Reproductive Justice Alliance Canvasses for Harris-Walz

The Reproductive Justice Alliance (RJA) is the first registered student organization (RSO) to canvass for the upcoming election. With reproductive rights on the ballot in November, the RSO started canvassing in New Hampshire last month in partnership with the campaign organization group Indivisible Northampton — Swing Left Western Mass. They’ll canvass in New Hampshire again this Saturday.

Indivisible Northampton reached out to multiple RSOs within the Five Colleges to inquire about how to engage with students. The RJA recommended canvassing and was the only Amherst RSO present at the Keene, New Hampshire canvassing event.

Gracie Rowland ’25, President of the RJA, said that the RSO has always been “interested in being active and taking a stance in political debates and political terrains.”

The RJA and Indivisible Northampton received statistics and background information on Harris-Walz initiatives from the campaign, but knocked on doors unscripted. Rowland explained that canvassing is “just a conversation” about what is important to that person and to you.

“My talking point was that I’m scared for people in my home state of Mississippi, and that people are dying without access to reproductive rights,” she said.

She canvassed alongside William Prince ’25, who had a different talking point, which Rowland believes is “the beauty of it. We all have things that are on the forefront of our minds that are at stake in this election.”

These conversations, Rowland believes, could make a difference. “They may not have the perspective that you’re offering offered to them very often,” she said.

Founded in 2016, the RJA has a history of political activism. When the Dobbs decision was leaked in May of 2022, RJA organized a campus-wide walkout and phone banked in collaboration with the Women’s and Gender Center. In 2017, the RJA organized a Reproductive Justice 5K for the Prison Birth Project.

The RSO often collaborates with other political groups, such as the Young Democratic Socialists of America, to organize events and raise awareness about reproductive health and universal health care.

The goal of all these events, Rowland says, is to get people talking. “The less you talk about it, the less you think about it.”

The RJA will phone bank with the Women’s and Gender Center to call representatives on Oct. 17 from 1-3pm, and canvass again with Indivisible Northampton in New Hampshire on October 19.

Julia Santos ’25, Vice President of the RJA, believes that many people who cannot get pregnant think that reproductive rights do not affect them. Getting involved in the election, she says, “is trying to get them to see a bigger picture outside of themselves.”

Rowland emphasized “the immediacy” of reproductive rights in this election, referencing the potential impact of the conservative political initiative Project 2025, which she called “bone-chilling,” because of how many people it will negatively affect.

“If we have the chance to make even the slightest of differences, we have to try and organize around that as much as possible,” Rowland said.