Name: Libi

Social Justice Group: Abortion Rights and Access

Date of Fieldwork: February 1, 2022

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):Vivian Silva, pro-life woman

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did and what I learned about my topic, activism, social justice work or civil and human rights work from this fieldwork?

On Tuesday, February 1st our group had the pleasure of meeting with Vivian Silva, a pro-life woman who is a friend of my classmate. Vivian was very intent on a single point: “It’s a life!” She told us that she was raised with very pro-life opinions in her home country of Mexico. We tried to politely offer some counter points, but Vivian was very stuck on her opinion. Indirectly, we learned that culture and context may have an effect on how people form their beliefs. In Mexico, which is a majority-Catholic country, much of the population is pro-life. Given the fact that the church has a lot of influence, I assume that Vivian’s family follows the beliefs of it. We noticed that in the United States, in places that are more conservative socially and politically, communities are more religious and people there often hold more pro-life beliefs.

In reading more about this topic to try to understand why people hold pro-life beliefs, I found an intriguing thought: many pro-lifers believe that a fetus at any stage is a living being. They ask: Why is it okay to kill a person just because they were not born yet? I found that these arguments are inline with what Vivian Silva told us: “It’s a life.” I also learned that the people who are pro-life are also pro-life in other aspects of life.  For example, they are anti-war and anti-violence, in general. The same people who go to the March for Life also go to anti war and anti-violence marches (e.g. the immigrant and refugee right events) (source: theatlantic.com).