Monday, January 25, 2010

Ho Ho, Hey Hey, Roe v. Wade is Here to Stay

DC is one of the most influential places in the world. Such much goes on in this city that it's residents get a chance to take part in events and such that deal with issues that affect the entire country.

Today, I got the opportunity to march in front of the Supreme Court Building to celebrate the 37th Anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Court Decision. Unfortunately, this anniversary is also the date when anti-choice groups decide to flood the National Mall for the March for Life and protest the landmark abortion decision. We knew that we would be out numbered so keeping this in mind, we just wanted to make our presence known.

This was my first time participating in a march like this and it was quite a unique experience. Prior to the march, I was warned that anti-choice demonstrators would try to get in my face and how many of these demonstrators would be young, high school teenagers. This made me a little anxious but I assured myself that if I did not respond to their taunting, they would give up and move onto the next person.

When we walked up to the building and began marching in a circle with our pro-choice signs and chants, dozens of 13-year-olds descended upon us with blue and pink face paint, "I love babies" written on their faces, and red duct tape inscribed with "LIFE" covering their mouths. I really wish I had gotten a picture because it was quite humorous. For these teens, this march was just a fun field trip for which they got to play dress up, hang out with their friends, and yell about things they knew nothing about.

At one point, we were chanting "Stupak has got to go, when you're pregnant let us know" (one of my personal favorites because many of these teens may very well have abortions later on in their teen-years) and many of them ran up to their friends and asked "What is Tupak? Why are they chanting about Tupac?" This just made me shake my head because you would think that if you were really passionate about a cause and were willing to attend a march to speak about your beliefs that you would be educated about your cause. But no, these children are given no valuable information about what they're marching about. All they are told is pro-choice advocates love killing babies and that is what they believe. Sigh.

Thankfully nobody got up in my face, but I may or may not have shouldered a couple of teenagers that tried to get in my way. I had a blast and my new raspy voice is evidence that I chanted to my fullest.

Above is a picture of FMF interns, Khatera, Mariel, and Elena at the march.

Viva Roe!

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