Women’s Reproductive Autonomy and Legal Access to Abortion: How can we Ensure Broader, Democratic Access? (Part 1)

For the past several decades, conservative forces in the US and Canada have worked to finance and organize Christian fundamentalist sects, the Catholic Church and other organizations to become potentially destabilizing of progressive democratic principles and practices. Powerful interlocking political and corporate forces are seemingly teaming up against women and the disadvantaged in many Southern and Western states and in parts of Canada. These forces have negative effects on women's ability to control and maintain bodily integrity and health, especially among low income women who often are disproportionately affected by restrictions on abortion services. What ought to happen regarding access to these services? The speakers will shed light on the pertinent issues and argue that it’s urgent to coordinate and democratically empower individuals, organizations, communities and all levels of Government to produce changes in attitudes, norms, behaviour and policies that will enable women, using their own free will, to obtain reproductive health services, including abortion care. Speakers: Carol Williams, Brittney Adams and Shannon Ingram Carol Williams is a cultural historian specializing in Women & Gender Studies, Visual Culture, and North American Women’s History including histories of women’s activism. Williams is currently the 2013-2015 Board of Governors Humanities Scholar at the U of L. From 2008-1011 she held a tier II Canada Research Chair in Feminist and Gender Studies at Trent University. Williams has published two books, Indigenous Women’s Work (2012) and Framing the West: Race, Gender and the Photographic “Frontier” (2003). Brittney Adams completed her Bachelor Degree in Political Science from the University of Lethbridge in 2013 and is currently completing her Masters of Arts in Women and Gender Studies. Her M.A thesis titled “Multiple I Do’s” examines the role of feminist knowledge in the 2011 BC Supreme Court ruling on polygamy. Adams has long been involved in political activism in the Lethbridge community and is the Co-Coordinator of the Campus Women’s Centre, as well as a YWCA Board Member. This year, she also became a Board Member with LPIRG and recently, Adams helped organize the Students for Choice action group at the University of Lethbridge. Shannon Ingram recently graduated from the University of Lethbridge with a Bachelor of Art in History with Honours. She has been an active member of the Lethbridge community, volunteering on campus for the Women’s Centre and off campus for Womanspace Resource Centre. She has also completed an Applied Study at the Galt Museum & Archives, focusing on the Evolution of Agriculture in Southern Alberta. More recently, Ingram attended the first ever International Conference on Women’s Reproductive Rights in Charlottetown, P.E.I., presenting on the barriers to accessing abortions in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador. Moderator: Michael Stingl Date: Thursday, November 13, 2014 Time: 7:00 – 9:00 pm Location: Room PE250, 1st Choice Saving Centre, University of Lethbridge Free event, free parking, everyone welcome. Posters etc. may be displayed outside the room.