My group met with Devon Hutchins and her co-workers, Lauren and Genevieve who are all from the Center for Reproductive Rights. Devon joined the Center in 2013. She has been a big part of the Center for many years now.

While we were talking, Genevieve said that when she was growing up, she had a friend that was domestically abused that she was very close to. Genevieve found this painful and confusing. At the time she didn’t know how to deal with the situation, and that is why she now is continuing to learn about women’s rights. I found this very interesting. This taught me how although there is a lot of diversity in the reproductive rights field, everyone got here for the same reason. Everyone who we’ve spoken with so far has had some sort of personal connection/story that motivated their interest and determination with reproductive health.

While we were talking to Devon, Lauren, and Genevieve, we also asked them what they thought about the Texas law, the burying of fetuses. They gave us a similar answer, but shared some new facts with us. They said that there is already a clean and safe way to dispose fetuses and that there is no issue with the current way. They think that it is also a way to shame women, especially if their pregnancy was accidental. They think that shaming women in this way is absurd because the fetus isn’t even a living thing. There are a lot of false images out there that make fetuses look more developed at that stage then they actually are. The fetus is the size of a pea. It doesn’t even have a hand. Overall, there is no point in shaming women in this scenario because there is nothing to feel bad about.

The women who worked at the Center also brought up some other good information. They were saying how the ‘pro-life’ believers get away with a lot of lies. Even doctors lie to potential patients. Some doctors say that abortions lead to breast cancer, depression, and more side effects, even though it is not true. Sometimes they even say that the fetus can feel pain. All of these points are false, but it makes the woman rethink her decision. An abortion is a really big decision to make in your life, and I think that it is sick that even a doctor would give a woman false information about her body and try to sway this big decision for her. That is really horrible.

I think this made a big impact on my group. Before this visit we weren’t exposed to the fact that some people make up false statements about pregnancy and fetal health. We didn’t realize that this is a big issue. Some people might hear information like this and be persuaded to be pro-life even though it is false information. I think that our group should include this in our teach-in. I think it is important for kids to know what’s true so they can have valid opinions on reproductive rights.

Overall, our meeting with the Center for Reproductive Rights went really well. We learned a lot of great new information, and the women there were really educational.

*image can be found at http://www.equalshot.com/casestudies/2016/1/14/center-for-reproductive-rights