Members of the organization share their experiences and the impact of the group
By GRACIELA TIU — features@theaggie.org
While reproductive health issues have remained one of the most prominent topics of national political conversation throughout the last several years, students at UC Davis have been working to expand reproductive rights and promote discussion surrounding the subject.
One student-run organization, Students for Reproductive Freedom (SRF), aims to increase campus education and awareness about reproductive health while collaborating with outside initiatives supporting reproductive rights. One of the goals of the group is to create a safe space and community for students on campus.
Aditi Hariharan, fourth-year political science and nutrition science double major, and Maren Butler, third-year human development major, are the current co-presidents of SRF. They described some of the benefits and unique aspects of their club, as well as their level of campus involvement.
“I think the unique experience of working in reproductive justice (RJ) is creating safe spaces on campus for folks to share vulnerable stories,” Hariharan said. “In terms of the community, we’ve been in constant presence with other students; we’re always tabling at pride and other campus events.”
Adyasha Padhi, fourth-year biochemistry and molecular biology and anthropology double major, announced that alongside fostering collaboration between groups, the club will be organizing multiple events in the coming quarter, with plans to canvas in Reno in October and table individually on campus.
“Especially with elections coming up, we’ll also be tabling to increase awareness of voting and also reproductive rights and reproductive resources on campus,” Padhi said.
Members also participate in specific activities that help promote reproductive justice. Maren Butler described one of the projects the group has previously worked on where members wrote to voters through a letter-writing program.
“One of my favorite activities was letter writing,” Butler said. “We wrote in support of menstrual equity bills in California for education in public schools and access in prisons.”
In addition to hosting future letter-writing events, SRF at UC Davis often works with other groups to make perceptible changes on campus.
“One thing that we’ve been working on for a while is making sure that everyone has access to menstrual products, and that all the pad and tampon dispensers around campus actually have pads and tampons,” Padhi said.
The group also encourages members to identify prominent issues that students are facing and how they can relate to reproductive health.
“There are so many time and financial barriers that prevent students from taking the best care of themselves that they can,” Butler said. “Whether that’s within something like RJ or more on the outskirts like housing, food, health care related or even just finding a community, I’ve noticed that’s a big issue for a lot of students on campus.”
Being a part of the organization and sharing the value of reproductive justice has also deepened connections between students. Harihan also described that being a part of the group has influenced her individual journey with student activism, giving her the confidence to speak her opinion against global policies.
“The [main] impact on myself has been becoming closer to the activists of the community,” Harihan said. “This type of work is only possible due to being in community with and respecting all the activists who came before me and all of the members of the club; it’s made us more aligned with the true vision of reproductive justice and its intersectionality.”
SRF leaders have also begun noticing what motivates young people into involvement with civic engagement, keeping these motivators in mind when planning activities for the group.
“I think young people are really excited about holding campus administrators accountable right now, especially in light of recent restrictions on free speech campus climate,” Harihan said. “I think that can translate to RJ in terms of holding administrators accountable to make medication abortion easily accessible or making contraception use also easily accessible. I think that people are just excited about local issues more in the current climate of campus.”
So, if the topic of reproductive justice interests you, how can you get involved? According to Padhi, SRF will welcome your involvement any time of year.
“We typically are not a club that you have to join at the beginning of the quarter,” Padhi said. “Generally, people are free to come to our meetings whenever, and they’re pretty fun!”
Once you join, you’ll have the chance to participate in educational and action-driven biweekly meetings, usually held in the evening.
“Typically there’ll be some updates about what’s happening in the reproductive world, so this can be news about different laws that are being passed, or updates about projects that we’re working on, on campus or outside of campus,” Padhi said. “Then usually we’ll transition into some sort of activity, so that could be something like letter writing [or] creating medical care kits. It could also be a panel of different professionals in the reproductive field, so they can look very different.”
With the help of its student leaders, members and outside collaborators, SRF at UC Davis is working to be a dynamic driver of reproductive justice, fostering learning, growth and inspiration in Davis and outside communities.
Written by: GRACIELA TIU — features@theaggie.org
