Draft:March for Women's Lives (1992)
The March for Women's Lives was an abortion rights protest march organized by the National Organization for Women (NOW), held in Washington, D.C. on April 5, 1992.[1]
Several hundred thousand people attended, the majority of whom were women. Initial news reports put the number at around 500,000,[2][3] and NOW estimated attendance at 750,000,[4] and the U.S. Park Police later released an estimate of around 250,000. Many attendees chose to wear white, in reference to the suffragist movement. Around 300 of the marchers hailed from Southern California, and included Hollywood actresses Jill Clayburgh, Morgan Fairchild, Jane Fonda, and Joanne Woodward. Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown also joined the march.[5]
The march was spurred by Casey v. Planned Parenthood, a Supreme Court case challenging the constitutionality of the 1989 Abortion Control Act, a Pennsylvania law which limited access to abortions.[6][7]
A smaller group of counter protesters set up 2,200 crosses near the Washington Monument, describing the crosses as a graveyard to aborted fetuses.[5]
Criticism
[edit]Several days before the march, the Women of Color Reproductive Rights Groups (a coalition of groups which included a number of racial and ethnic minority women's groups and the International Coalition of Women Physicians) released a statement criticizing NOW for what they said was a failure to include women of color in the march. Among these criticisms were a failure to invite organizations run by women of color to the event, to prominently include a delegation of women of color in the march, and to seek input from women of color on speakers for the march. According to WCRRG, NOW had only contacted three local African-American women's groups. They called on attendees of the march to wear green armbands in solidarity with women of color. Mexican-American feminist activist Luz Alvarez Martinez (founder of the National Latina Health Organization) was a main organizer of the protest.[8]
Following the release of the statement, NOW asked Alvarez Martinez to speak at the rally; she turned down the offer, saying she did not want to be "used as window dressing".[8]
References
[edit]- ^ "U.S. MARCH FOR WOMENS LIVES 1992". AP Newsroom. Associated Press. Retrieved 2024-10-13.
- ^ "ABORTION-RIGHTS RALLY DRAWS HALF A MILLION MARCHERS". The Washington Post. 1992-04-06.
- ^ "HUGE CROWD BACKS RIGHT TO ABORTION IN CAPITAL MARCH". The New York Times. 1992-04-06.
- ^ Bennett, Lisa (2004). "Flashback: Over One Million March for Women's Lives". National Organization for Women. Retrieved 2024-10-13.
- ^ a b Glass, Andrew (2018-04-05). "Crowd backs abortion rights in march on capital, April 5, 1992". Politico.
- ^ "Abortion rights advocates march on Washington | April 5, 1992". HISTORY. Retrieved 2024-10-13.
- ^ Solis, Marie (2019-06-28). "27 Years Ago, Roe v. Wade Almost Fell. This Is How Protests Saved It". VICE. Retrieved 2024-10-13.
- ^ a b Holmstrom, Nancy (August 2002). The Socialist Feminist Project: A Contemporary Reader in Theory and Politics. NYU Press. p. 271. ISBN 978-1-58367-068-2.
External links
[edit]