Why would more than a million people turn out to protest national policies they feel are dangerous, regressive, and a threat to many even outside the country? Why has it come to this, that so many feel so angry?

One response comes from the official web site for the March for Women's Lives at
http://www.marchforwomen.org/index.php

CHOICE

The Mission

To ensure that all women have the right to choose to have or not to have children, with reproductive health options that are safe, affordable and accessible.

The Reality

Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court case that overruled state laws banning abortion, could be gutted or even lost if even one vote change on the Supreme Court. Several of the Supreme Court Justices are close to retirement, and the President appoints new justices to fill vacancies with the advise and consent of the U.S. Senate.

JUSTICE

Mission

To promote true reproductive justice that recognizes women must have the right to have, or not have, children - To realize these rights, all women must address poverty, racism, xenophobia, trafficking, homophobia, incarceration, sexism, and we must resist all population control strategies that attack our right to bodily self-determination.

The Reality

At the Department of Health and Human Services, Wade Horn was put in charge of family support. A firm believer in using welfare to encourage marriage, Horn has proposed denying benefits to cohabitating couples and withholding money from single mothers until all married couples have been served.

ACCESS

The Mission

To ensure the availability of contraceptive services, family planning, and abortion services to all women regardless of geographic location or income.

The Reality

The legal right to abortion remains an empty promise for women who lack the financial resources and geographic proximity to actually realize this right. By law, federal money can not be used to fund abortion services, penalizing low-income women. 87 percent of US counties do not have an abortion provider. Mandatory parental involvement laws prevent young women from accessing reproductive health services.

HEALTH

The Mission

To address disturbing statistics that indicate widespread disparate treatment options offered to women due to race, income, and age, to help women protect their lives from breast cancer, over-use of hormone replacement therapies, medical abuses, and other issues that threaten women's health.

Reality

About 15% of the U.S. population (44 million Americans, including 8.5 million children) do not even have health insurance.

ABORTION

The Mission

To uphold the fundamental right of women to control their lives through safe and legal abortion.

Reality

While Roe v. Wade hangs by a one-vote thread in the Supreme Court, In 2003, both Houses of Congress passed and President Bush signed the so-called "Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003". This deceptively named law_there is no such medical terminology_ is the first federal legislation to criminalize any medical procedure. This law could outlaw safe abortion procedures often performed in the first and second trimesters.

GLOBAL

The Mission

To establish the connection between foreign and domestic policies that harm women worldwide and to assert reproductive freedom as a basic human right.

The Reality

The current administration has reinstated the "Global Gag Rule," which denies US funding to non-US family planning organizations that perform abortions, provide abortion referrals, or advocate for reproductive justice_even if they use their own money to do so. The United States has also refused to fund the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)_an organization that gives millions of women and families access to reproductive health care and information to plan and space births. Planning and spacing births reduces the incidence of maternal and infant mortality and improves the overall health of families worldwide.

FAMILY PLANNING

The Mission

To demand access to a range of safe and affordable family planning options, including the right to accurate and effective sex education and safe and effective contraceptive development and testing - We deserve the right to full disclosure of information about new reproductive technologies and the race, class, and gender implications of such technologies, including our opposition to bio-engineering and genome research that particularly place low-income women and women of color at risk.

The Reality

The current administration's push for abstinence only sexual education would leave many without the education or the resources to make informed decisions about their reproductive health.