 |
Main >> News Listing >> April 2004 >> Article ID 4724
 Christina Advocates Women's Rights | Type: Internet Article |
| | US abortion rights advocates march | Apr 25, 2004 |
Summary:
Hundreds of thousands of abortion rights activists have converged on the US capital for what they believe will be an unprecedented, celebrity-studded show of force designed to stave off any election-year assault on women's right to choose.
The roster of other US and international celebrities, who have endorsed it, includes Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Helen Hunt, along with Julia Stiles, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Kirsten Dunst, Salma Hayek, Uma Thurman, Cindy Crawford, Christina Aguilera and Pink.
Read on for the whole article. |
Hundreds of thousands of abortion rights activists have converged on the US capital for what they believe will be an unprecedented, celebrity-studded show of force designed to stave off any election-year assault on women's right to choose.
The March for Women's Lives was expected to attract anywhere between 500,000 and 750,000 participants, according to its organisers - and go down in history as one of the largest and most colourful displays of unity in support for legalised abortion.
But they are unlikely to be met with just smiles and plaudits.
Hundreds of pro-life activists, who equate abortion with murder, are also in town, readying for a heated face-off with their perennial foes.
Armed with placards and pictures of aborted babies, they plan to line the footpaths of Pennsylvania Avenue to confront participants of what they call "the death march."
In a preview of possible things to come, anti-abortion activist Jeff White of California was arrested outside an Planned Parenthood clinic for showing passers-by a glass jar with an aborted foetus.
The moral dilemma facing the two sides was highlighted by Troy Newman, one of the leaders of Operation Rescue West, who asked in a statement: "If those remains were not a baby, why is it illegal to possess and display them? On the other hand, if it is a baby, why is abortion legal?"
The more than 1,200 civic groups that have coalesced to make the march possible see abortion as a basic right that allows women to take charge of their own destinies.
"If the government takes safe, legal clean abortions away from women - knowing that if a woman needs an abortion, she may have one anyway - then they are encouraging women to kill themselves. That's why I'm marching," said Hollywood actress Whoopi Goldberg, one of the organisers of the event.
The roster of other US and international celebrities, who have endorsed it, includes Oscar winners Charlize Theron and Helen Hunt, along with Julia Stiles, Demi Moore, Sharon Stone, Kirsten Dunst, Salma Hayek, Uma Thurman, Cindy Crawford, Christina Aguilera and Pink.
"The right to decide when or whether to have a child is a fundamental human right," Hunt said in a statement.
Abortion has been one of the most divisive issues in US politics since the Supreme Court's landmark 1973 ruling in Roe vs Wade, which has prevented states from banning abortions in the first two trimesters of pregnancy.
But pro-choice activists insist the right is under creeping assault from Republicans, who seek to dismantle its legal foundation piece by piece.
They cite a 2001 decision by pro-life Republican President George W Bush to deny funding to international organisations that provide access to abortion services, blaming it for up to 75,000 unsafe abortion-related deaths each year.
The abortion rights movement has also been alarmed by the enactment last November of a law banning some types of late-term abortion and this month's signing of a bill making it a separate crime to cause death or injury to a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. |
 Source: The Age | |
|
|
 |
|
|
| Username: | Guest |
| Position: | Unregistered Viewer |
|
|
ChristinaMultimedia is a non-profit
website. Costs to maintain the master server and other servers are very expensive. If
you use and enjoy this website and any other websites of CMM, it would be greatly appreciated if you can help out with our costs.
|
|
|
Total Online: 6
6 Guests, 0 Members |
|
|
|
|
Total Articles: 11578
Total Views: 9330251
Total Comments: 1600
Total Hits: 12867343
Total Unique Visits: 1698128
|
|
|
|
FAQ
Login
