Yahoo! News – Abortion rights march draws 1.1 million in US: organizers
More than 1.1 million people from across the United States and dozens of other countries took part in what organizers said was the largest ever women’s rights protest on abortion, aimed at influencing politicians ahead of the November 2 presidential vote.
Older women in their Sunday best mingled with college students in T-shirts in a massive demonstration sparked largely by what they see as President George W. Bush (news – web sites)’s efforts to chip away at a women’s right to an abortion.
Organizers put the turnout at 1,150,000, saying the count was done in designated grids on the National Mall, which are designed to hold a predetermined number of people, and verified by 2,500 volunteers at key entry points to the march area. Police did not issue any crowd estimate.
Waving signs that read “Fire Bush” and “Keep Abortion Legal,” the crowd packed onto the Mall — the grassy esplanade that links the Congress, the White House, and America’s most revered monuments and museums.
“All the people are here today not only to march on behalf of women’s lives but to take that energy into the election in November,” Senator Hillary Clinton (news – web sites) told the crowd before the march began.
“What we need to try to communicate as clearly as possible to all women and men who are fair-minded in America is that a vote for a pro-choice candidate is a vote for conscience,” she said, urging the crowd to vote for the Democratic presidential candidate, Senator John Kerry (news – web sites).
More than 1,400 civic groups worked together to organize the protest, sparked by recent efforts to curtail the reach of a landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that recognized women’s right to abortions.
Abortion is one of the most volatile issues in US politics, but polls show a majority of Americans support the right for women to choose to terminate a pregnancy.
A Gallup poll released Friday found 48 percent of respondents consider themselves “pro-choice,” while 45 percent identify as “pro-life” — ie anti-abortion.
Asked if current abortion laws should be made more strict, less strict, or left alone, only 37 percent wanted stricter laws. More people, or 40 percent, wanted the laws left unchanged while 20 percent thought they should be more liberal.
____
As a 70s kid, this one is fundamental and easy. I’m old enough to have heard the horror stories, and young enough to have had several friends who made the difficult choice. And lucky enough and smart enough, thank God, to have never needed to do so myself.
My standard response to the pro lifers is “OK, it’s your 13 year old daughter who has been raped and is pregnant. What will you do?” Usually shuts them up fast enough.