S.F. Pro-Choice March Draws 20,000

At least 20,000 people marched through the downtown area Sunday in a noisy abortion rights demonstration that organizers called the largest “pro-choice” gathering ever held in the Bay Area.

Police estimated the crowd at 20,000, but organizers of the “March for Women’s Lives” said more than 30,000 participated in the march and rally at City Hall.

Margaret Connell, 59, of Santa Barbara, marched with her 85-year-old mother and 30-year-old daughter. Their sign read: “Three generations for choice.”

“I think what’s before us is a choice of whether abortion is safe and legal or whether abortion is unsafe and illegal,” Connell said. “It’s not whether there’s going to be abortion.”

There was only a minor sprinkling of anti-abortion sentiment.

On the steps of Los Angeles City Hall on Sunday, pro-choice activists drew outlines of women’s bodies on the ground and placed red-stained clothes hangers within each in what the Action Alliance to Keep Abortion Safe and Legal called a “bleed-in.”

Alliance spokespersons said they hoped “to remind the public of the increased deaths which will result of our young women if the right to a safe and legal abortion is lost.”

Spokespersons added that they had spoken to city officials and agreed to pay for the clean-up.

Sunday night, similar figures were rendered in front of The Times Mirror building, across from City Hall.