We’re marching as if our lives depend on it – because they do!

Through New Voices, the March for Women’s Lives is mobilizing thousands of women and men of color and dozens of organizations representing a diversity of issues in the movement for reproductive justice. In the name of reproductive justice, New Voices embraces the notion that the hundreds of thousands of marchers on April 25 should be focused on women’s lives not just their wombs.

Going Beyond Choice. For the first time, the concerns of women of color and low-income women will be fully integrated into a major reproductive rights demonstration. Reproductive justice recognizes that any discussion of reproductive rights must include the right of women to have children—a human right that is incessantly threatened by hostile welfare reform policies, immigration policies, poverty, violence and racism—as well as economic issues that affect access to a wide range of reproductive health services.

Who are These New Voices? - New Voices includes not only the many unseen organizations and advocates of color who have historically fought for reproductive justice in communities of color, but dozens of organizations who are not widely perceived as being associated with the reproductive rights movement. Such advocates come from the anti-poverty and anti-racist movements, as well as those who work on HIV/AIDS, environmental justice, immigrants’ rights, violence against women, and criminal justice issues. See the New Voices list of cosponsors.

Through the expanded mission of New Voices, the March for Women’s Lives—for the first time in the history of the reproductive rights movement—has received the official co-sponsorship of leading civil rights organization, such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) as well as the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. Read NAACP Press Release.

Toward a New Movement. As the anti-choice agenda expands, the lives and health of women have never before faced such peril. New Voices is not merely a symbolic stand of unity in the face of this common threat, but may represent a critical evolution in the movement to protect women’s reproductive freedom. The result of this novel organizing strategy will be a large, united delegation of women and men of color on April 25th.

With new constituents and issues at the table, future reproductive justice activism will seek to build a human rights-based movement that is truly universal and includes the needs of all women in the United States and abroad.

March with New Voices. There will be a huge Women of Color contingent at the March organized under the banner “Women of Color for Reproductive Justice.” This delegation also includes men of color marching in support of women’s lives. If you would like to March with this contingent, please send an email to Loretta Ross at [email protected] to tell us you are coming. We are asking women to wear red, yellow or orange so that we will be extremely visible during the March. You will be able to carry your own organizational banner as part of this contingent. Please register as a co-sponsor and delegation on the website to ensure that women/men of color organizations are officially registered.