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April 23, 2004/Iyar 2 5764, Vol. 56, No. 31
Jews join rights march
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
WASHINGTON - This weekend's march on Washing-ton for reproductive rights, an election-year exercise in mass message-sending, has a substantial Jewish component.
Two major national Jewish women's organizations and three religious denominations are organizing busloads of participants for the April 25 March for Women's Lives on the National Mall in Washington.
Many more Jews are expected to participate with other national organizations, such as Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women. Several associated events are geared toward the Jewish community.
The goal is to highlight the religious community's ad-vocacy for abortion rights and send a strong political message in an election year.
"Decisions that are made about who constitutes our federal judiciary will affect our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren to come," said Marsha Atkind, National Council of Jewish Women president. A number of Supreme Court vacancies are expected in the coming years.
"Whoever is elected should know that there are millions upon millions of people in this country that are pro-choice," Atkind said.
Atkind will join celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Bacon, Camryn Manheim and members of the Indigo Girls music band as speakers at rally on April 25. She said she believes the Jewish com-munity has a distinctive role to play in this debate.
"As Jewish women, it's particularly important be-cause we know what it is like to lose rights," Atkind said.
Many segments of the Jewish community are con-cerned about what they see as increasing limitations on a woman's right to choose. They rallied against last year's passage of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban, which outlawed a specific abortion procedure technically known as intact dilation and evacuation, generally carried out late in a pregnancy.
Some Jewish groups also criticized President Bush's signing of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act earlier this month, which made attacks against pregnant women that harm embryos a separate crime. They said granting a fetus legal status contradicted the landmark Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court ruling uphold-ing legal abortions.
Orthodox Jews generally differ from other streams when it comes to abortion, and Orthodox Jewish representa-tives in Washington have expressed support for both acts.
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