I went to Washington DC yesterday to voice my support for women's freedon of choice to have an abortion. We left home at 4:00 AM and returned at 11:00 PM. In between was a very moving, exhilerating and exhausting experience. There were hundreds of thousand people assembled and marching peacefully without incident. There were provocateurs on the sidelines from the anti abortion movement trying to engage the marchers in controversy. There was little confrontation. The marchers just outshouted the protesters. I took some time out to engage some young people on the sidelines who were holding pro life signs without doing any shouting. I asked how they felt about the war in Iraq and the many dead from that war. After all if they are pro life they should be anti war. One of the girls said that it did disturb her to see the deaths in Iraq. I asked her if she was considering not voting for Bush. She said that she was having serious thoughts about not supporting him. I wish I had said some other things to them, Such as how do you feel about our insufficient gun control laws and all the deaths caused by guns in this country. I would also have like to say that opting for an abortion is not an easy decision for most women. But there are usually good, humanitarian and health reasons. I also disagree with abortion being used as a contraceptive but in the final analysis we need to maintain our freedom in this country and that includes the freedom of choice to have (or not to have) an abortion. Here are the march pictures.

# Posted by Eve Winer on 4/26/04; 9:59:19 AM - --