Our inaugural meeting was held on July 16, we were joined by community members, reproductive justice organizers, local activists, scholars, elected officials, and students for a conversation we titled: Fighting Mad: Resisting the End of Roe v Wade. We heard from Laury Oaks (UCSB Professor of Feminist Studies who specializes on  reproductive justice), Paula Lopez (a ninth generation Santa Barbara native, President of Santa Barbara Political Women’s Committee, and award winning broadcast journalist), Starshine Roshell (a journalism professor, magazine writer, award-winning columnist), and Carly Thomsen (Associate Professor of English and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University – formerly of UCSB). 

We shared stories about being angry feminists who are fighting mad about lack of access to abortion, the threat to contraception and IVF, lack of reproductive healthcare in detention centers and prisons, poor women unable to take time off to get pregnancies or abortion, lack of prenatal care in rural places, and affordable LGBTQ healthcare among many other topics. 

Listen to coverage of the event!