WASHINGTON -- Dissatisfied with what they described as the Bush administration's attacks on reproductive freedoms and global policies that hurt women, nine Dartmouth students were among hundreds of thousands of pro-choice supporters who demonstrated in Washington, D.C. Sunday.
The rally on the National Mall spanned from the U.S. Capitol to the Washington Monument. Various police sources informally estimated the throng at between 500,000 and 800,000 strong.
That would exceed the estimated 500,000 who protested for abortion rights in 1992.
Vanessa Vega '05 was among the group of nine Dartmouth students that drove from Hanover to attend Sunday's march.
"I don't believe the state should legislate people's decisions," she said. "I am here to protest laws that would make abortion illegal."
Notable speakers at the rally included feminist Gloria Steinem, and Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., who said the Bush administration is "filled with people who ... consider Roe v. Wade the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history."
The march drew a wide array of supporters from across the spectrum of life and politics, from campus groups to pro-choice Catholic and Republican organizations. Rally-goers from all walks of life were galvanized by a self-described mutual frustration with the Bush administration. Organizers set up voter registration tables while John Kerry supporters handed out stickers.
Throngs of protesters shouted such anti-Bush chants as, "Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! George Bush has got to go."
Abortion-rights supporters worry that the small Supreme Court majority in favor of Roe v. Wade could be lost if Bush is president long enough to fill vacancies that come up in the court. Kerry supports abortion rights.
A much smaller contingent of abortion opponents assembled along a portion of the route to protest what they called a "death march."
Among them were women who had undergone abortions and regretted it; they dressed in black.
According to The Associated Press, police arrested 16 people from the Christian Defense Coalition for demonstrating without a permit and another anti-abortion protester for throwing ink-filled plastic eggs at rally signs.
