 May 2004
American Friends Service Committee Peacework Magazine Sara Burke, Managing Editor Sam Diener, Editor Pat Farren, Founding Editor 2161 Massachusetts Ave. Telephone number: Fax number:
pwork@igc.org Peacework has been published monthly since 1972, intended to serve as a source of dependable information to those who strive for peace and justice and are committed to furthering the nonviolent social change necessary to achieve them. Rooted in Quaker values and informed by AFSC experience and initiatives, Peacework offers a forum for organizers, fostering coalition-building and teaching the methods and strategies that work in the global and local community. Peacework seeks to serve as an incubator for social transformation, introducing a younger generation to a deeper analysis of problems and issues, reminding and re-inspiring long-term activists, encouraging the generations to listen to each other, and creating space for the voices of the disenfranchised. Views expressed are those of the authors, not necessarily of the AFSC. |
Speeches at the March for Women's Lives
Washington DC, April 25, 2004 Genevieve Aguilar, outreach director, Washington State ACLU. Her speech, as with the other speeches below, is excerpted for space.
I stand here today fighting for the civil liberties and civil rights of those who are most vulnerable in our political system, and those who have the most to lose from threats to reproductive freedom. These are poor women, young women, and women of color. As a Latina and a lesbian, I have often felt invisible to doctors and nurses because they do not recognize my reproductive health needs as a lesbian. But I know all too well that I am not invisible to illness. I am not invisible to cervical cancer, breast cancer, or to sexually transmitted diseases. We must fight for access to reproductive health services for all women. For women such as my cousins in Tejas, who have had unintended pregnancies in their teens, because they didn't have access to information about contraceptives. This lack of information has now limited the opportunities they have in their life.
Mujeres, luchemos por nuestras vidas. [Women, we need to
struggle for our lives.] Con el poder de informacion y aceso
a servicios nos podemos salvar. [With the power of information
and access to services, we will be able to save our lives.] We
must and we will protect our reproductive freedoms! Janneth Lozano, Latin American Network of Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir, (www.condoms4life.org), in front of Washington D.C.'s Vatican Embassy, April 23, 2004. Women's groups from 57 countries participated in the March. Seventy thousand women around the world die each year from unsafe abortions (www.ipas.org). As a woman, as a Colombian, and as a member of the Latin American Network of Catholics for the Right to Choose, it brings me great joy to participate in this March, which I see as a wonderful opportunity to strengthen and advance the globalization of solidarity among women and the people of the world. I reaffirm here today our commitment to a world where plenitude of life is possible for all women, and for this we demand that our governments make the building of secular states a reality, where each woman has the right to decide:
I decide for my body,
We stand for the separation of church and state, for a society
where women won't have to choose between their life and the life
of the fetus. We stand for the life of women, for my life, for
my body, for a free and pleasurable sexuality, and for motherhood
when I choose. We stand for a church that knows its place and
respects the decisions of women. Anthony Romero, Executive Director, ACLU (www.aclu.org) As a democratic and free nation, we are at a critical moment in our history. In recent years we have witnessed an unequalled attack on our civil liberties, and the right to reproductive freedom has been a prime target. We are here today to demand an end to the government's incursion into our personal lives and to stop the political assault on reproductive rights. The government does not belong in our bedrooms. It does not belong in our doctors' offices. It does not belong in the bank accounts of innocent Americans, and should not have the power to monitor their email, or track their bookstore purchases, or scrutinize the books they check out of local libraries. Our fundamental right to privacy is under serious attack by this government. The decision of whether or not to have a child is among the most private decisions a person can make. This is true no matter who you are or where you live. And yet, our government continues to enact laws and policies that deny this basic human right. The assault on reproductive freedom must end now. I was a young boy when I first heard the whispered stories of a beloved family member's self-induced abortion. She had had four children and worked long hours in a nearby factory to support them. One day, she found herself pregnant again. She couldn't even begin to imagine how she could provide for another child. But this was decades before the US Supreme Court declared a woman's fundamental right to reproductive freedom. Desperate to end the pregnancy, she took an extreme measure that put her own life at risk. Thankfully, she was one of the lucky ones. She lived to speak about her experience. But her health bore the scars of this tragic event until the day she died. The policies of the current administration threaten to make this story the story of future generations of American women. Anti-choice forces currently control the White House. They control both houses of Congress. And they control many state legislatures. Our opponents are more determined than ever to undermine women's autonomy and extend the government's reach into our private lives. We say today that the assault on reproductive freedom must end now. Women of color, poor women, young women, and women living in rural areas have been hardest hit by the war on reproductive rights. Already, because of the policies and laws passed since our last march, the ability to obtain basic reproductive health care has all but vanished for too many women. Reproductive freedom means not only access to safe and legal abortion. It means access to contraceptives, access to prenatal care, access to treatment for sexually transmitted diseases, and access to accurate sexuality education. The ACLU is marching to stop government-imposed roadblocks to basic health care. Thousands of card-carrying members are here today to ensure that all women - regardless of race, age, ethnicity, or income - have access to the full range of reproductive health services. We march so that all women will live in a world in which they can make decisions - free from government interference - about their own health care and private reproductive lives. Growing up, I often heard my grandmother use her favorite saying from her native Puerto Rico: "Dime con quién andas, y te diré quién eres." (Tell me who you walk with and I will tell you who you are.") Today, we walk among an enormous crowd of friends. Hundreds of thousands of pro-choice supporters, including thousands of ACLU members and allies, are here today to send John Ashcroft and President Bush a message: Women's private decisions are none of your business. But our voices must be even stronger. When you return to Nebraska, California, Maine, Illinois, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, the Carolinas, take our message to your friends, family members, colleagues. Tell them:
March with us. Fight with us. And keep on fighting.
Rea Carey, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (www.ngltf.org) deputy Executive Director, at the morning rally on the mall.
Today, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people are here marching for women's lives! Our movement and the movement for women's reproductive freedom are sister movements - and today we take a stand together! The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force - along with thousands of other queer people, especially queer young people - march today for Women's Lives! We are marching because - like everyone else - we need, deserve, and demand the fundamental right to control and use our bodies without the interference of government. We will march today because the constitutional right of all people to have private, consensual sex is inextricably linked to preserving Roe v. Wade. We have pro-choice legal victories to thank for our recent legal progress. In fact, our legal legacies depend on each other. Those who are attacking reproductive freedom are those who are denying same-sex couples the right to get married. In the same way that the current administration uses abstinence-only programs and so-called "partial birth abortion" as political weapons of mass destruction, this administration is also attempting to win this year's election on the backs of gays and lesbians wishing to get married. This year, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community is waging one of the toughest fights we've ever had - the fight for the choice to get married. We know, limited choice is never truly choice; coerced choice is never truly justice; and imposed choice is never truly freedom.
Now, it is clearer than ever before - we must stand together against
bigotry and for women's lives - for all of our lives. Julian Bond, chair of the Board, NAACP (www.naacp.org). Excerpts from the NAACP's press release, which mirror his speech, follow. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization. Its half-million adult and youth members throughout the United States and the world are frontline advocates for civil rights, social justice and equal opportunity under law. Eighty years ago, Dr. W.E.B. DuBois, one of the Association's founders, said every woman must have the right of procreation "at her own discretion." The NAACP has long been determined to ensure that women of color face no obstacles in accessing every kind of health care; the right to reproductive choice and control of their own bodies is one of the most important. A woman denied the right to control her own body is denied equal protection of the law, a right the NAACP has fought for and defended for nearly 100 years. Linn Duvall Harwell, Co-founder, Clara Bell Duvall Reproductive Freedom Project of the ACLU-PA (www.aclupa.org/duvall/) Seventy-five years ago, my mother, Clara Bell Duvall, died following an illegal abortion. Her tragic death left five children motherless. As she lay dying, she said to my 10-year-old sister, "You will be the mother now." And to my grandmother, "Take care of my precious." This was my 18-month-old sister. Mother died March 27, 1929, in Mercy Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA. The archives say death was from "miscarriage." This was a lie. She died from a self-induced knitting needle abortion. She was 34 years old. As we children gathered around the polished casket that held her body for the three-day Irish wake, our father said, "We must stick together now." This was not to be. We were taken to Baltimore, divided among relatives. In a few days, we lost our mother, our father, and each other. I do not remember crying tears, yet I have wept inside all my life.
Government assaults on reproductive rights must not stand. The
well-being of America's families depends on women's health. Too
many children in America were left motherless before abortion
became legal. We must not let my family's tragedy be repeated.
Previous Article Next Article
|
|
|