Pro life, pro women, and
ON SUNDAY
April 9, well over
300,000 women
OMEN and men filled the space below the Washington
Monument to hear a starry array of speakers and entertainers supporting aborrights.
tion before filling
Pennsylvania
Avenue and its surroundings as far as the eye could see, right up to the Capitol, where a second equally starry cast of speakers kept its audience @ cheering for three.
1000 had bed
Only around:
expected - which O would have stilla topped the previous pro-choice marchbut the numbers totally dwarfed the biggest-ever anti-abortion demonstration of
75,000. It even topped the 1963 civil rights demonstration of
250,000 with which many were comparing it for size and - even тоге - spint.
American women awaited the judgment of the Supreme Court on
Webster-v-Reproductive Rights
Services which could overtum the historic 1973 court decision that led to abortion being legalised in
America. It was the imminence of this case, heard on April 26, that led to abortion being the main theme of this demonstration called by the National Organisation of
Women and brought so many hundreds of thousands out that day. Further local demonstrations were held in many parts of
America on the day of the hearing:
in New York thousands of women
Taid coat-hangers on the steps of
One theme at the rally, beard again and again from many dif-
DA pro choice
CHOOSE
Campalgning against the Alton Bill in Britain. lerent speakers, was that it was necessary for the pro-choice side to reclaim for itself the 'pro-life' label. Anti-ahortionists were only for foetal life- after that, baby, you were on your own. Campaigners for choice were the ones fighting for the overall agenda that would mean real choice for all women. Typical amongst the speakers was actress Valerie Harper, whose main concem is homelessness, who denounced the anti-abortionists with blazing anger for their Intally anti-life attitudes. A number of speakers- urged by shouts from the massive crowd - drew attention to the missing woman.Barbara Bush, known to be pro-choice, but silent on the subject since her hushand became Presi
American anti-abortionists have been increasingly using violent tactics, though their mainstream supporters publicly give litte support to these methods. During the period of the
TE demonstration. three clinics were fire-bombed. problematic hundreds of anti-abor: tionists pay. sing hymns and lie down in front of clinica, whilst others surround women attempting to enter them and use disgusting pictures, modeis, dolls and other methods to try and dissuade them. The pro-choicers are fighting back asing a variety of tactics from injunctions, persuading the police to use their powers to prevent harassment and obstruction, eto-tomore inventive ones, such as the time when the rescue' leaders had the tables turned on them - prochoicers surrounded their headquarters, thus preventing them leaving for five hours!
Anti-abortionists are increasingly using these same tactics in Britain, too. A Boumemouth clinic run by BPAS has been "picketed" by "pavement counsellors" at least once a week and we need to to prevent the situation escalating as it has in the States by Ieaming from the struggle there.
Over the past few years in the States the anti-abortionists have grabbed the headlines and made
ABORTION
LEGAL
Fighting for abortion rights in the USA the moves. What came over clearly from the demonstration was that women - whether they remem bered the days of illegality and believed a icturn to them was impossible or they were young enough to have grown up with abortion rights - had woken to the danger that these rights could be taken away from them.
To mark the march a video had been produced, a pro-choice answer to the infamous A Silent Scream'. For me, the most touching moment of Abortion for Survival' ishearing an elderly man in tears as be reads a letler his heloved sister sent him wlien he was only 14, trying to explain to him why she was seeking a (then illegal) abortion. "And whilst I am scared, angry and sometimes dis gusted, I suppose that most of all I've become some sort of a rebel: 1am determined to fight back and Irealise that with this choice I have to accept the risks that go along with this battle.. Lask for your un derstanding even though it may take some time for you to accept the need for such a struggle on the part of your special sister and all women in their struggle.' Ho was rever to see his sister again. She lost her personal battle, but her generation, their daughters and granddaughters are in fighting mood today. She and the thousands who died with her will never be forgotten.
Leonora Lloyd ('Abortion for Survival' it available for hire from NAC. Details 01-