Chants of “my body, my choice” and “One, two, three, four abortion rights for rich and poor” rang out across the Boston Common as Boston area students and residents gathered to participate in the Walk for Choice on Saturday afternoon.
About 1,000 people attended the Walk for Choice as a national response to the House of Representatives’ attempts to defund Title X, a government program that provides family planning services, most notably to Planned Parenthood.
The walk, which was inspired by feminist blogger and Chicago resident Raven Geary, was organized by College of Arts and Sciences junior Stephanie Beal.
“One of the major themes of this walk is that women and women’s bodies are constantly being talked about and this case applies to the government in particular,” Beal said.
After blogger Geary heard of HR3, the bill proposed by the House that would redefine rape, cut all federal funding for abortion and makes it legal for any doctor to refuse to perform an abortion, she decided there should be a rally to protest the bill.
From there, the idea grew to include more than 50 locations, with about 14,000 people participating, Beal said.
“We’re being sent the message that our opinions and our voices don’t really matter. We want to send back the message that they do matter and as taxpayers, we should have a say in what happens to our bodies and where our tax dollars are spent,” she said. “We hope this will encourage thousands of women and men, who feel they haven’t been heard in the past to exercise their rights, speak up and be heard.”
Participants in the walk met at one of four locations, including Marsh Plaza and marched to the Common leading chants and carrying posters reading, “Keep your Boehner out of my uterus” and “We have a voice, we have a choice.”
Protesters hoped the rally would have an effect on Congress.
“I’d like to think this walk will make a difference. I’m pro-choice. I’ve been to Planned Parenthood and so have my friends. It’s a necessary service for society to have access to reproductive healthcare,” said Catherine, a sophomore at Wheelock College who refused to give her last name.
“If this bill is passed, it will be a huge blow to women’s rights,” she added. “The people it will affect are the ones that can’t afford reproductive healthcare. People need to stand up for what’s right.”
Students said they think the House’s proposal is an attack on basic healthcare.
“One in five women has used Planned Parenthood,” said Colleen Fant, a medical student at Tufts University. “Tufts medical students have used Planned Parenthood. It’s a service for people from all walks of life.”
“I can’t even imagine. No one really understands the magnitude of the consequences. Millions of people in the U.S. would be without basic healthcare,” said Moira Rashid, another Tufts medical student. “We all need to work together to defend women’s rights and make sure our senators are held accountable and vote to protect women.”
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
I bet this wasn’t on purpose, but the girl with the megaphone, that’s me! I’m a BU alum, COM ’08! It was amazing to see so many hundreds of men and women (and some babies and some dogs too!) come out to support PPFA and Title X. Thank you for being there, Freep, and thanks for reporting on it!