Student Activists Fight to Make Abor tions Accessible on Campus and in Geneva p. 4- Club Spotlight ‘HWS VOTES’

Student Activists Fight to Make Abortions Accessible on Campus and in Geneva

By Kylie Rowland ‘24 Staff Writer

Following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last June, movements across the country sprung up to defend abortion rights. In New York, abortion is legal—but legal does not always mean accessible. Both the Geneva Women’s Assembly and HWS student activists have been organizing and demanding increased access to abortions and other reproductive healthcare in the Finger Lakes. After months of meetings, rallies, and marches, the group won their first win—right here on campus—starting October 1st, Hubbs Health Center will offer Plan B to students in need.

The Geneva Women’s Assembly, a local grassroots feminist activist group, spent the summer organizing around the crisis of pregnancy centers, LGBTQ+ rights, and abortion access through a series of “mass meetings” in Seneca Falls. There, seasoned activists and newcomers alike worked together to talk about and research the reality of abortion access in the region. Associate Professor of Writing and Rhetoric Hannah Dickinson, an organizer of GWA, tells The Herald that the mass meetings “were really a response to the call from socially conscious people across the Finger Lakes to get together, and get to work to fight against the evisceration of our fundamental rights.”

Although Governor Kathy Hochul has claimed that “abortion remains safe, accessible, and legal in New York,” the GWA found that the reality of trying to get an abortion in rural New York is a lot more complicated than it seems. In fact, after contacting local medical providers, the group found that no local health centers provide abortions. Finger Lakes Medical Centers, local OBGYN’s, and Women’s Health Centers all refer patients to Planned Parenthood and cite moral reasons for their lack of reproductive healthcare. But the closest Planned Parenthood offices, those in Canandaigua, Rochester, and Ithaca, are all booked up for months at a time—much too long to wait for a person in need of an abortion. “Women and all people who need abortions in this country, especially poor and working class people, are counting on us to make New York a real safe haven for abortion seekers. And right now throughout most of central, western, and northern New York, a person has to travel 40 miles or more to access an abortion or any form of gender affirming healthcare.” says Dickinson.

One student attendee of the GWA’s mass meetings, Senior Student Trustee Irini Konstantinou ‘23, added abortion access at HWS to the group’s agenda. After investigating Hubbs Health Center’s reproductive health services as part of a research project last spring, Konstantinou brought attention to the fact that there is no access to abortion medication on campus, despite the fact that other colKonstantinou and the GWA then decided to bring the fight to campus with a “March, Rally Rage for Expanded Abortion Access” event on August 26th. Starting right outside the Scandling Center, students and community members joined together to demand that Hubbs Health Center on campus and Finger Lakes Medical Center in Geneva both provide medication abortion. Following the march, Konstantinou worked with Becca Barile, the Vice President of Campus Life and Dean of Students, to increase reproductive health services on campus, while Maddi Meyer ’24 and Britta Wilkerson ’24 drafted letters to members of the administration as part of an internship with Professor Dickinson and the GWA.

Meyer tells The Herald, “For HWS to take a stand as powerful as offering medi-

cation abortions on campus, it would be leading the way for small liberal arts schools and proving to the world that this school respects, supports, and empowers its female-identifying students. With our choice being threatened nationwide and here in Geneva, we need protection via access, and we need it now.”

Photo courtesy of Hannah Dickinson

Maddi Meyer ’24, pictured center, participates in a march for women’s rights

leges, including all SUNY schools, provide medication abortion to students. “I started to wonder what, if any, resources I would have available to me on campus in an emergency healthcare situation,” says Konstantinou. “After realizing that Hubbs does not offer holistic, all-inclusive reproductive healthcare, I grew more passionate about rural access to abortion medication and how this lack of healthcare impacts HWS students.”

Club Spotlight: ‘HWS VOTES’

By Elinor Brunner ‘26 Staff Writer

Of the many student organizations on campus, perhaps none are more relevant than HWS Votes. The 2022 midterms are coming up this November, with elections in all 50 states, and the majority of students will be eligible to vote. That’s where HWS Votes comes in.

Their main goal is to get students to vote; this includes educating them on how to register to vote and how to request an absentee ballot. The members have conducted over 60 classroom visits so far this year. They’ve also held some special events to promote voter registration, and they talk to CAs, faculty, and the athletics department so their message can spread to students who might not interact with them directly. Kate Equinozzi ‘23, one of the co-presidents of HWS Votes, wants to highlight three things about the organization.

“It’s non-partisan. That’s the biggest core value. We’re not supporting a party. We’re not supporting a candidate. It’s just voter education. It’s also student-led. We really want to get student voices involved and have as many people as possible at the table chatting. That’s why we always have at least two co-presidents. And finally, it’s an initiative…It’s about going into classes and putting the word out there.”

Kate has been a member of HWS Votes since her freshman year. She helped with the registration efforts during the 2020 election, when HWS had a voting rate of 68.9%. This was double the 2016 election’s rate of 35.7%, and HWS was recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for this improvement. Now Kate and her co-presidents Samari Brown ‘24 and Katelyn Oswalt ‘24 (who is studying abroad this semester) are working to keep the ball rolling. Midterm elections historically have smaller turnout than those in presidential years, but they’re hoping to improve upon the 39.1% national voting rate for the 2018 election.

One of the most important parts of what they do is making students realize why they should be voting. Kate points out that “small choices make large change…Especially with local elections, your vote really counts. And it is really just a ten-minute action of requesting an absentee ballot or registering to vote. It’s a very simple process, and we try to make it simpler.” She adds that all postage is free for students’ election mail; CCESL covers it, whether it’s for registration forms or absentee ballots.

If you want to get involved with HWS Votes, or if you just want to learn more about how to register to vote or request an absentee ballot, there are several ways to do so. They have a table at Scandling on Tuesdays between 5:30 and 7, and they hold office hours in Trinity Hall between 3 and 5 on Thursdays. They are also available at their Instagram @hwsvotes and their email votes@hws.edu. There will be a text voting drive on October 25, and Vote Early Day is October 28. If you’re interested in voting advocacy, now is the time to join HWS Votes.

Photo Courtesy HWS Votes

Students paint a window in Scandling;

Making Abortions Accessible continued

On September 21st, just a month after the Rage Rally, HWS students won a bit more access to reproductive healthcare; slipped into a lengthy email about “Health and Wellness Resources,” Campus Life included the news that Hubbs will now provide birth control prescriptions, free condoms, transportation and referrals for reproductive needs, and, most notably, free Plan B starting October 1st. Despite this lack of communication from Campus Life, Meyer, Wilkerson, and Konstantinou stress that Plan B and transportation to Planned Parenthood are a big deal for students. Professor Dickinson points to the combined efforts of the GWA and HWS students as a reason for success: “student organizers have been instrumental in building the movement for abortion access and queer liberation in the Finger Lakes. By linking the reproductive healthcare needs of HWS students to the fight for abortion access in Geneva, they’ve helped to build a stronger movement and a powerful sense of intergenerational solidarity.”

This is a win on campus, but the fight in the community is far from over, reminds Konstantinou. She says, “while these are great steps in the right direction, the fight for equitable and accessible reproductive healthcare is not over. In Geneva, abortion is still not available on demand. Until we gain full access to abortion, we have an obligation to continue to mobilize for all-inclusive reproductive healthcare in our community.”

Professor Dickinson says that as they continue to put pressure on medical centers in Geneva, the GWA’s next steps will be to send Governor Hochul and lawmakers in Albany a list of demands, “spelling out what, in our view, is necessary to make New York truly an abortions rights safe haven—by ending crisis pregnancy centers; making abortion free, accessible, and delivered with dignity to college students, people in rural areas, poor and working class people, trans and nonbinary people, and anyone who needs an abortion regardless of what state they live in.”

Anyone looking to get involved in the mass meetings or learn about other actions and events in the fight for abortion rights and queer liberation can email gwa@genevawomensassembly.org or follow @geneva_womens_assembly on social media.