Arch for Worens Lies Beacock
1986Shirley Pasholk 1986-04Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 2 →
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WASHINGTON-Chants of "Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide" rang through the streets of the nation's capital as tens of thousands of demonstrators gathered for the March 9 "March for Women's Lives" called by the National Organization for Women (NOW). Over 500 buses brought protestors from as far away as Florida, Texas, and Missouri. By the time the day was over, NOW spokespersons estimated 120,000 had participated.
Rally organizers estimated that one-third of the crowd were students, many of them from East Coast and Midwest college campuses.
Many mothers came with their daughters. Rally organizers estimated that 50,000 NOW members participated and that 20 percent of the protestors were men. With the exception of contingents from the Coalition of Labor Union Women and UAW District 65, there was little visible labor participation.
Unfortunately, some large NOW chapters, including those in New York and Chicago, didn't fully participate in the march. The massive turnout from other cities and from small towns and rural areas in the East and Midwest, though, showed the potential for organizing around abortion rights.
The spirited marchers chanted "Right to Life, that's a lie, they don't care if women die" whenever they passed one of the fewer than 100 counter-demonstrators who stood at various points along the parade route. As the protestors passed by the White House, they chanted, "Ronald Reagan, hear our voice, all these people are for choice."
Many signs pointed to the Hyde Amendment and the attacks on poor women's right to abortion. A number also linked the attacks on women's rights to