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"Vivian Bowden" <[email protected]> Thu, 29 Apr 04 09:51:28 GMT
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More than 1,300 health and activist groups nationwide have signed on to su=
pport what's expected to be a massive march for women's reproductive freed=
om on Sunday, April 25, in Washington, DC. <br>
Among the many new endorsers is the NAACP, which has publicly supported <b=
r>
a pro-choice rally. The is a reflection of the fact that the April 25 even=
t is paying more attention to issues of concern to minority women =FFFFFF96
star=
ting at the top. 


"The first thing we did was ask that the name of the event be changed," sa=
ys Loretta Ross,<br> executive director of the National Center for Human R=
ights Education (NCHRE), the first organization of its kind to focus on hu=
man rights violations in the United States. Ross is also the co-director o=
f the April 25 march. <br>"The original name was March for Choice, but tha=
t's not a title that resonates with many people of color. So when our coll=
ective got on the steering committee, we asked that the name be March to S=
ave Women's Lives, because that's really what's at issue for<br> poor and =
minority women in this country." 


Ross got involved in the march after organizing an annual meeting of the <=
br>SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Health Collective in Atlanta las=
t year where the issue was discussed. Soon after, representatives from mem=
bers of the Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice, the National Organization=
 for Women and Planned Parenthood approached SisterSong about being part o=
f the event. The collective asked that two of the seven seats at the <br>s=
teering-committee table be given to women of color, a request which Eleano=
r Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, says was immediately forthcom=
ing. Smeal believes that there will be record-setting numbers at Sunday's =
event, in part because of the <br>tremendous efforts of Ross and other wom=
en of color to mobilize across the nation.

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<font style=3D"color:whitesmoke; font-size:1px;">
Silvia Henriquez, executive director of the Latina Institute for Reproduct=
ive Health and member of the steering committee, predicts that the focus o=
n reproductive rights as part of a broader context will<br> attract substa=
ntial numbers of Hispanic women. "Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic=
ity in the country, and in the next twenty years millions of Latinas are g=
oing to be looking to raise their families in safe, healthy environments w=
ith full <br>access to education and healthcare," she says, adding, "it's =
not that Latinas don't support abortion, or don't care about that issue. T=
hey do =FFFFFF96 but they tend to think of reproductive rights as part of
their =
overall human rights and those of <br>their families." 


The SisterSong Collective will be front and center on Sunday, asking anyon=
e who wants to walk with their delegation in the march (look for the banne=
r that says "Women of Color for Reproductive Justice") <br>to wear red, ye=
llow and orange. Ross made sure to invite the many unseen organizations an=
d advocates who have historically fought for reproductive justice in commu=
nities of color, as well as dozens of organizations from the antipoverty a=
nd <br>antiracist movements, and those who work on HIV/AIDS, environmental=
 justice, immigrants' rights, violence against women and criminal justice =
issues. Bringing new faces to the march, Ross hopes, will create more awar=
eness of the ways women of color<br> and white women can differ in their d=
efinition of reproductive justice.</font></p>
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