Student organization lobbies for women’s rights

One group on campus has decided to lobby for several women’s issues, including abortion, periods, contraception and more.

Students for Reproductive Rights (SFRR) is a fairly recent group on campus which was formed in opposition to a pro-life group at USD.

Junior Chelsea Gilbertson, the group’s creator, said she started the group after Yotes for Life wrote messages in chalk across campus this fall.

“I thought it [was] necessary to make something from the opposite side,” she said. “I started by reaching out to Planned Parenthood and NARAWL in Sioux Falls, and I actually became the intern for Planned Parenthood. It was nice because we were basically able to consolidate the pro-choice movement that’s happening in South Dakota onto this campus.”

Junior Logan Anderson, the group events coordinator, said is more than just supporting abortion rights for women.

“To me, this group is about standing up for women and their rights and being there and supporting them,” he said.

Although the group has yet to attract a large following, those that are a part of it are very committed to its cause.

“It’s a pretty small but committed force,” Gilbertson said. “We have a lot of opportunities to grow though, we just don’t know how yet. We have all the time in the world, though, because this has the possibility of always being a fight.”

First-year Sasha McDowell, the social media coordinator, said she joined the group after years of not being able to do anything for women’s rights in high school.

“I wasn’t into politics a lot until my freshman year of high school,” McDowell said. “My parents were always really open with me about things and they were very liberal people. They always told me that your body is your body and that I should respect people’s bodies. It was my freshman year that I really got into women’s rights. And when this came about I thought it was a good way to get involved on these issues and do something.”

A group of high school students, college students and community members will be going to Pierre Wednesday to lobby for pro-choice issues and potentially defeat some bills, Gilbertson said.

“It’s really cool because South Dakota is such a cool state and people don’t realize that they can have such a big influence by going and actually talking to their legislature,” Gilbertson said. “We have an opportunity to have a real world effect on legislature and legislation.”

Another event the group has planned is a coat hanger display, where stories and blurbs from different people will be collected about how the pro-choice movement has affected them. Those stories will be put on coat hangars to show “we are never going back,” Gilbertson said.

“We can’t afford to go back to a Rod v. Wade era where people are dying because they are trying to self induce abortions,” Gilbertson said. “We need to emphasize that these practices (of abortion) are barbaric.”

SFRR also has a period party planned. Gilbertson said they’ll be handing out cookies, and red Kool-Aid in order break the stigma surrounding periods. The event may also include a tampon drive.

“We have about 7,000 women on campus,” Gilbertson said. “If we could get about half of those women to donate just one tampon, think of how many women in domestic abuse shelters, homeless women that can be helped. Luxury tax is a thing on tampons which is ridiculous. So this is a good way to help a lot of people.”

Anderson said the group and its mission are inclusive.

“It’s so much more than pro-choice,” he said. “It’s about rights and understanding that different perspective.”

Gilbertson’s main goal is for SFRR members to feel comfortable in the work they do for the organization.

“Abortion has become a political issue and it never, ever should have gotten that far because abortion, at the end of the day, is a human issue,” she said. “It needs to be a women and a doctor relationship, not South Dakota legislature relationship. We want students to be comfortable in the work that we are doing. We want to emphasize a women’s right to choice and bodily autonomy.”