“ABORT BUSH IN THE FIRST TERM.” A group of women on the National Mall displayed a banner with these words during last Saturday’s March for Women’s Lives, while a throng of fellow abortion-rights demonstrators marched by, nodding their heads in approval. The banner’s message couldn’t have been more clear, or a more glaring example of sordid wordplay–unless you consider another sign displayed at the march: “KEEP BUSH OUT OF MY . . .”

Led by the ACLU, the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the Feminist Majority, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, the National Organization for Women, and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the march featured a lengthy list of speakers. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, Gloria Steinem, Whoopi Goldberg, and Ted Turner were just a few of the many proponents of abortion rights who urged the crowd to take back the country and elect John Kerry in November.