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News From Capitol Hill:
Decked out in green t-shirts proudly displaying the logo "Pro-Choice, Pro-Family Planning, Pro-Environment," over 70 Sierra Club activists came to Washington, D.C. for the historic March for Women's Lives on April 25.
Club activists marched alongside almost one million other advocates from around the world - ALL united in their outspoken opposition to Bush administration policies that deny women access to basic human rights. All of the delegates at the March for Women's Lives advocated for women's rights to health care, access to family planning services, and the right to make decisions about their own bodies - all of which help to save women's lives and ultimately protect our shared environment.
To read Larry Fahn's speech, click here. Why March? As a co-sponsor of the March for Women's Lives, Sierra Club members marched to show their support for women's rights and lives. We marched to tell the Bush administration that their policies and actions to suspend, restrict and eliminate life-saving family planning and reproductive health funding is detrimental to the health of women AND the environment. And our message was popular! Our buttons and tee shirts were hot items! In fact, we were inundated with requests for more information, buttons and signs from other activists from around the country. Everyone agreed with us - supporting family planning DOES support the environment! What was gained... For all of us who participated, it was a day that will continue to inspire us in the coming months. As Ron Weisen, long time Club population activists from Philadelphia and National Global Population and Environment Committee Member commented, "It's a day I will never forget. The high energy that was present I think was contagious to nearly everyone. The messages were clear. I believe that people left the event determined even more than before that they will make a difference in this most difficult year." Working together, we must cast public scrutiny on this administration's promotion of extremist policies that eliminate U.S. funding for international family planning programs, restrict a woman's right to choose, and deny youth access to life-saving sexual health education. It is up to each us to continue what was started here in Washington in April! Check out more March photos!
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Marching in our Sierra Club delegation was President Larry Fahn, who was invited to speak at the morning stage - directly preceding Senator Hilary Clinton! As activist and national Global Population and Environment Committee Member, Jim Hufnagel, described it, "Sierra Club Board President Larry Fahn addressed the crowd of one million with an energetic and articulate appeal for family planning, women's rights and the environment. We watched him on monitors that towered forty feet high over the crowd and a sound system that carried his voice over the multitude present."