WASHINGTON-Dupont Circle is literally covered in pink. The roundabout that leads toward the White House marks the staging ground for what might be the largest demonstration this town has ever seen.It's Saturday. Tomorrow, an estimated one million protestors will descend upon the mall, roar down Pennsylvania Avenue, thumb their noses at the White House, and hope to send Capitol Hill into convulsions.

But today, 24 hours before go-time, the circle known for its first-rate restaurants, gay scene and traffic imbroglios looks more like an overcrowded flea market. A string of booths distribute ammunition: Luna bars, signs, voter registration cards and blank, five-by-five inch leafs of pink paper.

Demonstrators take a moment to jot down a reason for marching. They pin their reasons onto a 20-foot wide white billboard, assembling a patchwork of justifications.

"I am marching because my mother marched for me, and because freedom of choice is one of our basic rights as human beings," one woman wrote.

In a city abuzz with concerned citizens set to fight for reproductive rights in The March for Women's Lives, stations like these are springing up at what seems like every corner.

Sunday, 7:45 a.m.
Wearing pink shirts that read "This is what a feminist looks like," Kate Pouilliard '06, Marissa Collins '06, and Maggie Frye '04, the leaders of FMLA, and around 100 other Brandeis students unload their buses at Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy stadium and step out into a still-gray, damp morning. Groggy after nearly eight hours on a bus, they push on toward the D.C. Armory Metro stop.

Brandeis was listed among thousands of delegations at the March. Organized by FMLA, Brandeis planned to send around 150 students to Washington, but a last minute conflict with one of the busses allowed only 100 to attend.

Upon descending into the subway tunnels, the students are met by a wall of people. The Metro platforms are so crowded with people waiting for trains that city workers have to physically block people from going down the escalators.

On the trains, students meet other marchers who've come from even farther Metro stops. The closer to downtown, the more the trains fill up, and the more it seems like the only people out in Washington on Sunday are those going to the March.

Like on all trains in the city, marchers look other Metro riders up and down for buttons or stickers that indicated if they too are traveling to the demonstration, or merely going about their own business.
Marchers on the trains are layered in pro-choice buttons, March stickers and delegation T-shirts. Many of them hold posters with an array of messages, such as two elderly women from New Hampshire who carry signs that read "Vote John Kerry" on one side, and "Just another grandma for choice" on the other.

It seems that the march dominated the city that day. When students ask fellow riders if they are headed to the march, the answer is almost always affirmative.

Still, this is not the case for University of Maryland student Josh Fixler '07, who asks the woman sitting next to him, "So, are you going to the march?"

"No," she says.

After an awkward silence, Fixler says, "Well, that's quite the conversation killer today,"

From Friend to Foe
Marchers say this is a more important time than ever to stand up for a woman's right to choose.

They say the Bush administration and far-right politicians have led an unprecedented attack on reproductive freedom.

On his first day in office, President Bush re-instated what his detractors call the "Global Gag Rule," a Reagan-era law removed by President Clinton which does not allow federal funds to go to organizations overseas that are in any way affiliated with abortion procedures.

"The implications of the gag rule are terrible," American University student Dana Tarley '07 said at the march. "Most of the clinics affected by the rule don't even perform abortions, but merely employ doctors that perform abortions at other clinics. The health centers that have been cut off from their funding are no longer able to pass out contraceptives and provide sex education, especially in rural areas of Africa where these things are needed most."

The Bush administration also signed into law the first piece of legislation regulating abortion since the famous Roe v. Wade case that legalized the procedure in 1973.

Marchers also said that they were marching for equal access to health care for women. While almost all health care plans are willing to provide Viagra to men, few are willing to cover the cost of birth control pills.

10 a.m. to noon
The road to the mall is besieged by "supply stations" sponsored by Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice (formerly the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League), two of the main sponsors of the march. Participants are able to stock up on signs, T-shirts, noisemakers and balloons to display when they reached the Mall.

The National Mall, bordered by Smithsonian museums on its sides and framed at one end by the Capitol building and the other by the Washington Monument, appears just as it did in historic marches such as the Million Man March or the National Organization for Women's pro-choice march in 1992. That march drew 750,000 people. Even the famous March on Washington in 1963, during which Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous "I have a dream" speech, only numbered 200,000.

The grassy areas in the center of the Mall contain hordes of people holding homemade posters. One sign reads, "Keep Bush out of my bush." Most of the signs are from sponsoring organizations which displayed with slogans such as "Stand up for choice" Other marchers carry customized banners with the names of the delegations which sponsor them.

For many Brandeis students, the crowd made it difficult to navigate the Mall walkways to their assigned spot, and many students find themselves separated from the group. A collective sigh of relief is let out among the Brandeis contingent as the lost marchers appear out of the buzzing mass and join with the rest.

"I have never seen so many people in my life," Pouilliard, FMLA's finance chair, said while looking at the surrounding crowd. "This march is important because we need to protect our freedom of choice and it is our responsibility as women of the world, and as men of the world, to come together and protect women's rights and women's choice."

Brandeis students stand among thousands near the west end of the National Mall, near the Washington Monument, where the morning rally is in full swing. Several enormous video screens broadcast images and blast voices from the stage of various celebrities and women's rights activists including Senator Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

As the air warms up in the capital, the volume of the marcher's voices rises.

The Sound of Democracy
The final speakers on the morning stage announce the beginning of the March-a route two miles in length.

The Brandeis contingent mostly stays together, united under their yellow, white and blue banner, which reads, "Brandeis Students for Women's Lives."

Students chant, "My body, my choice!" and "keep your laws off my body!" and "Two-four-six-eight, we're the ones who ovulate!"
"Keep your rosaries, off my ovaries!" and "Not the church, not the state, women should decide their fate!" they say to highlight marchers' opposition to anti-abortion members of the religious community.

A strong political atmosphere is also present at the march, with stickers, flyers, and posters supporting presidential candidate John Kerry. Marchers also protest the current administration with cries of, "Hey hey, ho ho, George Bush has got to go!"

They jut their fists and signs in the air while stepping proudly to the beat of teenage drummers keeping a beat on coffee cans.

As they pass in front of the White House, yelling at the president, who actually was in Camp David, Md., this weekend, Hadar Sayfon '07 says, "I think now it is really important to assert the values that the majority of this country takes into consideration, and not just the far right."
Although most at the March are women, many men are here, too. A number of the students from Brandeis were male, including Jon Winstone '07.

"Though it was a little awkward to be a guy here today, especially with some chants having to do with leaving my ovaries alone, this march was extremely important," Winstone says. "Everyone here is so passionate about this cause, and a surprising number of men there. It was really inspiring to know that so many men are willing to stand up for women's rights along side one another."

The Sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue
Pennsylvania Avenue, which links the Capitol to the White House, is the March's home stretch. The city granted permits for the entire length of this street to counter-protesters, who, according to many news sources, numbered less than 1,000.

Following the lingo of the pro-choice movement, marchers referred to these counter protesters as "anti-choice," avoiding the traditional "pro-life" label.

Abortion-rights advocates say they are pro-life as well-they believe that keeping abortion legal prevents women from having to undergo dangerous and life-threatening "back-alley abortions" they say killed thousands of women before abortion was legalized.

Sidewalks of Pennsylvania Avenue are lined with a few hundred anti-abortion protesters holding up signs such as, "Abortion is murder" and "Adoption is a great option." They also display large pictures of aborted fetuses and read verses from the bible proclaiming that those who have abortions are sinners.

Many marchers stand in the gaps between the counter-protestors holding up their FMLA, Planned Parenthood and "Keep Abortion Legal" signs. Some marchers go as far as to block out the posters of counter-protestors with pro-choice paraphernalia.

By now, Dorit Ingber '07 and Jenny Feinberg '07 are growing tired. Their pace has diminished, their legs are sore, they hold their signs a little lower. Then, they spot the anti-abortion activists.
They thrust their signs in the air.

"Seeing the graphic signs of the opposition flashed in our faces caused us to suddenly forget the pains in our legs from the miles we'd walked," Feinberg says. "I suddenly realized why I was there, why we were marching. A lot of other marchers were speechless when they walked through the counter protest, almost as if they were saddened by it. That is when we started yelling. We had to show those people on the sidewalk how passionately we believe in our cause and our right."

The two girls proceed to chant "My body, my choice!" at the top of their lungs as they pass a cluster of anti-abortion protestors.

Brandeis marchers pass through a stretch of protesters with babies saying they did not have abortions. Students chanted, "That was your choice!"

Moreover, marchers in the middle of the street said that the sheer magnitude of people made it nearly impossible to see to the sidewalks, giving the appearance that they were demonstrating unopposed.

Blast From The Past
With the huge numbers present at the march, it is almost inevitable that old friends would find themselves in the same place, for the same cause.
Lindsey Mintz, of Indianapolis, In., is walking on the lawn of the Mall when she encounters two friends she hasn't seen since college.

"I can't believe you all are here," she said. "Oh my God, oh my God." With screams of joy and astonishment she ran to them, grabbing each with a giant hug, and wiping her tears away along with theirs.

The Groundswell
After the March, people assemble on the National Mall for a rally with speakers including former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Ted Turner, Ashley Judd and Whoopie Goldberg.
With tattered signs and dirty shirts, marchers lie on the grass to listen and debrief.

"I am absolutely exhilarated," Amy Schiller '06 says. "I am absolutely amazed and inspired by the people who have been here, and the creativity, and the passion, and just the overwhelming support of the people who are here. It is unbelievable."

When asked what might come out of this march, Schiller replies, "Every person here is going to vote, which is the most important thing because if you care enough to haul your ass to Washington, you care enough to vote."

Hundreds of volunteers swarmed the march with voter registration cards from every state. They had sign-up sheets for e-mail updates about current political issues that required immediate action and information about abortion rights issues all over the world.

Leaving the march on a jam-packed Metro, a woman says to her neighbor, "I can't believe we just did that. Why, why, why did we have to assemble a million people to fight for something that is legal and constitutionally protected?"

Her friend, like most marchers, says she cannot answer that question.