fHE BATTALION
Monday, April 26, 2004
t hrongs of people march in
upport of abortion rights
By Elizabeth Wolfe
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
I WASHINGTON—Abortion-
Ights supporters marched in
■nge numbers Sunday, roused in
fus election year by what they
as an erosion of reproductive
leedoms under President Bush
lid foreign policies they say hurt
lomen worldwide.
Political agitation suffused
ne gathering of hundreds of
ixtsands. Their target: Bush,
I e-minded officials in federal
nd state government and reli-
pous conservatives.
Speaking beyond the masses
Kf policy-makers, Francis
jissling of Catholics for a Free
Bioice declared, “You will hear
ur pro-choice voices ringing in
1 bur ears until such time that
nu permit all women to make
J |r own reproductive choices.”
I Women joined the protest
1 pm across the nation and from
I parly 60 countries, asserting
i it damage from Bush’s poli-
|es is spreading far beyond
.S. shores through measures
Ich as the ban on federal
Boney for family-planning
Joups that promote or perform
ortions abroad.
The rally on the National
11 stretched from the base of
(e U.S. Capitol about a mile
^ck to the Washington
lonument. Authorities no
longer give formal crowd esti
mates, but various police
sources informally estimated the
throng at between 500,000 and
800,000 strong.
That would exceed the esti
mated 500,000 who protested
for abortion rights in 1992.
Carole Mehlman, 68, came
from Tampa, Fla., to support a
cause that has motivated her to
march for 30 years, as long as
abortion has been legal.
“1 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.”
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 tak
ing positions so socially conser
vative that he seems — accord
ing 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
NEWS IN BRIEF
legalizing abortion, said the
administration is “filled with
people who ... consider Roe v.
Wade the worst abomination of
constitutional law in our history.”
Organizers set up voter regis
tration tables; supporters of John
Kerry, the Democratic presiden
tial candidate, handed out stick
ers. 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 open
ing speeches and set off along
Pennsylvania Avenue, looping
back to the Mall near the Capitol.
They moved slowly, bottle
necked by their own numbers.
A much smaller contingent
of abortion opponents assem
bled along a portion of the route
to protest what they called a
“death march.” Among them
were women who had had abor
tions and regretted it; they
dressed in black.
Tabitha Warnica, 36, of
Phoenix, said she had two abor
tions when she was young.
“We don’t have a choice. God
is the only one who can
decide,” she said.
Police used barricades and a
heavy presence at that site to
keep it from becoming a flash
point. Both sides yelled at each
other as the vanguard of the
march reached the counter
demonstration.
/orld finance officials pledge
lore support for global poverty
IWASHINGTON (AP) — World finance ministers
iromised on Sunday to do more to deal with the
rushing burden of global poverty, promising help in
Ich areas as education, debt relief and AIDS.
jBut activists said the weekend meetings of the 184-
nfition International Monetary Fund and World Bank
filled to back up the warm words with cold cash.
Separately, the United States said it had made
progress pushing a new initiative to bolster peace
prospects in the Middle East by promoting economic
development and jobs.
Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters
Sunday that he had been encouraged by the sup
port the United States received on the issue both
from potential donor countries and from officials
from the region.
Many countries are seeking ways to provide aid.
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