On Sunday, Penn State students will join men and women from around the country in Washington, D.C., for the March for Women's Lives.
"We're expecting about 1.2 million people at the march on Sunday, women and men," Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance (FMLA) president Dominica Bowski said in an e-mail message.
The march is being organized by seven groups: the American Civil Liberties Union, The Black Women's Health Imperative, The Feminist Majority Foundation, NARAL Pro-Choice America, The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, The National Organization for Women and Planned Parenthood Federation of America.
The groups said they hope the march will help secure women's reproductive rights, as well as improve the quality of healthcare for women and children.
"We hope to raise awareness in Washington, D.C., and on a national level ... that we need our voices heard for women's health. We want the legislators to know what our concerns are and what our needs are," said Paula Nossek, Planned Parenthood of the Susquehanna Valley Health Center manager.
There is a kick-off event tomorrow from 8 to 11 p.m. at the D.C. Armory. The event will feature several performers and celebrity speakers, including Kathy Najimy, Camryn Manheim, Cybill Sheppard, Tyne Daly and Amy Brenneman.
The event will start with a rally at 10 a.m. Sunday at the national mall and the march itself will start at noon. The march will end with another rally at 4 p.m. at the mall.
"We have a bus of PSU students, including all of FMLA, as well as students from branch campuses leaving on Saturday. That's about 55 people, give or take a few. There are five buses leaving on Sunday, and I would say about half to 70 percent of those traveling on these buses will be students," Bowski said in an e-mail message.
Nossek said she is a bus captain and is going down to the march with students.
"FMLA is taking two buses down. We've got three. Including FMLA, we've got at least 225 people," she said.
The marchers said they hope legislators will take notice of their demands.
"We want to show our administration, show the country, that we want, demand, and deserve reproductive freedom. I want to tell people to keep their laws off my body, that it's my body, my choice," Bowski said in the e-mail message. "With Roe v. Wade holding on by one vote, women's reproductive rights are in a crucial state. We want to inform others that women need the right to access a safe and legal abortion, as well as information about other reproductive health issues such as birth control, emergency contraceptives, etc."
