Alexandra Newman, treasurer of Pro Choice Miami, shares an anonymous abortion testimony Thursday evening at McGuffey Hall.
"I had an abortion."
A simple yet powerful statement used as the starting point for a campaign of the same name.
Jennifer Baumgardner, activist and writer in New York City, began the "I Had An Abortion" project in 2005. The project consists of a book, Abortion and Life, and a documentary titled I Had An Abortion. Baumgardner spoke Thursday evening at McGuffey Hall to a room of about 70 Miami University students and community members.
Baumgarder said since the age of 14, abortion has been her signature issue. Despite never having had an abortion, Baumgardner still has personal experience dealing with abortion.
When she was 14, Baumgardner's 15-year-old sister became pregnant.
After helping her sister raise the money needed for an abortion, she said the notion of "You don't have anything if you don't have control over your body," really clicked for her.
Her passion to become an activist was also influenced by her parents.
She said her family always talked about activism, whether it was gay rights, civil rights, feminism or the peace movement.
She started writing about abortion rights during her college years and went on to become a feminist reporter in New York City, where she now resides.
"I wanted to push past the limitation of just talking to activists on the issue, so I asked women to tell me their personal abortion experiences," Baumgardner said.
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She said the project reinvigorated her on the issue because of society's inability to have a conversation on the topic. She said women were eager to share their experiences because they'd never been asked before.
"As a culture we're still not comfortable with it and it's been 36 years since it's been legal," Baumgardner said.
Baumgardner said an important detail surrounding the abortion issue is that one's political view of abortion is not an indicator of whether that person would have one.
"Labels don't mean what they once did," she said.
The lecture titled "Abortion and Life: Or What I Learned About Abortion Once I Learned to Listen," was co-sponsored by Pro Choice Miami, Association for Women Students and Secular Students of Miami.
Senior Jessica Farquhar, co-president of Pro Choice Miami, said the group started planning for Baumgardner's Miami visit in 2008.
"We needed to stand by the abortion issue and find someone who was not afraid to talk about abortion," Farquhar said.
Farquhar said Pro Choice Miami wanted to bring people together from different generations and raise awareness on the topic. Pro Choice Miami has a dozen active members with more than 100 on the group's list serv.
Baumgardner said she's been impressed with the level of creativity and professionalism of Pro Choice Miami.
Junior Rachel Barga, president of Miami University Students for Life (MUSFL), said she encouraged members of her organization to attend the Baumgardner lecture.
"The initiative to talk about these experiences is good," Barga said. "No one talks about abortion. Women don't trumpet their experiences if they've had them."
Despite being on two different sides of the issue, Barga said the fact that Pro Choice Miami is talking about abortion is healthy.
"We need to spark dialogue," Barga said. "Our group has met a lot of resistance but we just want to talk. It will slow things down if we don't collaborate."
Barga said negativity surrounds both campus groups and she hopes in the spring an open-forum style debate can be held between the two groups that would help remove stereotypes.
MUSFL currently has 50 active members, Barga said, with 280 students on the e-mail list serv.
As for working together with MUSFL, Farquhar said they would like to do something because any collaboration is great.
Sophomore Chris Brzozowski attended the lecture Thursday night and said Baumgardner was a good public speaker.
"It was a fresh approach to the pro-life, pro-choice argument," Brzozowski said. "She had an understanding of both sides. But I'm still undecided on the issue."
A male sophomore and MUSFL member only wanted to be referred to as Mike.
"(Baumgardner) provided interesting points, but some were troublesome," Mike said. "Both sides can agree that openness and discussion are important."
For more information on either student group visit their Facebook.com groups, Pro Choice Miami and Miami University Students for Life.
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