Name: Vivi Urias Morfin

Social Justice Group: Women’s Reproductive Rights (B)

Date of Fieldwork: December 7, 2024

Name of Organization and person (people) with whom you met and their title(s):

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

On December 7th, Esme and I went to Washington Square Park to interview random people to learn about their views on reproductive rights and healthcare in America. We asked a lot of people the same 6 questions: Do you think abortions should be legal in America?, Do you think abortions are killing a child?, Do you think women have enough access to safe reproductive healthcare in America?, Do you believe in birth control?, and Have you ever volunteered to support women’s reproductive rights? We got a lot of different answers but the two most interesting ones were from a older college professor who was very clearly pro choice and talked about how women should have more control over their bodies in general. He said, quote “A fetus is part of the woman’s body until it is born.” He also told us about how he had volunteered for women’s rights. The other interview that really stood out to us was an interview with a man who was very anti abortion and anti reproductive rights. When we asked, “Do you think that abortions should be legal?” he was silent and then said, quote “No, personally I don’t think they should be legal in my personal opinion.” He gave more similar responses to the other questions we asked. He had a really big reaction to our question about birth control. He said that “God wanted you to have a baby,” and other things about his religion. He said that he thought abortions were killing a child. We got mostly pro choice responses, and we even interviewed an anti cat calling organization. It was really interesting and cool to see different opinions on the topic, even if some were deeply disturbing or wrong. We got to learn about people’s perspectives and it was really informative.