n As many people have already heard, this past Sunday was the March for Women’s Lives in Washington, D.C. Contrary to what many people may have thought, this march was not solely about abortion. Some other issues the organizers addressed were the delay of over-the-counter status approval for emergency contraception (which could prevent thousands of unintended pregnancies a year and thus reduce the number of abortions), President George W. Bush’s push for abstinence-only programs in schools and the fact that some insurance plans do not cover contraceptives but will cover Viagra.
I decided to march because I believe that the decision to have an abortion is a private one. It is a difficult decision that should not be interfered with by zealots who don’t really care about the woman at all. I marched because I believe that we have a right to affordable birth control just as much as impotent men have a right to affordable Viagra. I marched because I am a Latina woman and we are twice as likely as white women to experience an unintended pregnancy. I marched for the rape victim in Texas who went to a pharmacy and had to face an employee who refused to fill her emergency contraception prescription and refused to transfer it to another employee or pharmacy. I marched for every woman who had an abortion before 1973. I marched for my grandmother, my mother, my sister, my cousins, myself and my future children.
The march was nothing short of extraordinary. Grandmothers marched for their daughters, husbands marched with their wives, children marched with their mothers and I marched with my closest friends. I spoke with several older women who were amazed at the number of younger women who showed up. We held our signs up high as we passed the minuscule number of anti-choice protesters trying to make us feel like we were selfish for wanting to have a say in when and if we had children.
This past Sunday, 1.1 million women and men made history and this November we’re voting our anti-choice president out of office.
Jasmine C. Marrero
CAS ’04
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