Largest Women's Rights March in U.S. History

By Elayne Clift

Photos By Margaret Michniewicz

They came from Rochester and Romania, from California and the Czech Republic, from Albuquerque and Albania. And they came from Burlington, Montpelier, and rural Vermont, too. Vermont women were there in force to march with their sisters from around the globe when more than one million people filled the mall in Washington, D.C. on Sunday, April 25 demanding justice, privacy, and human rights for women everywhere.

Like everyone else, Vermont women arrived by car, train, plane, and bus — 17 buses in all came from the northern New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont — to have their voices heard. They were joined by Senator Patrick Leahy and his wife Marcelle, an “important gesture” for Vermont’s women, according to Emma Otolenghi, a physician and international women’s health expert from Waterbury Center. Christine Zachai of Montpelier said for her the march — the largest in U.S. history — was important because it “reminds us that we are in the majority. Despite all the anti-choice rhetoric, the majority of Americans are pro-choice, period! After this incredible march, I’ll never forget that!”

As thousands of marchers converged on the mall and tried to locate their groups, celebrities, politicians, women’s rights activists, labor leaders, and others revved up the crowd with rousing music and speeches. The Pittsburgh Choir sang “If Men Got Pregnant,” and the Indigo Girls offered “Grandma Was A Suffragette.” Whoopi Goldberg told the cheering throngs, “Even God gave us freedom of choice! Let’s quit fooling around and put the right person in office!” Then, holding a hanger in the air, she declared “Never again! Never again!”

Representative Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader and self-proclaimed “devout Catholic,” said she is pro-family, pro-freedom, and pro-choice. “It is our decision to make, with our family, our physician, and our faith,” she said of abortion.

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the right to choose is “a global imperative,” adding that reproductive rights and education are “essential to every corner of the globe.” Gloria Steinem called the Bush Administration “the greatest danger on earth,” and urged the crowd to “take back our country.”

The march, which followed similar events held in 1989 and 1992, drew participants from 57 nations and broadened its purpose to move beyond abortion rights for American women to reproductive health and education, and social justice, for all women. The day before the main march, women from numerous countries held a rally in Lafayette Park across from the White House. Carrying their country’s flag and with their mouths gagged, they protested the administration’s “gag rule,” which prohibits any organization receiving U.S. foreign aid from providing abortions, related information or counseling. Catholics For A Free Choice staged a protest in front of the Vatican embassy, as well.

Sponsors of the historic event included The American Civil Liberties Union, The Black Women’s Health Imperative, the Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the National Organization for Women, and Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Focusing on reproductive rights and access to comprehensive reproductive health care, their leaders called upon women and the men who care about them to act so that “our daughters... will never face those dark days again.”

Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU reminded the crowd that “reproductive freedom, like so many of our civil liberties, is currently under siege. Politicians must stop interfering in the private lives of Americans and start protecting core American rights,” he said. But perhaps it was 81-year old Joanne Simpson, a retired scientist whose mother worked with Margaret Sanger, who said it best: “I just want young people to carry on.”

Nine-year old Sydney Nelson, a Catholic-school student in Maryland, who attended the march with her mother and aunt, is one of those young people. She said she was probably the only one of her classmates to attend the march. She was looking forward to talking to them about it when school resumed.

Elayne Clift, a writer and women’s health advocate in Saxtons River, Vt., also covered the 1989 march in Washington. Her third collection of commentary, “Sanity For All in the 21st Century” (Xlibris), was published in 2002.