“I hope we get louder. I mean nationally, obviously, but also on campus. People don’t necessarily support access to reproductive healthcare here, so I hope we get louder,” Students for Reproductive Rights president Liz Youngman said during a recent interview when asked what her hopes are for the future. “All we can do is gather and try to get bigger.”
Students For Reproductive Rights is a club here on campus that rallies around women’s rights. They focus on healthcare rights, and act as an information hub and a safeplace for people who share the same views to meet and discuss.
“We just want to be a presence on campus that advocates for access to reproductive healthcare. If a student needs anything to do with reproductive healthcare, we want to be able to tell them where to get that. Whether that be reproductive health or abortion clinics, or things like where to get STD tested. We just want to give people information,” Youngman said.
When asked about common misconceptions about the club, Youngman said, “A big one is that we only care about abortion, which isn’t true. I think, just because of everything that’s going on in politics, it can appear that we only care about that, but that’s just the thing that’s being taken away in so many places, which is why it seems like we often focus on that. We also care about birth control, STD testing, and postnatal care.”
As for activism on campus, the club has taken part in several debates about abortion rights and just this last week, the club held a book discussion on “The Turnaway Study” by Diana Greene Foster. The author even came to campus to talk with students about it in the Arts and Sciences Auditorium. The club held a reading of “The Turnaway Play” during this event as well, which was written by the author’s sister and based on the book. You also might have seen the club tabling in the Student union before.
“Sometimes when I’ll be tabling, people seem to get excited that there’s a club that supports access to reproductive healthcare, and it makes me excited to know that people are happy for our club’s existence,” Youngman said. “It’s hard doing this in a relatively conservative state, but that almost makes it more rewarding. It feels like the advocacy is more needed in the state, if that makes sense.”
The Students for Reproductive Rights club has been meeting every other Wednesday at 6 p.m. in the Warm Valley Room in the Union and welcomes anyone interested in joining them for these last few weeks of the semester. For more information about upcoming meetings, events, and available resources, you can visit their Instagram page @studentsfor_reprorights.
