I attended the My Body, My Choice, My Voice talk hosted by AKA. This talk focused on the reality of reproductive rights in our country today and worked to inform all of us on what abortion really is. While I would consider myself pretty knowledgable on the topic of abortion and reproductive rights, I do think I gained a lot from the talk. 

The new information that I was most surprised by was the percentage of abortions that are done six weeks or earlier. According to the speakers, about 90% of abortions occur before the 13th week and about 75% before or during the sixth week. This fact was astonishing because so often the argument against abortion is, in reality, an argument against late abortion. In combination with this fact, the speakers included pictures of what a six week abortion looks like as well as a, if I remember correctly, a ten week abortion. Both images showed what looked like a small white sack, which had only grown a little in the four week difference. The importance of these images was to show that the images pro-life supporters commonly use are not accurate depictions of an abortion and are instead, frequently, pictures of late-term miscarriages. 

I think the talk in general is very applicable to GSS101, but my new understanding most closely relates to our discussions in class about abortion at the beginning of the semester. In my opinion, the images provide proof of the fear mongering that pro-life supports do in order to try to prevent abortions from happening. However, the reality is they only prevent safe abortions. I think this can be applied to so many topics we’ve talked about, such as gay rights. For example, strict laws against gay marriage or even expression of gay ideologies and behaviors did not stop them from occurring. Instead, people just got better at sneaking around, but it became less safe because they had no protection, abortion is similar in this way. Overall, I think that attending talks about the reality of reproductive justice in America is incredibly important in order to form an evidence based opinion before voting. I am personally thankful for AKA hosting this open event and showing me that even when I think I’ve learned all there is to know about a topic such as abortion, there is always misinformation to be corrected and perspective to be given.