Hello world!

     Hello Class! I feel a great way to start a new semester is by introducing yourself. My name is Brooke and I am from Charleston, SC. I have 2 children and I am majoring in Women and Gender Studies. Beginning in my early twenties after getting divorced and becoming a single mom, I started to question the ideologies that I was born and raised in and realized that I aligned with liberal, progressive viewpoints. With that said, I have recently come back to school after after a few year hiatus and I am so excited to complete my studies. Upon graduating I plan on taking the LSAT and applying to law school. My end goal is to practice constitutional law and concentrate on reproductive rights, as where I am from, it is much needed. My ideal career would be to be a reproductive rights attorney with the ACLU. Many of the people that I share this with ask the question “why?” And that is such a peculiar question to me because, to me, I feel that the why is very self explanatory considering the political climate we are beginning to navigate in our country after the results of the midterm election and following the Dodds decision from the Supreme Court. But… I also feel that knowing and being confident in sharing your “why” is very important in building and retaining motivation to achieve a goal. So my answer as why I want to work towards practicing reproductive rights is this… all people deserve the freedom of bodily autonomy no matter how they identify. But unfortunately we live in a society that is rapidly turning back the hands of time when it comes to reproductive rights for women and people with uteruses. The Supreme Court knowingly rained down a decision that enabled states to criminalize women for taking control and I firmly believe that this decision was not based in rights for fetuses, but it was based in the determination to control women’s bodies and what happens to them and in them. Fighting fervently for the access to reproductive rights is so important because it is not just about access to abortion for me. It also includes fighting for the access to birth control and the systemic racism that is in our healthcare systems, as the rate of maternal mortality among black women is “more than double the average rate, and three times higher than that of white women” (Munira Z. Gunja, Evan D. Gumas, and Reginald D. Williams II, “The U.S. Maternal Mortality Crisis Continues to Worsen: An International Comparison,” To the Point (blog), Commonwealth Fund, Dec. 1, 2022. https://doi.org/10.26099/8vem-fc65 ). Furthermore it means pushing for expanded government assistance programs such as the expansion of programs like Medicaid, SNAP benefits, Affordable housing and childcare, and WIC , because how can the government force people to have children when the resources may not be there, especially when we are still experiencing a wage gap. I firmly believe that abortion is healthcare and if we further move down this path of forced pregnancies we are inevitably going to be seeing women die do the lack of reproductive healthcare. After all, healthcare workers in many states are already fearful of providing care to women having miscarriages or unviable pregnancies out of fear of retaliation by the government do to murky abortion bans that are now expanding into very dangerous waters. And I believe in radical, social change.

After reviewing the provided blogs,  I enjoyed reading was the Feminist Majority. I especially was drawn to the blogpost entitled “Only 8 Republicans Vote Yes for Birth Control Access”, as this was a major topic of conversation for me when this bill passed and one of South Carolina’s representatives was one of those eight Republicans. The blogpost states that the United Nations views the access to birth control as a human right. (Considering birth control is used for many other purposes besides preventing pregnancy, such as PCOS, acne, ovarian cysts and endometriosis). So my question to our lawmakers is why do our legislators in support of birth control access feel the need to work to codify this into law? Especially when the United Nations establishes this as a human right, and the United States prides itself on its participation in the UN.

The access to birth control and reproductive rights is vital to the success of our country because without it there is no gender equality, as well as equal opportunity for education and career.

Here in Charleston, the South Carolina Aquarium is a huge part of community environmentalism. Being on the coast, sea turtle conservation is something that we focus on. The aquarium is very active in this and one thing I love about their program is they encourage community involvement as well through their conservation center where visitors can purchase tickets and learn everything about sea turtles and their vital importance to our oceans. The Sea Turtle Conservation team is committed to “Rescue, Rehab and Release” and furthering research to ensure that sea turtles are swimming in our oceans for many, many years to come. / https://scaquarium.org/sea-turtle-care-center/