The next Deans’ Seminar in the 2021-22 series will be held Friday, February 18, 2022. April Lidinsky, Professor of Women and Gender Studies, will present her research entitled “‘We Used to Say Even Mary had a Choice’: Lessons from Abortion Access Advocacy in South Bend.” We will meet at noon (before the Academic Senate meeting) via zoom: https://iu.zoom.us/j/93176192536
Abstract
What lessons can we learn from South Bend, Indiana’s complex history of reproductive justice advocacy from the 1960s to the present? In this new research project, I weave together interviews with South Bend reproductive justice activists from the 1960s to the present, considering how insights from the past might inform the coalition-building many of us seek in the present.
The advocacy and protests around Whole Woman’s Health of South Bend (WWHA-SB) have made more evident the health disparities, intersectional histories, and conflicting understandings of abortion care. Nevertheless, activists continue to build sometimes unlikely coalitions through a variety of approaches. In this presentation, I consider South Bend in the context of larger U.S. socio-political debates around reproductive health access, drawing out what I consider failures of opportunity and promising inroads as we build a more inclusive and feminist approach to health care.
As a feminist scholar, I am interested in the different approaches to organizing taken by second wave feminists and more recent intersectionally informed activists. As a local activist, who has been on the front lines of bringing WWHA-SB to our community, and who volunteers as a clinic defender, legal observer, and communications outreach person, I have gathered surprising insights that I look forward to sharing.