Seven Oaks Magazine.

On April 25, Kate Michelman will join thousands from across the United States converging on Washington, D.C., for the March for Women's Lives. The pro-choice marchers will go to the Capitol and White House to demand equal access to critical reproductive and pre-natal healthcare, birth control, safe abortions, safe delivery, and accurate sex education. Simultaneous events will be held in several Canadian cities, including demonstrations in Toronto and Vancouver.

Michelman is the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, formerly the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League, one of seven groups organising the march. As the leader of her organisation for almost 20 years, she has worked to protect legal abortion from those seeking to eliminate a women's right to choose.

Seven Oaks interviewed Michelman about the March for Women's Lives and the right to choice.

Today, women's rights generally, and our right to choose in particular, are threatened as they have never been before. For the first time since the Supreme Court guaranteed reproductive freedom in 1973, we have both houses of Congress, the President, and a majority of state leaders lined up in opposition to that basic right.

2. How has the Bush administration undermined the right to choose to have an abortion?

President Bush has been the most anti-choice president ever. His Justice Department has attempted to seize the private medical records of thousands of American women, simply because they've had abortions. He's appointed anti-choice activists to lifetime seats as federal judges. And he's signed the first-ever federal law criminalizing abortion. If he is re-elected, reproductive freedom could well be lost.

We want our nation's leaders to know that we won't take these attacks on our rights sitting down - that America's pro-choice majority will stand up and be counted. We want to see policies that expand access to birth control and reproductive health services. And we want policies that harm women around the world reversed.

This march will be a wake up call for the countless Americans who support the right to choose but have grown complacent in recent years. And it will be the kick-off to an unprecedented wave of activism in support of reproductive freedom. This march isn't just about one day, but about an ongoing commitment to standing up for our rights.

5. Is the march happening in 2004 because it's an election year? Will abortion be a deciding factor at the ballot box in November?

This march is not a political event, but I expect that the right to choose will be a key issue in this election season. We know that a majority of Americans - including many who might otherwise support President Bush - support reproductive rights, and that when they understand what's at stake, they vote those beliefs. Our movement will be working hard to make sure pro-choice Americans understand how dangerous a second term for this President will be.

6. Abortion is a polarising issue. The observation is often made that people on both sides will never agree. That being said, opinions do change with age and new generations. Are you optimistic about the future of women's reproductive rights?

I am optimistic. Young people today have grown up with the right to choose and access to birth control, and they can't imagine life without it. I hope that over time we can take this issue out of the political process, and let abortion decisions be made in private by women, their doctors, and their loved ones - not the government.

I will be marching on April 25 because I want to help send a message to every American who cares about the right to choose that the time is now to stand up and be counted. Our privacy and right to choose are under assault, and we must let our nation's leaders know that we will not sit idly by and let them take those rights away from us.