April 12th 2004
All-star Celebrity Coalition to March for Women's Lives in
Washington, DC on April 25 (Washington, D.C.) - On April 25,
a star-studded cast of the world's most recognized
celebrities and artists is supporting the March
for Women's Lives in Washington,
D.C. Many in this coalition
of actors, comedians and musicians, including Helen
Hunt, LisaGay Hamilton, Bradley Whitford
and Whoopi Goldberg will march to send the message:
women - not politicians - must have the
right to make deeply personal decisions about their
health and lives.
"The right to decide when or whether to have a child
is a fundamental human right," said Helen
Hunt, the Academy award-winning actress. "I am uniting with
fellow artists to protest the
dangerous policy restrictions and cuts in funding
for reproductive health services in the U.S. and
around the world. "
More than 1,200 organizations
- including some of the nation's leading women's,
civil rights, health and faith organizations - are
mobilizing hundreds of thousands of Americans to
travel to Washington, D.C. to make their voices heard
on April 25. Delegations from around the world will
march to the White House and Capitol to demand that
all women - regardless of income, age, race
and ethnicity - be able to exercise their reproductive
rights through equal access to safe abortions,
birth control (including emergency contraception),
reproductive and pre-natal health care, safe
delivery and comprehensive, medically-accurate sex
education.
"
It's important that all Americans stand up for their
rights and the rights of all women worldwide," said
LisaGay Hamilton, actress in ABC's drama The Practice
and writer/director/co-producer of
the HBO documentary Beah: A Black Woman Speaks. "If we cannot
control our bodies, we do not
have equal protection under the law."
"
I am coming to the March for Women's Lives to stand
up for a future for my little daughters
where they have the fundamental right to govern their
own bodies, free from legislation, free from
intimidation and free from fear," said Bradley Whitford, Emmy
award-winning actor from the
NBC drama West Wing. "My message to the politicians will be
simple: Enough is enough. We
have the right to make our own deeply felt, deeply
moral decisions."
The "global gag rule," which cuts funding
for reproductive health services to international
health organizations that provide counseling, referrals
or access to abortion services, is putting women's
lives at risk. This type of restriction prevents women
from having access to information that could
prevent up to the 500,000 pregnancy-related, 3 million
AIDS-related and 75,000 unsafe abortionrelated
deaths worldwide each year.
"If the government takes safe, legal, clean abortions
away from women - knowing that if a woman
needs an abortion, she may have one anyway - then
they're encouraging women to kill
themselves," said actor and comedian Whoopi Goldberg. "That's
why I'm marching. "
The March for Women's Lives in Washington D.C. on April 25 is
being led by seven co-sponsoring
organizations: American Civil Liberties Union,
Black Women's Health Imperative, Feminist Majority,
NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Latina Institute
for Reproductive Health, National Organization
for
Women and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
The full release includes a list of celebrities in the March for Women's Lives
Celebrity Coalition and can be found:
In
PDF format | In Rich Text format
MFWL Media | http://www.marchforwomen.org/media/index.php
[ March for
Women's Lives ] |
