Silver Spring is home to Maryland’s NARAL office
By Marjorie Clarkson
Organizers of the "March for Women’s Lives" estimate one million women and men will be in Washington, DC on Sunday, April 25 to demonstrate their belief in a woman’s right to choose. Ashlie Bagwell, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, attributes the high interest in this march to the political environment: the country is "two Supreme Court justices away from losing the right to choose."
Bagwell’s organization, NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, serves as a statewide affiliate of NARAL Pro-Choice America, one of the principal organizers of the march. The stated mission of both organizations "is to protect and preserve the right to choose while promoting policies and programs that improve women’s health and make abortion less necessary. And to educate Americans and officeholders about reproductive rights and health issues and elect pro-choice candidates at all levels of government."
Bagwell, another staff member, and interns work out of a small office in downtown Silver Spring. The Maryland NARAL office opened in 1997, and Bagwell has been its executive director since May 2003. In addition to educating the public on reproductive issues and publicizing the march, she has recently been lobbying in Annapolis against proposed legislation that would deprive women of their right to choose.
"A lot of bills this year are not overt attacks on choice and abortion but more subtle — flying under the radar screen" says Bagwell.
There is a common agenda by anti-choice organizations being played out in state legislatures this year.
"Look at the trends. A lot of other states are seeing [these bills] as well. The ‘unborn victims of violence’ legislation has appeared in 47 bills in 19 states," comments Bagwell. (This legislation is being debated in Congress also.)
The "unborn victims of violence" legislation would grant rights to a fetus equal to the rights of the pregnant woman, and violate, in the opinion of choice proponents, the intent of the law under Roe v. Wade. This legislation "exploits violence against women to achieve that [anti-choice] agenda" in Bagwell’s view.
Another "below the radar screen" piece of legislation is referred to by Bagwell as a TRAP bill, Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers. The bill proposes regulations that "in order to comply would be incredibly expensive." It is a bill that would regulate more abortion providers out of existence in Bagwell’s opinion.
"There are 11 percent fewer statewide than existed in 1997 and 67 percent of Maryland counties do not have abortion providers," she says.
A bill that clearly appears as anti-choice by NARAL overturns a law that allows a minor to receive an abortion if her doctor believes she is mature enough to make the decision. The proposed bill would take the decision away from a minor and her physician and require judicial involvement in the abortion approval process if she does not notify one or both parents.
NARAL goes on the offensive as well as the defensive on reproductive bills: the organization supports legislation that promotes increased emergency access to contraception. "Behind the counter" at the pharmacy and easily and broadly accessible to women who want them is where emergency contraception pills should be placed, in their view.
NARAL’s mission to educate the public on reproductive issues has Bagwell traveling the state speaking to groups of Marylanders in settings ranging from private homes to college campuses. Convincing college students to fight for the right of choice can be challenging, according to Bagwell, "because most students were born after Roe v. Wade, and some think ‘that will never happen to me.’"
But Bagwell recalled a recent talk she gave at Johns Hopkins University to 30 undergraduates, as many men as women, and her impression was "they got it — they got the big picture — that they want to eliminate a woman’s right to choose."
She explained that the students realized "this is bigger — a woman’s right to make decisions about her body, contraception, and family planning. It’s a health care issue. Period."
As NARAL Pro-Choice America is an organizer of the "March for Women’s Lives," Bagwell and her staff are arranging bus transportation for participants from around the state. Chartered buses will bring marchers from Hagerstown, Annapolis, Baltimore, and Southern Maryland to Washington, DC on April 25.
Bagwell thinks the march will have lasting significance.
"The march is a good way for pro-choice men and women in Maryland to be involved and to make their voices heard. The pro-choice movement is gaining more momentum; this is a shot in the arm. The march is not the end, just the beginning."
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