Young feminists gathered in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to oppose the confirmation of nominee John Ashcroft for attorney general.

Women of all ages came from around the country to Capitol Hill for Young Feminist Lobby Day, designed to protest President George W. Bush’s controversial nominee.

“His ideology will effect his ability to enforce our laws,” Leena Mittal, campus organizer for the Feminist Majority, told U-WIRE Wednesday morning.

The Feminist Majority views the nomination with “grave seriousness,” according to Field Coordinator Annie O’Connell. “He is not interested in upholding the laws that protect women.”

The teach-in included several speakers who briefed the group of approximately 50 students and activists on Ashcroft’s record as Missouri’s attorney general and the reasons to oppose the nomination.

“There is no reason to think that he will change his tune this late in the game,” O’Connell said. She called the confirmation of Ashcroft an “attack on young women.”

Speakers at the teach-in described the views of Ashcroft as “extreme” and “atrocious.”

Ashcroft has come under fire from organizations that oppose his conservative religious beliefs and his opposition to abortion.

His supporters Wednesday offered a different take on Ashcroft.

Scott Rich, a California State University graduate student and Witherspoon Fellow with the Family Research Council, gathered outside the Feminist Majority meeting to show support for Ashcroft.

“The president has the right to choose who he wants in this position,” Rich said. “He is well-qualified, and the reasons for opposing the nomination, because he disagrees with their views, is absurd.”

Elianna Marziani, a junior at Washington and Lee University, also supported Ashcroft.

“The feminist view of what women want is not the only the view,” she said. “I am a woman, and I really disagree with their opposition.”

But to Annie O’Connell of the Feminist Majority, Ashcroft cannot be trusted.

“John Ashcroft has shown us two faces, during the Senate confirmation hearings,” she said. “He said that he will enforce the laws, including those that he personally opposes, yet his record shows that he has led a life-long crusade to overturn those same laws.”

The morning event drew students from Washington-area universities including George Washington University, Georgetown University, Trinity College, Johns Hopkins University and Salem State.

They walked to the various Senate office buildings on Capitol Hill and spoke with senators and Senate staffers to explain and defend their views.

Despite the lobbying effort, Ashcroft was confirmed by the Senate Thursday.

The lobbyists are looking to the future.

“Unfortunately,” O’Connell said, “this will be a training ground.”

The Feminist Majority still sees the opposition to the nomination and the lobbying effort as a productive and worthwhile one.

According to Feminist Majority President Eleanore Smeal, the goal of the effort was “to raise the national consciousness.”

She said forcing Ashcroft to testify in Senate hearings that he will equally enforce the laws is a victory in the Majority’s view.

“He had to say that he was not for discriminating against gays and lesbians,” Smeal told U-WIRE. “We have him on record that he will enforce these laws.”