On Jan 24, 2025, our whole 8th grade class took a field trip to the MCNY. We went to the activism exhibit and we learned about different influential events and activists fighting for change. Me and Esme went to look at the women’s rights activism and we learned about different protests and events and activism that people did for women’s rights in America. We learned about the Ms. America competition and other female activists. We also learned about other topics like the Young Lords and we learned about immigration activism. It was all really interesting and at the end we got to ask the tour guide questions which was really helpful and interesting. Esme asked her some questions but we didn’t really get very much on our topic from this field trip. It was interesting but we didn’t really gain any extra information about our specific topic. It was still cool to learn about other activism though like the disability rights movement. We got to learn more about the activism and the protests that happened like when Denise Mcquaid fought for her rights by sitting on the step of a bus for over 7 hours. It was really inspiring and this field trip was a great opportunity to learn about our topic and other examples of important activism.

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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.

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For our first Fieldwork, Esme and me met with Jenna DiMarino, our school nurse. We interviewed her about her opinions on abortion laws and women’s reproductive rights and health care. We got to hear about her view and we learned a lot. She said that women should have choice over their own bodies, and that the government deciding about abortions and reproductive health care was not fair. It was really interesting to learn about her views and about how we can take action to make sure women in America had safe access to reproductive health care.
She talked about how religion sometimes restricts what is considered appropriate, and in some communities abortion and birth control are not okay. Abortion, reproductive health care, and birth control should all be accessible to every woman. We also talked about r*pe and how it really affects survivors who are pregnant and can’t get a safe abortion because of where they live or their religion or other reasons. States should not be able to choose whether or not a woman has control over her reproductive health, especially because a lot of the people in power are men. Women deserve safe reproductive health care no matter what.

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