BRYN MAWR CONTINGENT JOINS MARCH ON NATION'S CAPITAL

Rachel Birch '06 and Zoe Leffingwell '06 were among the Bryn Mawr contingent at the march.

A Bryn Mawr contingent of about 200 marched in the largest abortion-rights demonstration in the nation's capital in more than a decade, says Kate Tucker '04, president of the Bryn Mawr student organization Voices for Choice. Five school buses carrying about 160 students met up with about 40 more students and alumnae at the march site, Tucker says. A few members of the Bryn Mawr Pro-Life Club joined a counterprotest at the Washington march, says Pro-Life Club President Amanda Boehlert '07, but the club didn't officially sponsor a contingent of marchers.

Voices for Choice has been organizing for the march since last semester, when National Organization for Women President Kim Gandy and Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal spoke to a large crowd in Thomas Great Hall. A fund administered by Bryn Mawr's student Self-Government Association helped subsidize three buses so that students could attend the march for $5, Tucker says. "A few weeks ago, we realized that we'd need more space." The group sold T-shirts bearing the legend "This is what a feminist looks like" to raise funds to subsidize a fourth bus and still had more potential marchers than seats; riders on the fifth bus paid a full $20 fare for the ride to D.C. and back.

Tucker was pleased with the turnout. "We left at 7 a.m.," she said. "I don't think I've ever seen that many Mawrters in one place at 7 a.m. before!"

"There have been a lot of attacks on women's reproductive rights lately," Tucker said. "With the 'partial birth' abortion legislation and a law that makes it a separate crime to harm a fetus in an attack on a pregnant woman, there's a trend toward focusing on the fetus at the expense of a woman's right to control her fertility. Women are feeling a lot of political pressure, and going down to D.C. gave us an opportunity to assert control over our own bodies," she said.

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