Newport native makes abortion march

Deepa Bharath

For Kayley Harrington marching shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of

thousands of abortion rights supporters was the most natural thing to

do.

The 21-year-old Newport Beach resident and Newport Harbor High

School graduate, who is a senior at American University in Washington

D.C., was part of the four-hour March for Women’s Lives rally at the

National Mall.

Harrington is a student of women and gender studies and works for

Advocates for Youth, an organization that educates young people about

reproductive and sexual health.

She was supposed to speak at the rally, but it was canceled at the

last minute, she said.

“Abortion is such a huge issue for young people,” she said. “Young

people, especially young women around the world, lack the information

they need to make abortion less necessary.”

The atmosphere at the march was “amazing,” Harrington said.

“It was empowering, energetic and positive,” she said. “You could

feel that all these people were absolutely passionate about the

issue.”

The march was necessary because there is imminent danger to

women’s reproductive rights, Harrington said.

Our leaders “are trying to chip away these rights at the state and

federal level,” she said.

“We need to lower teen pregnancy rates so it leads to less

abortion,” Harrington said.

Growing up in a predominantly conservative community didn’t stifle

her personal feelings and opinions, Harrington said.

“I knew I was always in the minority,” she said with a laugh. “But

I was able to develop my own thoughts and views.”

Her mother Karen Harrington went to Washington D.C. to participate

in the march with her daughter.

Assemblyman Ken Maddox, who represents Costa Mesa, said he

believes the rally “was more than a march for abortion rights.”

“It turned out into an anti-war, anti-Bush, pro-choice event,”

Maddox said. “What the president has attempted to do is end late-term

abortion.”

Republicans haven’t tried to “ban abortion in California,” he

said.

“We’ve only tried to get to notify parents when their minor

daughters have an abortion,” Maddox said. “But even that has been

stalled and was unsuccessful.”