Civic Engagement

I volunteered with the NO on 48! group, which I found to be very interesting. I was attracted to NO on 48! because I thought it was absolutely the most absurd thing I had heard of and if it had passed, it could have had serious consequences not only for women but all of America. Abortion is obviously a very touchy issue but amendment 48 was about so much more than abortion, another reason I was drawn to it. When one amendment can impact so many different areas of life, I think at the very least people have a responsibility to be completely informed and aware of the amendment. From my experience volunteering with the group, I found that most people had a general idea of the amendment would entail but they didn’t necessarily understand the extent to which it could go. Unfortunately, the group had a couple of tabling sessions cancelled but we were still able to adequately inform people on amendment 48, at least on the DU campus. One thing that really stuck out to me was that even though it was a “women’s issue” nearly all the volunteers at the meetings were male. The two student leaders were female but they were pretty much the only females. I thought it was great that men were helping out with the cause but there was part of me that wondered if it was more a reflection of a lack of female supporters than an abundance of male supporters. One thing I liked about volunteering for the group was that they were just focused on informing people, not changing their minds. I think there was a general understanding that if people were well informed on the issue then there was a very strong chance it wouldn’t pass. Although not everyone felt this way, many of the volunteers wisely avoided the abortion issue and instead focused on how it violated a woman’s constitutional right. By doing that, it made amendment 48 a non-partisan issue that almost every person, male or female, pro-life or pro-choice, could identify with.