“Digital Media After Roe”
By Kelsey Lain
In the Fall of 2022, I have been able to grow more in my role as the student worker for the RRRH internship program. In this position, I keep track of internship paperwork, edit ReproNews, as well as complete miscellaneous administrative tasks. Each semester, I feel that I am streamlining my job responsibilities more and more as everything I do is second nature to me now. Looking back as a senior upon my time here, I feel that I am extremely experienced and prepared for a role in women’s advocacy post-graduation. The multi-disciplinary nature of my internship has allowed me to gain a wide variety of skills. I have learned how to navigate a professional setting as well as honed my expertise in communication, organization, writing, and people-to-people relations.
It has been interesting for me to re-evaluate my role and position after the fall of Roe v. Wade. I had always assumed and hoped the law would align with my own values; therefore, it was a wakeup call for me to truly acknowledge how divisive reproductive rights are in this country.
As the student editor of ReproNews, I see firsthand the news, events, and culture surrounding repro-advocacy in New Orleans and beyond. For last month’s edition, I wrote a spotlight article on digital access six months after Dobbs v. Jackson. Doing background research on that topic was intriguing for me because this is an emerging field. It truly allowed me to see how connected these threads are. The right to privacy, which formed the legal basis of Roe, goes beyond the doctor’s office. This right is also an unenumerated constitutional right that impacts how we interact online as well as how we are protected digitally. Through my research, I have concluded that the right to privacy is increasingly becoming a privilege instead; that is, only a select few Americans today enjoy an actual sense of privacy compared to Americans in the past.
I am grateful and excited for Spring 2022, my last semester in the program. This journey has been a long one and spanned almost the entirety of my collegiate career, and I am extremely lucky that I was able to learn and grow within this program.