The March for Women’s Lives will take place on April 25 in Washington, D.C.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) Pro-Choice America, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood Federation of America are the march’s key organizers.
Becky Cochran, a senior psychology and women’s studies double-major, is Guilford’s campus organizer working with NARAL NC. She hopes to get students involved in both fundraising, such as holding bake sales, and the march itself.
“The goal of the march is to inform and stand up as a pro-choice majority who can’t be ignored any longer,” Cochran said. “(We hope to) show up as representatives from Guilford College, Greensboro, and North Carolina as people who support these issues.”
Senior Lauren Mitchell is one student who has already paid for a bus ticket and plans to attend the march.
“I can’t imagine myself not going, especially with what [President] Bush is trying to do,” Mitchell said. “There’s a slowly growing governmental shift toward anti-choice legislation, and it’s crucial that somebody say what’s happening is not OK.”
Cochran, too, is concerned about Bush’s actions and how they harm women’s’ right to choose.
“He’s put forth the Unborn Victims of Violence Act to establish personhood of an unborn fetus,” Cochran said. Cochran also believes Bush is trying to stack the federal courts.
For example, Bush appointed Charles Pickering even though he had been rejected twice before as a judicial appointment. NARAL, among other groups, opposed Pickering’s appointment.
“Pickering led efforts within the Republican Party to overrule Roe v. Wade by working to implement an anti-choice plank in the National Republican Convention Platform,” said NARAL President Kate Michelman in a Feb. 2002 statement on naral.org. “(This) plank … remains to this day … (and) has injected the government into what should be a private decision between a woman and her physician.”
Cochran said Bush’s actions make the march especially important and urges more people to participate.
Mitchell agreed, saying: “For anybody who cares at all about women’s issues or gender equality, this is the monster event.”
In late March 35 students and community members had signed up to ride the bus to D.C. for the march. As of April 12, the bus going to the March for Women’s Lives was officially full.
Anyone interested in a waiting list for second bus or finding a ride to the event should e-mail Cochran at [email protected].