Women's History Friday Roundup: The Rally Edition
In 2004, women made history by descending on Washington in droves to March for Women’s Lives. Estimates vary about how many people attended the march, but it’s pretty safe to say that there were over 1 million pro-choice activists in D.C. in 2004, myself included (see pink jacket next to Madeleine Albright on the frontline). This was the largest protest march in Washington’s history, though you wouldn’t have known it from the tepid press reporting. Once again, women’s history was given short shrift.
Last weekend a Walk for Choice was held in cities across the globe. Here is a roundup of photos from rallies across the country–the decentralized nature of the walk made it impossible to get exact numbers, but the geographic dispersion was impressive.
This Is a Sampling of What a Pro-Choice Rally Looks Like:
NYC – Feministing
Boston Walk for Choice
Walk for Choice Chicago – Feministing
Tucson Walks for Choice – Feminists for Choice
Also across the country for the past couple of months, events have been held to celebrate Roe v. Wade, the Supreme court decision that legalized abortion in 1973. Sarah Weddington was the young Texas lawyer who successfully argued the case. Be sure to visit this tribute to her.
INTENTIONING
Sex, Power, Pandemics, and How Women
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The new book from Gloria Feldt about the future, taking the leadership lessons learned from this disruption and creating a better world for all through the power of intention.
I had the honor of presenting former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard with the Sarah Weddington Warrior Award at the Planned Parenthood Arizona Roe v. Wade Luncheon the day before the Walk for Choice. (That’s my daughter Tammy on the left.) Goddard’s strong record in favor of reproductive rights is a breath of fresh air for Arizona. The day’s buzz included speculation about who will run for Jon Kyl’s (R-anti-choice) soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat.
Being the resident historian (I was CEO of the AZ affiliate from 1978–1996) I mused to myself that the Walk for Choice and the current panic over the fate of family planning funding and abortion access was necessitated by the fact that people have not yet learned the lessons of history. So I exercised a point of personal privilege.
I reminded the crowd about Panache, a Planned Parenthood support group of young activists formed in the 80’s–when Ronald Reagan tried to eliminate Title X, defund PP, and impose outrageous restrictions on family planning providers. Does all this sound familiar?
We defeated them that time around, and I believe we will defeat them again. But we should not have to fight this battle over and over. Instead, we should have held President Obama’s feet to the fire from the day he was elected and demanded that he keep his campaign promises to place the Freedom of Choice Act (codifying the civil right to make childbearing choices without discrimination) at the top of his agenda, support abortion coverage, and give unequivocal support to family planning programs. The best defense is still a good offense.
Goddard had been a founding member of Panache, and it was a pleasure to thank him for having demanded as mayor that the resistant Phoenix police department give full protection to health centers besieged by Operation Rescue. I also had a chance to point out his clear and consistent positions on reproductive health throughout his political career. He supports women’s human right to reproductive self-determination, without regulations that interfere with access to care. He supports the current law requiring health insurance coverage for contraception, as well as public funding for family planning services for low-income women.
But it’s important to note that those contraceptive coverage and public funding laws didn’t just happen. We made them happen over a decade ago, in political climates very like the one bemoaned today. The way out of the current mess is to go proactive with a constant barrage of legislative and policy initiatives, so we aren’t fighting on adversaries’ turf. We can define the public debate—as Sarah Weddington did.
If you’ve got photos that you would like to add to our historical record of the Walk for Choice (however “unofficial” it might be), please leave a link in the comments section. And by all means, take a moment to share your most proactive and innovative thoughts about what history you want to write for the future of reproductive rights, health, and justice.
GLORIA FELDT is the New York Times bestselling author of several books including No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power, a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to major news outlets, and the Co-Founder and President of Take The Lead. People has called her “the voice of experience,” and among the many honors she has been given, Vanity Fair called her one of America’s “Top 200 Women Legends, Leaders, and Trailblazers,” and Glamour chose her as a “Woman of the Year.”
As co-founder and president of Take The Lead, a leading women’s leadership nonprofit, her mission is to achieve gender parity by 2025 through innovative training programs, workshops, a groundbreaking 50 Women Can Change The World immersive, online courses, a free weekly newsletter, and events including a monthly Virtual Happy Hour program and a Take The Lead Day symposium that reached over 400,000 women globally in 2017.
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Well, Gloria, my most “innovative” thoughts are not exactly mainstream: sex strike, birth strike and a targeted boycott of major employers of women. That would exercise leverage.
My other idea is that women should not be fighting this alone and we need to build our base among (but not only), the AMA, APA, ABA, ACLU, Amnesty International, possibly Southern Poverty Law Center and other organizations that are not identified as “feminist” or “woman-centered.” Maybe UNIFEM should also be on this list, maybe also the AFL-CIO. Hell, let’s get the Teamsters, all the unions of writers/actors, service employees, teachers: all the unions. Let’s build alliances.
I was disappointed to see that the Walk (why wasn’t it a march?) for Choice was scheduled as the same day as marches to support unions. What’s up with that? Why aren’t we coordinating with our natural allies? It’s time to get these folks behind the banners with us, because imo, this will put a helluva lot more heft on our side of the tug-of-war.
The other front is separation of Church and State, so lets get those atheists and agnostics and secular folks to get on our side and get vocal about where religion seriously interferes with individual rights. Maybe even some progressive religious leaders agree with us. The AMA sold out women pre-Roe, and it’s time to read them the riot act and give them an opportunity to get it right. And let’s get some of the more prestigious science and research institutions on board, such as the CDC, NIMH, NIH, and all the major research universities like Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Stanford, Washington University etc.
And where is our next test case? Weddington and other feminist lawyers (including now Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg) found “Jane Roe,” as I’m sure you know. She didn’t magically appear one day. Are feminist lawyers deliberating about the next frontier? Would that be in the field of “fetal” human rights trumping the human rights of women?
A group of women academics are taking about some of these ideas. But they were talking about it at the beginning of the Obama administration and it didn’t materialize into action.
The plus side of the walks for choice is that they were localized grassroots efforts, whereas putting on a big march in Washington like we did in 2004 costs a load of money and months of organizing. But I agree with you that the numbers were pretty pathetic. That said, the anti-choice groups don’t get big numbers out anymore either, but still they get the media coverage. There ought to be a lot more yelling about that.
I’d love for people to come up with the biggest proactive ideas and leave the defensive or merely theatrical behind.