By: Hugo Robinson To captivate an audience it is not only incredibly important to have an interesting subject matter but also to present that subject matter in a compelling and enthralling way. On Wednesday, March 1st, at 7:00 pm I attended the deliberation titled The Nation, The State, and You: The Politics of Women’s Reproductive Rights. Women’s reproductive rights vary across a broad spectrum of health issues, but the ones most frequently discussed and hotly debated are the right to abortion and the right to birth control. As this is an issue it is difficult not to have an opinion on, I will do my best to keep mine out of this blog and focus mostly on the aspects and results of the deliberation itself.
I never considered myself an expert on this topic, but up until the day of this deliberation I had no idea quite how uninformed I really was. The deliberation began with an intriguing example of a twelve year-old girl who needs to be on birth control because she suffers extreme discomfort when she is, and transitioned nicely into a breakdown of the three main plateaus of women’s reproductive rights: the national level, the state level, and the personal level. Nationally, abortion was declared to be legal in the 1973 landmark decision of Roe v. Wade. However, this decision provided for the possibility of varying levels of control of abortion within each state — the states are free to make laws limiting or restricting abortion, and many have done so. The truth of the matter within the United States is that rules and legislation regarding women’s reproductive rights are composed primarily by those who cannot sympathize with the thousands of women who may need birth control or an abortion for any number of reasons — and with the new government administration and their proposed strategies, it seems as if major healthcare cuts are in the works. Women aren’t given enough power to make decisions regarding their own bodies, simply put. In terms of presentation, the deliberation was very well done, and was largely a success. I was very captured by the information, not only because of how interesting the topic was to me but because of the great job presenting done by the group. It was clear that they were all very certain on what information they needed to know/were each responsible for, and after minor tones of nervousness in the first few minutes the deliberation took off running. I left the cafe feeling satisfied and informed, and would have recommended such an interactive, informative demonstration to anyone. I think that the most important part of any deliberation is the discussion aspect, and in this circumstance the presenters were perfect in striking the right balance between offering factual, important statistical information, and leaving the floor open to the groups’ participants to express their own opinions, questions, or view regarding the subject. I was delighted to be a part of this deliberation, and think that the group did an exceedingly good job in creating it!
0 Comments
By: Hugo Robinson To captivate an audience it is not only incredibly important to have an interesting subject matter but also to present that subject matter in a compelling and enthralling way. On Wednesday, March 1st, at 7:00 pm I attended the deliberation titled The Nation, The State, and You: The Politics of Women’s Reproductive Rights. Women’s reproductive rights vary across a broad spectrum of health issues, but the ones most frequently discussed and hotly debated are the right to abortion and the right to birth control. As this is an issue it is difficult not to have an opinion on, I will do my best to keep mine out of this blog and focus mostly on the aspects and results of the deliberation itself.
I never considered myself an expert on this topic, but up until the day of this deliberation I had no idea quite how uninformed I really was. The deliberation began with an intriguing example of a twelve year-old girl who needs to be on birth control because she suffers extreme discomfort when she is, and transitioned nicely into a breakdown of the three main plateaus of women’s reproductive rights: the national level, the state level, and the personal level. Nationally, abortion was declared to be legal in the 1973 landmark decision of Roe v. Wade. However, this decision provided for the possibility of varying levels of control of abortion within each state — the states are free to make laws limiting or restricting abortion, and many have done so. The truth of the matter within the United States is that rules and legislation regarding women’s reproductive rights are composed primarily by those who cannot sympathize with the thousands of women who may need birth control or an abortion for any number of reasons — and with the new government administration and their proposed strategies, it seems as if major healthcare cuts are in the works. Women aren’t given enough power to make decisions regarding their own bodies, simply put. In terms of presentation, the deliberation was very well done, and was largely a success. I was very captured by the information, not only because of how interesting the topic was to me but because of the great job presenting done by the group. It was clear that they were all very certain on what information they needed to know/were each responsible for, and after minor tones of nervousness in the first few minutes the deliberation took off running. I left the cafe feeling satisfied and informed, and would have recommended such an interactive, informative demonstration to anyone. I think that the most important part of any deliberation is the discussion aspect, and in this circumstance the presenters were perfect in striking the right balance between offering factual, important statistical information, and leaving the floor open to the groups’ participants to express their own opinions, questions, or view regarding the subject. I was delighted to be a part of this deliberation, and think that the group did an exceedingly good job in creating it! |
Categories
All
|