PULSE:NEWS&OPINION :: APRIL 28, 2004

5,000 pro-choice Michiganians march in Washington

By KATE BALDWIN

WASHINGTON – Lansing women were using the men’s restrooms in Washington Sunday when the March for Women’s Lives poured over 1 million marchers into the streets.

Rebekah Warren, executive director of MARAL Pro-Choice Michigan, estimated that 5,000 Michigan marchers, mainly women, flooded into Washington to support reproductive rights. The Michigan activists joined the overall 1.15 million faces that March organizers estimate participated.

Photos by Kate Baldwin Clockwise from top: Lansing residents Macie Schriner (left) and Jody Applegate were among an estimated 5,000 Michiganians who participated in the march

Lansing residents Sheila Shafer and Krista Kephart listen to bus leader Betsey Jeffery of Okemos after arriving in Washington

A protester on 15th Street holds up a sign near a couple who are kissing

A marcher on Pennsylvania Avenue reminds people of the days before the Supreme Court legalized abortions

Marchers on the Mall hold up a symbolic uterus.

“I believe a woman has the right to make a choice about her own body,” said Shanna Strouse, co-president of Lansing’s chapter of the National Organization for Women. “Those rights are currently being threatened by our government, our president and the administration.” Strouse believes the March offers a chance to “use our voices to say we oppose their policies and we will use our votes to back up our voices.”

While she has no children of her own, Strouse had the future of her 5-year-old niece in mind. Because of legislative trends Strouse was alarmed “to think someday the need could arise and she wouldn’t have that option available to her.”

According to MARAL Pro-Choice America, Michigan receives an ‘F’ rating for access to abortion services. Laws require counseling and mandatory delays before offering abortion services. Michigan also has a refusal clause which allows “certain individuals or entities to refuse to provide abortion services under most circumstances.” Meanwhile, the most limiting feature of access in Michigan is represented by the 83 percent of state counties that have no abortion provider.

“George Bush will have to address this in his campaign,” said Xanthe Bullard, a Lansing Community College political science student. Bullard hopes that an aftereffect of the March will be to cause legislators to “think twice before entertaining ideas” of enacting further restrictive reproductive rights laws.

Strouse believes that the Right to Life of Michigan organization has been using the state as a “test plot” where bills and programs are tested and then taken to other states. “Everybody has religious beliefs and are entitled to them,” said Strouse who thinks that the freedom of choice limitations arise from “religious beliefs that are tied to legislation.”

While a concentration of pro-life activists lined Pennsylvania Avenue, their overall numbers were few. A few solitary counter-protesters of the reproductive rights movement walked throughout the route and carried grim signs that tended to depict mutilated fetuses or Jesus Christ.

“I was baffled,” said Bullard, referring to the signs of the pro-lifers. “It was like they were saying we were wrong for being there. I felt sad they just don’t get it. We’re not trying to force something on them. So why are they trying to force something on us?”

Jerry Fennell, of Denver, Penn., held up a large sign that said, “Ye must be born again! John 3:3 – 8.” Fennell explained the need to “tell them what the Bible says about abortion” because he recognized the size of the issue and the large numbers that would be at March.

Marchers often blocked pro-life signs with their own and attempted to minimize disruptions. Along the route Lansing women shouted a number of chants, including: “Pro-Life is a lie, you don’t care if women die”; “2-4-6-8, women want to ovulate”; “Whose choice? our choice”; “Stop the war on women”; and “Keep your Bush out of my bush.”

The magnitude of the march offered unique experiences for some of the Michigan women. Nancy Bujold of Lansing, who was taking part in her first national rally, met someone who lived around the block from her house in Lansing. Bujold recalled her opportunity to “use the men’s restroom in the National Gallery of Art” as something that you do not get to do every day.

Lansing marchers had the opportunity to see a diverse crowd that included belly dancers, anarchists, a pagan drum corps and men in drag. Even with all of the eye-catching signs and people, Bujold found the multi-generational clusters of women “amazing.”

There was a sense of hesitancy in some marchers when asked whether they would relay their March stories at home and at work. “I generally don’t take my politics to work with me,” said Strouse, though she feels that the reproductive rights issue should be brought into the open. Strouse speculates that a few high profile cases may lead toward that goal.

When organizers predicted a million-person march before Sunday, “I didn’t believe it would happen. But you could just feel those numbers,” Bullard said. “It shows with a little effort you really can make a change.”

The organizers of the march included the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Organization for Women, Black Women’s Health Imperative, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, Feminist Majority and the American Civil Liberties Union.

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