The March for Women’s Lives is NOT called the March for Choice for a reason. Contrary to the belief that the name change was a way to water down the political nature of the march, the name change occurred to broaden the framework of the march to include reproductive rights and justice. Forced sterilization, the right to have a child safely, access to safe and affordable abortions and so forth, are issues faced predominately by low-income people, immigrants and people of color. White, middle-class, liberal feminist movements have repeatedly ignored and written over the voices of women of color and poor women in the name of promoting a legalistic framework that emphasized the importance of choice to the exclusion of other reproductive justice issues.
Because historically national media has, when dealing with “feminist” issues, focused on white women’s issues, I think it is really important to both honor the shift in focus of this march by calling by its correct name and educating ourselves about the diverse reproductive health issues facing different people in the United States differently.
Advertising for the March for Women’s Lives using armbands that read “Pro-choice” reproduces a framework that excludes and whites-over the “welfare reform policies, immigration policies, poverty, violence, economic issues, and racism that affect access to a wide range of reproductive health services” (www.marchforwomenslives.com/woc/index.php).
While I think it important to fight for choice, it is critical for white feminists to move beyond narrow frameworks of self-interest by educating themselves, listening to women of color speak on reproductive justice issues (e.g. the speaker brought by Latinas Promoviendo Comunidad and Lambda Pi Chi Sorority in March), and reflecting on the implications of how they advertise. Support reproductive justice, march on April 25 in D.C.
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