Why I March: From A Man in the Movement

Why I March: From A Man in the Movement
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When I was in college in 1966, a dear friend who I had not seen in a year told me she was pregnant and needed an abortion. She was desperate-and broke. Abortion was illegal. I asked around and got the name of a physician in Washington, D.C., called him, made the arrangements and raised the money for my friend. The doctor turned out to be professional and everything went as smoothly as it could given the circumstances, but I decided that I would do everything I could to ensure no other woman went through what my friend endured. In a way, the experience awakened my social conscience.

I gave my first reproductive rights speech in 1969. I have devoted the last 30 years of my professional life to reproductive and sexual freedom and rights with Planned Parenthood of New York City and with International Planned Parenthood Federation. I was at Cairo for the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994, where women were put at the center of the development agenda and in Beijing for the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995, where Hillary Clinton proclaimed that Women's Rights were Human Rights. Women around the world today are in the same position my friend was in this country in 1967. There weren't a lot of men in Beijing but I was proud to be there and to speak at the NGO Forum on the role of men in women's rights. We are all in this fight together.

And I am proud to join women and men from throughout the country, throughout the world in our collective roar for women's rights.

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