of windows, injure himself on broken glass. Let's just makle burglery legal, to protect those who choose to steal. It is their choice, after all.
RE: Hot Damn GW ! (Abortion rights protest packs National Mall )
I'm not going to sway you, nor you me.
I've been involved with each aspect and no choice is an easy way out for anyone involved regardless of how many years go by.
I specifically don't believe that abortion, especially in the first trimester can be considered murder. Again that is my belief and yours is different. I guess there isn't anything else to argue about.
Hot Damn GW ! (Abortion rights protest packs National Mall )
