Sarah Greenberg

Looking out onto the landscape of reproductive rights, there are great challenges and obstacles. However, they cannot be allowed to overshadow the victories and hard work pro-choice activists are doing across the country.

Late last month in Albuquerque New Mexico, an extreme municipal ban on abortions after 20-weeks of gestation was voted down by a wide margin. Albuquerque is the only city in New Mexico where with facilities that perform abortions later in pregnancy; if the ballot measure had passed, it would have effectively ended access across the state. It was truly an immense success!

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to two cases, Sebelius v. Hobby Lobby Stores Inc and Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp v. Sebelius. These cases, to be heard as one case by the Court, symbolize a new frontier in the realm of free exercise of religion and personal health choices. These cases were born out of Department of Health and Human Services rule regarding contraception coverage under the new health care law. It is hard not to associate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act with some level of controversy. Whether it was over the premise of the bill itself, the Medicaid expansion, implementation and the website, this bill has caused spirited debate over the role of the government in the lives of the citizens it is formed to protect.

Schools are intended to be laboratories of opportunity. We pursue educations so that we can follow our dreams, have interesting careers, open our minds to new ideas, make friends, and try new things. But imagine if this was not the case.

The right to vote is at the very foundation of democracy. Casting a vote is not only lifting your voice; it is also a claim to a stake in the social and political life of the nation. Today, we recognize that voting is a right to which all Americans have access. It is not a privilege.

This was not always the case: Since America’s founding, the right to vote has expanded from white, male property owners in the original 13 states to all white men, to all men, to all women, to Native Americans and others. There are many more watershed moments in the history of voting rights, but it is important to take a moment and reflect on the fact that for the first seven years of its existence, the women of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods could not vote. They could be powerful advocates on a broad range of social justice topics, but they themselves could not fully participate in our political process.