Reproductive Health Arizona held its first annual event Wednesday, an evening dedicated to bringing attention to women’s reproductive health issues and educating the Phoenix community about them.
The night involved food, drinks and performances reenacting the drama of birth. A small art display was presented on the fifthth floor of the newly-built Beus Center for Law and Society by Forrest Solis, an artist and professor at Arizona State University.
“I am a practicing active artist, I do a lot of work that relates to women’s issues, and an issue that I have never given any thought to was motherhood and what is to bear children, until I had my son,” Solis said. “We need to break down the taboo around it. Quite frankly, people don’t want to talk about it because it’s a challenging topic.”
All the visuals displayed at the stand represented stories of hardships that different women had gone through in their paths of giving birth. Women, or artists they hired, painted their own stories that were on display Wednesday night.
Opposite the art, a room full of live panelists discussed issues regarding women’s reproductive health.
A major topic brought up throughout the event was the importance of educating women about issues of reproductive health. They emphasized the value of instruction on all the different options when it comes to women’s reproductive health.
Marinah Farrell, president of the Midwives Alliance of North America and a long-standing supporter of home-birth practice in Arizona, said the practice of having a midwife in a home-birth as a fair option for women to help ensure a safe birth.
“There is actually a lot of violence in birth,” Farrel said, regarding modern birth practices.
Ultimately, the event focused on women being able to have a choice as its main goal. Mary Melcher, one of the panelists and author of Pregnancy, Motherhood, and Choice in Twentieth Century Arizona, emphasized the need for “women’s ability to control reproduction affects every aspect of their lives.”
The organization’s first-ever event drew a sizable crowd from all over Phoenix, such as valley resident Danielle Gincastro.
“I work at a gynecologist, so the whole topic kind of appeals to me,” Gincastro said. “I think it is important for a lot of people to know their options.”
Solis added that events and conversations like these were important avenues to discuss underserved issues.
“This is a really important step in the next direction,” Solis said. “I think it is the next big movement in terms of feminism.”
Contact the reporter at vren1@asu.edu.
