East Tennesseans are taking their concerns to the streets as they head to Washington on April 25 to attend the March for Women’s Lives.
The March for Women’s Lives is a public demonstration being organized to support reproductive freedom and justice for all women.
“This march is an opportunity for thousands of women from all over the country to come together in Washington and make their voices heard,” said Kristen Heffern, 23, a graduate student at ETSU. “The march is an effort to show the current administration that women won’t stand idly by while they whittle away at our reproductive freedom.
“Legislation is being passed in Washington that not only restricts a woman’s right to choose, but also limits women’s access to family planning and safe health care.”
The march is a collaborative effort between seven of the country’s leading women’s rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Black Women’s Health Imperative, Feminist Majority, Naral Pro-Choice America, National Latina Organization for Reproductive Health, the National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
These organizations, along with other who have signed on as co-sponsors, pooled their efforts and resources to organize this event. According to the event organizer’s web site, the march will call for “reproductive health, justice and privacy, as well as unrestricted access to family planning.”
March organizers feel that recent legislation signed by President Bush has created a legal loophole, which could lead to the reversal of the Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. “Women in the ’60s and ’70s, that marched on the first march on Washington for women’s rights, provided a great example for today’s protestors,” Heffern said. “Now, however, we are dealing with a situation that could potentially undo all the changes that they helped bring about.”
Rallies have been used in the past as a way of allowing voices of descent against the government to be heard in a public forum. “Citizens have a responsibility to remain connected with their elected government,” said Dr. Kelly Dorgan, an ETSU women’s studies faculty member. “The march is just one way that we are being active participants in governance.”
Dorgan is helping to organize a group that will attend the rally. “We have a group of women and men of all ages who are interested in communicating with their elected government,” Dorgan said. “ETSU is being represented, but only as a sub-delegation. This is a community-based effort. Delegation members are from all around the Tri-Cities. We have about 55 people from different regional communities and departments – some are nurses, some professors, some students and some local business owners.
“The response from the community has been overwhelming. ETSU’s women’s studies program is funding a bus for anyone, regardless of what his or her position is on the issue, to observe and/or participate in activism.”
Debi Reihman, 35, is one of the community members who will be attending the march with the Tri-Cities delegation. “I’ve never been involved in an event like this before, so I wouldn’t really call myself an activist, but this is an incredibly important issue for me,” Reihman said. “I think the march is important because it makes people who are pro-choice feel connected, and it gives us a sense of strength in numbers.”
East Tennessee has traditionally been a conservative area, but march participants see this as precisely the reason that East Tennessee needs to be represented in Washington. “We’re in the Bible belt, and from a rural area,” Heffern said. “Women in East Tennessee aren’t ignorant of their reproductive rights and they want to make sure they’re upheld just as much as women in more urban areas.”
The rally will begin with an interfaith service at the Capitol Reflecting Pool before the march begins. Participants will organize, and the marchers will have their message heard as they walk from the area known as “The Mall” to the Smithsonian Museum.
For more info on the local effort, call Dorgan at 439-7564.

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