Feminists, black activists, and women who have aborted are joining a group of Californians to sponsor the first ever West Coast Walk for Life along San Francisco's scenic waterfront on January 22, 2005.
Organizers hope to draw thousands to the Walk, but the main focus is not numbers but reaching women who have experienced abortion, says Dolores Meehan, one of the organizers. “If only 500 people show up and we reach even one woman who feels despair from her abortion, then our efforts will have been worth it,” Ms. Meehan says.
Why now?
“Thirty two years after Roe, millions of California women know the gut-wrenching truth about abortion. It's time we work together and focus on resources and support for women,” says Ms. Meehan. “We all know that abortion is a bad choice for unborn children. Now we are challenging the myth that abortion is a good choice for women.”
Silent No More, a national awareness campaign of women who have aborted, is joining Feminists for Life of America and L.E.A.R.N., a black evangelical group, to sponsor the event. The Walk's theme, “Women Deserve Better than Abortion — Life is the Choice,” incorporates Feminists for Life of America's signature slogan and national “Women Deserve Better” campaign.
Event speakers will include Sally Winn, Vice President of Feminists for Life of America; Life Education and Resource Network North East Director Clenard H. Childress, a Baptist minister; and Georgette Forney, chair of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign and president of NOEL, an Episcopalian prolife group. San Francisco Catholic Archbishop William Levada will also speak at the January 22nd Walk.
Other sponsoring organizations include United for Life, Catholics for the Common Good, the California ProLife Council, an affiliate of National Right to Life, and Priests for Life.
“We refuse to choose between women and children. Abortion is a reflection that we have not met the needs of women. Women deserve better. Like Susan B. Anthony, we must systematically eliminate the root causes that drive women to abortion,” said Ms. Winn, Feminists for Life vice president.
“Each day 1,452 African American children are killed by the heinous act of abortion,” says Childress, a Baptist minister. “Women who have been deceived into wrong choices and children who were never given any choice at all are the victims of pro-choice America.”
San Francisco is a strategically important West Coast city where it makes particular sense to hold the Walk, says Ms. Meehan
“Until recently, S.F. was one of the four US cities that distinguished itself by having a higher abortion rate than birth rate. That's a lot of San Franciscans who were never born. That's a lot of women in S.F. who have experienced an abortion and suffer in silence,” says Ms. Meehan.
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