Despite the overcast weather and rising dust from many feet, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the globe took to the streets in downtown D.C. in response to the recent attacks to abortion rights at the March for Women's Lives yesterday.
The march was intended to rally support for abortion rights legislation and political awareness for the 2004 election through voter registration. The event was the biggest women's rights march hosted in Washington over the past decade.
The march was a collective effort among different organizations, which include the Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood Federation of America, among others. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and celebrities Susan Sarandon and Whoopi Goldberg spoke at the event.
Many AU students assembled on campus early yesterday morning to have breakfast and leave for the march as a group.
More than 350 students, faculty and staff met on the Quad to enjoy a breakfast that included 390 bagels, juice and coffee as well as enough donuts and munchkins for 100 more people, according to AU March Coordinator Amrith Fernandes-Prabhu.
"It was amazing ... apart from concerts ... I haven't heard of a larger group attend a political event like this," Fernandes-Prabhu said. "The spirit of the group at the actual march was amazing. Everyone was just really loud, exciting and chanting really loudly ... we led a lot of chants in the area."
Fernandes-Prabhu estimates that over 450 members from the AU community came out for the event for their bloc, but no number could be really estimated since students from other groups also participated in the event.
Sophomore Wilmara Guido, who was wearing a Feminist Majority T-shirt at the march, said she wanted to represent women of color.
"I'm definitely pro-choice and it's important because I feel we should have the option, and I think the government is making it a moral issue," Guido said. "The best part is that there are so many people coming from all over the country. It's great to see older women, women from our age group, babies and men all coming together for this cause."
Another AU student, sophomore Caitlin Gamel-McCormick, said she supports abortion rights and family planning.
"While abortion is not always the best option," Gamel-McCormick said, "we are given so little alternative in the United States that I think it is so important to support women and family planning."
Junior Allison Kessler, another AU march coordinator, thought the purpose of the march was well-represented by the amount of people in attendance.
"We had so much spirit," Kessler said. "It was the largest march of our generation, and I think everyone there was happy to be there to make history."
While many students were for abortion rights, others came out from AU to defend anti-abortion views by holding signs of Jesus and aborted fetuses. Overall, abortion rights supporters overwhelmingly outnumbered the anti-abortion people who went.
Some anti-abortion protesters were upset by the nature of slogans that were yelled at them by abortion rights protesters.
"I think that it's not very productive to have people yelling one-liners at each other," said Alan Griffith, sophomore and president of AU Students of Life. "Today, I got called a women hater, a Nazi and a racist. We were down there because the pro-choice sees this as a show of support and it's important for pro-lifers to show that there is another side to the argument."
Griffith said he believes that abortion is the right of the unborn to not be killed rather than a woman's right to choose.
"We went down there to show that this is not what America thinks - that abortion is not a fundamental right of women," Griffith said.
However, Kessler said that when individuals like Griffith do not support the abortion rights cause, it fuels energy.
If abortion rights supporters are down there alone, "we are just marching and yelling," Kessler said. "But when we are marching and there is opposition, then it gives us a real cause to fight for."
Kessler said she saw anti-abortion supporters who stood on different blocks on sidewalks along the route, yelling out their stance, having children holding up signs and praying for them.
Meanwhile, another march was taking place. This time in the form of people dressed in pleated skirts, ripped stockings and fishnets, armed with pom-poms and their voices.
"Roe, Roe, Roe V. Wade. Our bodies are our own, women's choice is a human right, so leave the c---- alone," screamed Radical Cheerleaders, some of whom were from the D.C. squad, of which includes AU members.
The Radical Cheerleaders, who participated in a visible Anti-Fascist and Anti-Authoritarian Bloc with other groups, were having their own march, though without a permit.
"The reason we chose to do an unpermitted march during the major march is because the program advocated at this rally will focus on the use of electoral politics in order to achieve women's liberation and women's rights and we feel that women's true liberation will not be decided in the courts," said Corri Osborn, a junior and radical cheerleader. "That is why we chose to do an action that shows our politics while they advocate a reformist agenda."
"The most amazing thing to me is the turnout of the young people - college-age students," said sophomore Betsy Dillner, who volunteered with the Feminist Majority and helped out with campus organizing.
"It showed other people who believed that our generation is apathetic that we really know where we stand and that we are willing to stand up to fight for what we believe in," she said.
