Sofia Gomez Alonso
Fall 2020 Blogpost #1
Reproductive Justice and the 2020 Election: Fall Internship at Lift Louisiana
Being an intern at Lift Louisiana during the 2020 election has been a great opportunity for growing and learning. The time period that I have been an intern at Lift during the Fall semester and the weeks leading up to the election has been characterized by a series of events and issues which will heavily impact the state of reproductive justice access in the United States. The death of Justice Ginsburg and the nomination of Amy Coney Barret placed reproductive rights at the center of many important conversations held in the country. Working with Lift’s social media content has allowed me to see these conversations for myself. Social media is a very powerful tool and I am impressed with what a single Instagram post can trigger. Similarly, the proposed amendment, which seeks to rule abortion as unconstitutional in the state of Louisiana, has deepened the existing tensions regarding abortion access in the state. The time that I have spent working with Lift’s social media has allowed me to see how these tensions play out and it has been very eye opening and heartbreaking to see the amount of misinformation that is behind a lot of negative comments targeting posts opposing the amendment.
The main takeaway that I have from my time at Lift this fall is the importance of voting. Lift Louisiana’s vision is heavily aligned with voter engagement and it has been a wonderful opportunity to learn more about the importance of voting. Coming from a country where voter abstinence is extremely high and there is an overall mistrust and disconnect between citizens and the national government, I wasn’t aware of how powerful a tool voting is. Most of the content that I have done this semester has been related to important voting information as well as voting statistics. I have learned a lot about voting mechanisms in this country as well as how certain aspects of the American government work. I have been very impressed with the statistics of early voting in Louisiana so far and how the state is breaking multiple records in comparison to early voting in the 2016 election. I am very excited but also very nervous about what the election results will bring to the state of reproductive justice in this country. Working at Lift Louisiana has turned reproductive justice into one of my biggest passions. Being disenfranchised and a foreigner during this election has often placed me in a complicated area as the decisions made in November will ultimately affect me in one way or another regardless of my inability to vote. I will still remain committed to fighting and learning more about reproductive justice in the United States because a victory for women in any country, is felt all over the world, even in my small home country.
