Washington D.C. officials say half a million people marched in the nation’s capitol on Saturday. Another one million people joined rallies around the country, according to estimates; plus big crowds around the world, from London to Berlin, Tokyo to Antarctica.
Tashmica Torok of Lansing was one of the Michiganders who made the trip to Washington. Torok is executive director of the Firecracker Foundation, a group that works with child survivors of sexual trauma, and she joined Stateside to talk about her experience and her motivation for going.
Torok said she made the decision to go as soon as she heard about it. Despite it being a challenge for her family, she felt like she had to be there in person.
"I really felt it was important to be boots on the ground in Washington D.C., across from the capitol building to really make the point that our children deserve a leader who recognizes that their bodies are to be respected, that their consent is to be respected," Torok said. "And not just children, but our women in general, should have someone who can respect the bodily autonomy of all people and that's not something that I've seen. In my role of really being an advocate for children and their safety and their protection, I felt it was really important to be there."
Listen to the full interview above to hear what image moved Torok most, why she thinks pro-life groups should have been allowed to take part in the march, and how she hopes this movement will grow.
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