On April 7-9^th, RHAP (staff, interns, and fellows) attended the Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) Conference at Hampshire College. The conference’s theme, “From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom,” allowed veterans in the movement to create safe spaces for rising activists to share experiences and grow together as the collective envisioned next steps towards a more inclusive and attainable society within reproductive health and justice. The RHAP team went to a variety of workshops, including Population Control: Reproductive Injustice Coming from the Right and Left, Black Lives Matter and Reproductive Justice, and Queering Reproductive Justice: Strength in our Differences, amongst other enriching panels that oftentimes made us step out of our comfort zones and hear stories about identities and politics that we are not often exposed to in our daily work.

Throughout the weekend, we reconnected with our allies and forged new relationships in the hopes of collaborating on future projects. It was a privilege to have access to all of these different ideas, which inspired us to get back to work and see how we could amplify these marginalized voices so our mission of making reproductive health care accessible to all continues to stand true.

RHAP was also invited back to present our signature session, Demystifying Manual Vacuum Aspiration Abortions: The Papaya Workshop! Presenters had a chance to engage with the audience, demonstrating a procedural abortion on a papaya as it represents a uterus at the early stages of a pregnancy. Participants were then given a hands-on opportunity with their own papayas. In addition, we discussed the importance of patient-centered language and answered the abundance of questions that our energized audience had throughout our workshop. We were so thankful for the large turnout and the feedback that we received. Our team enjoys helping people realize how safe abortions are, and how critically they are needed in basic health care.

We want to thank the CLPP team for 35 plus years of de-centering white supremacist and heteronormative dialogue as they continue to legitimize the voices of marginalized people of color of cis, trans, gender non-conforming, and queer identities. To learn more about the amazing work they do, visit clpp.hampshire.edu.