Amendment 48 & Civic Engagement

The Amendment 48 lecture and the assigned readings were very eye opening.  I didn't realize before how far reaching the implications of Amendment 48 are.  I have been talking with various friends about Amendment 48 since the lecture and we are all very horrified, not only by the effects the amendment would have on pregnant women's rights but also that many people are not aware of the full extent of these effects.  Even more horrifying, for me, is that people in favor of Amendment 48 also fail to realize the amendment will impact more than just the verdict of Roe v. Wade or rather they see this information as the "clever" attempt at persuasion from the opposing pro-choice argument.  

I was very surprised to hear some abortion abolitionists are now opposed to the redefinition of "person" due to their own experiences of being subjected to its use outside of the anti-abortion objective.  The fact that it's not worry about what could happen, it's what is already happening to pregnant women where such redefinitions have occurred and the denial of these events being caused by 48-esque approvals is shocking and scares me quite a bit. 

My disgust for this amendment led me to get involved with the "No on 48" campaign for the civic engagement project.  On October 11th I volunteered at Planned Parenthood to canvass for "No" from 11am - 5pm.  The three canvassing organizers did not seem to expect anyone to show up for this big canvassing day so when a mere six volunteers, including myself, arrived they were ecstatic.  Each volunteer received an information packet as the organizers began covering the facts of Amendment 48: what it would affect, how it would affect it, and all the little numbers and figures Americans find so compelling, most of which I had already learned in our lecture on the topic.  

The volunteers then paired up to practice what we would say during our door-to-door mission. I honestly did not do very well with this; I could have rambled on about the amendment any ol' day but when asked to sum up the major points in under a minute, I seemed to forget everything and became completely tongue-tied.  Luckily, this did not matter much when we split up in three groups and actually began canvassing in a Lone Tree neighborhood; we barely had a chance to get a word out before shoving a flyer into the hands of residents who were eager to close their doors.  My favorite encounter was with a woman who claimed to be having a party but was clearly not - there was no evidence of people enjoying themselves inside nor were there any cars parked outside of the house ("Elementary, my dear Watson!")  More often though, no one was home so we left the flyers at their door and hoped for the best. 

The whole ordeal wasn't exactly how I had imagined it.  I suppose I thought there would be more people, marching out in a mass to canvass or relentlessly calling voters and offering the facts, making all of Planned Parenthood buzz.  Even though our canvassing troop was very small, our time was valuable nonetheless, evident in the success of the amendment being denied by Colorado voters.  I garnered a sense of togetherness as well as a feeling of power in this togetherness.  I was also filled with a sense of pride for having a small part in defending choice.