The Militant - April 20, 2004 -- Building of April 25 march on Washington picks up momentum

Vol. 68/No. 15 April 20, 2004

Building of April 25 march on Washington
picks up momentum
(feature article)

BY LEA SHERMAN
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Efforts to build a mass turnout for the April 25 march on Washington in defense of a woman’s right to choose abortion have picked up steam nationwide. On campuses across the country, students are rapidly filling up buses for the trip to the U.S. capital. In many cities, volunteers have been leafleting at bus and subway stations, in working-class neighborhoods, and other areas to involve broad new forces in the demonstration.

The march and rally is sponsored by the National Organization for Women (NOW), NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.

In Birmingham, Alabama, youth as well as veteran defenders of the right to choose are involved in an action coalition that has been meeting since November to build the demonstration. So far, they report, one bus is full and they are working to fill a second. Students from the University of Alabama in Birmingham and in Tuscaloosa have reserved many of the seats.

At the Birmingham campus a new student group, the Feminist Alliance, besides taking part in the biweekly meetings of the city coalition, has been holding numerous fund-raising events to provide scholarships for those who can’t afford the full price of a bus ticket.

Representatives of Planned Parenthood in Houston report that the first 100 plane tickets they reserved to take women’s rights supporters to Washington have already been sold. Members of Planned Parenthood, the NOW chapter at the University of Houston, other groups, and numerous individuals have been taking part in “meet-up sessions” every second Tuesday. At each meeting volunteers have taken stacks of leaflets to distribute.

In response to the leafleting, students at the Prairie View campus of Texas A & M, a historically Black agricultural college, are meeting to plan a delegation to the march.

Here in Washington more than 40 students and others gathered March 29 at George Washington University (GWU) for a forum to build the march. One of the speakers, Megan Tackney, a sophomore at GWU who is active in the coalition on campus, said 13 pro-choice organizations on campus are building the national action. So far 250 students have signed up to be part of the GWU delegation.

Tackney said the anti-abortion rights group on campus, Colonials for Life, had also stepped up its activities. “They’re small, only 10-15 of them, and they have little credibility even among the college Republicans because they are also against birth control,” she added.

Janine Dukes in Birmingham and Jacquie Henderson in Houston contributed to this article.

Related articles:
All out for April 25 march!
Abortion curbs hit working women harder
Thousands march in Argentina for a woman’s right to choose abortion

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