More than one million women protest
Bush’s conservative policies
WASHINGTON—More than one million women from all over
the United States and other countries invaded
downtown Washington on Sunday to defend their right
to abortion, which they believe to be threatened by
President George W. Bush.
Nearly
1.15 million people participated in the
demonstration according to its organizers, making it
even larger than a similar event in April 1992, when
some 750,000 people took part.
By
mid-afternoon, the famous Mall, an immense open area
surrounded by museums and dominated by Congressional
Hill, was packed with people carrying signs that
read “Fire Bush” and “Keep Abortion Legal,”
demanding that the government not interfere in their
“private lives.”
Within
the last six months, the Republican president has
signed two laws; the first bans a method of
late-term abortion and the second gives a fetus
legal status as separate from the mother.
Abortion-rights advocates see the two laws as
endangering the right to choose abortion, legalized
by the Supreme Court in January 1973.
The war
in Iraq and the upcoming presidential elections in
November were also evident at the demonstration,
with signs calling on people to vote for Democrat
John Kerry, whose two daughters were on the march
“Bush
feeds terrorism” and “Texas wants a pro-choice
candidate,” read some signs. Bush was governor of
that Southern state before becoming president in
November 2000.
(Source: AFP)
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