We received the following report from students at CSULA, a state university in Los Angeles:
A group of us from CSULA Students
for Critical Thinking received a flyer on the ‘Chain of Life’ event on January
22 from another student (whose church encouraged her to attend) because she
knew we wanted to rally for women’s reproductive freedoms. The flyer boasted of the previous year’s
turnout of 30,000, so we anticipated a large crowd and needless to say, we were
a bit nervous, yet we wanted to ensure that our side (pro-choice) of the issue
was out there.
Tens of thousands short, we faced a
Goliath of 300 pro-life, anti-abortion marchers; our small group of four women
stood across the street representing pro-choice on the 33rd
anniversary of the landmark case Roe vs. Wade. We knew we would be outnumbered
and three out of four of us had never attended a pro-choice rally (or any
political rally for that matter). Would
the angry anti-abortionists trample us?
Would we even be noticed amongst this monster crowd? Would we look like fools and feel belittled
by the bigger group of those opposed to our views?
Despite our worries, we gathered
across the street from the Our Lady of Angels church in Downtown L.A. and proudly
held our signs for the right of every woman to make her own choice and ‘Bush
Step Down’ posters. To our surprise,
media attention flocked our way and asked us why are you here? What is our
stance? How do you feel about the recent nomination of ultra-conservative Samuel
Alito to the Supreme Court? One of the reporters thanked us for being there and
asked where is everybody else. Our
action was aired on the local radio station and all of the local tv
stations. There were two sides aired.
Our platform was simple, we told
the media: Women not only are entitled to a choice of whether or not to
terminate and unwanted pregnancy, but ought to have the right to safe access to
abortions, thus preventing a plethora of unsafe abortions. We expressed our
fear that with the confirmation of Alito to the Supreme Court, the reproductive
rights of women to have access not only to safe abortions but to free or
inexpensive birth control and sex education is dwindling and could be gone soon.
We marched
to the 101 freeway overpass where our signs were greeted by numerous honks and
waves of support from passersby. We felt great encouragement and anticipation
for our next action. A lesson we all learned:
Even a small group can have a big impact, and we need to seize the
opportunity to take a stand when you get it.