Vol. 75/No. 10      March 14, 2011

Militant/Natalie Bombaro

Abortion right marchers in Philadelphia February 26 also joined prolabor rally there.

Similar actions have been held around the country in response to a February 18 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives barring federal funding for Planned Parenthood. The House resolution also eliminates support for Title X, a federal family-planning program for low-income women that provides birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and testing for H.I.V. and other sexually transmitted diseases. U.S. laws already prevent Planned Parenthood from using federal money for abortion services. The House must vote for final passage of the bill before it goes before the U.S. Senate.

Marchers chanted, “2, 4, 6, 8, abortion rights in every state” and “Women’s rights are under attack. What do we do? Stand up, fight back!” They made their way to the state capitol to join a rally in solidarity with Wisconsin workers fighting attacks on union rights.

“I think it’s an outrage what is being done to our reproductive rights,” Kala Evans, a senior at Kennesaw State University, told the Militant. “They need to stay out of our business!”

Several thousand prochoice supporters rallied in New York City that day and more than 800 marched in Chicago. Many of the demonstrators in New York came from a nearby rally that had started a few hours earlier in support of the Wisconsin public workers’ fight against union-busting legislation. A couple days earlier a debate broke out in New York over a billboard in the city targeting Black women’s right to abortion.

In Chicago some of the activists attended a similar union rally after the “Walk for Choice” action was done. Dozens of right-wingers opposing abortion rights also staged a counterprotest following the walk.

Maura DeLuca in New York and Laura Anderson in Chicago contributed to this article.
 
 
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Rightist outfit targets abortion rights for Blacks  
 
 
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