Celebrating Roe in DC

Monday marked the 34th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court case that legalized abortion. One of the cool parts of my job is I get to go to lots of events this week around DC to celebrate.

On Monday I went to a vigil on the steps of the Supreme Court. It snowed in DC Sunday night so we were surrounded by the remnants of snow and a group of very obnoxious anti-choice protestors. After the vigil, we went to a Capitol Hill wine bar for a reception featuring Kathleen Turner. We were so excited and when we arrived Ms. Turner was mingling throughout the crowd. Nervously we got drinks and contemplated what we should do and say if by chance we were able to speak with her. Much to our surprise and delight, she actually came over to us and just started talking about the protestors gathered outside the bar. It was so cool! I have to say she isn’t as tall as I imagined from seeing her play Chandler’s dad on Friends, but she looks exactly like she does on screen. And that trademark voice is real. We found ourselves standing near her just to listen to her speak. Everything she does is dramatic – she flips her hair like it is a great effort, she speaks her mind and is really quite a presence.

Ms. Turner was amazingly nice and just talked to us about protestors and her day visiting Nancy Pelosi and other representatives on the Hill. As much as we wanted to be natural, we couldn’t help but be star struck. I made the decision that we just weren’t going to be ultra cool and so we asked her to pose for a picture. We got one quick shot and luckily we are all smiling with our eyes open. I love the shot – in fact, we are all framing copies for our offices! Nerds, I know.

Part of my job is blogging and this week I personally wrote a blog about Monday’s Roe activities for my organization. You can view it and the accompanying pictures at www.prochoice.org/blog.