Students to Join D.C. March

About 400 University students are expected to join the Harvard-Radcliffe Coalition for Women's Rights '89 at Sunday's March on Washington for Women's Equality and Women's Lives, organizers said this week.

The march is expected to draw about half a million people to rally for women's rights to legalized abortions and to equality under the law. Harvard organizers have said that although only 400 will ride their buses to get to Washington, many more will travel on their own.

Jennifer A. Dunne '89, founder of the coalition, said she started the organization because it is crucial for students to show their support for abortion rights because the Supreme Court is about to review a decision in Webster v. Reproductive Health Services that could overturn Roe v. Wade. That case legalized abortion in 1973.

"It's going to be really important for people to start lobbying and working at the grass roots level because that's where all the drama of reproductive freedom is going to be," Dunne said.

The Court agreed last year to hear Webster, which involves a Missouri state law that limits abortion and abortion counseling.

"It would simply be tragic [if Webster won] because then the states could outlaw abortion outright or make it so only the wealthy could afford it," Julia L. Shaffner '91, a group member, said. "The concept of having to carry a pregnancy to term is repulsive to me."

The coalition is an ad-hoc group "formed under the auspices" of the Civil Liberties Union at Harvard and Radcliffe and the Radcliffe Union of Students(RUS), Dunne said. She said she started the groupin February after attending a "mobilizationmeeting" at the Boston chapter of the NationalOrganization of Women (NOW).

Dunne said the group was formed specifically toorganize students for the march and will disbandafter Sunday's protest.

Holly R. Zellweger '90, who helped with themobilization, said it is important forpro-choicers to express their discontent with theCourt and administration through the march.

"I think that this march should be a statementnot only to the Supreme Court but to the wholenation," said Zellweger, who is also co-presidentof RUS. "We need to show them [the Bushadministration] that we're here, and we're pissedoff and that we're not going to vote for themanymore."

Members of the group have been tabling at theundergraduate houses, the Law School, the DivinitySchool and in front of the Science Center. Abouteight buses, carrying the majority of Harvardprotesters, will leave Dylan Field House Saturdaynight.

According to tablers, most students havereacted positively to the march.

"In general the response has been remarkablysupportive," Shaffner said. "I've had very fewnegative reactions to this thing."

Dunne said she has encountered more negativeresponses because of the large number ofanti-abortionists on campus.

Ellen Convisser, president of Boston NOW, saidprotestors will line up at the Washington Monumentat 10 a.m., and the step-off is at noon. Marcherswill then move toward the Capitol, where they willhear speeches and listen to performers until 5p.m.

Dunne said any Harvard marchers travelingindependently can meet the protesters from thecoalition buses in front of the East Wing of theNational Gallery of Art