Annie's Reflection

 

 

Project Citizen has given me the opportunity to voice my opinion in my community. The topic of abortion has always been one very close to my heart, which is why I first began looking into the issue as a potential topic. As both my classmate, Natura and myself examined the issue at a state level we came to uncover something rather astonishing. We found that New Jersey is an outlier when it comes to laws concerning abortion.

 

With this new knowledge we presented the issue at hand to our classmates and soon rallied support. The members of our group had varying viewpoints on abortion. Some were hardcore “Pro-life” and others were strongly “Pro-choice”. Whereas others would have seen this as being a challenge our group saw it as an opportunity. With so many different opinions we were given the chance to see things differently and have a better project.

 

Through working with my classmates I was able to learn new information about New Jersey’s abortion laws and was thoroughly unsettled. For example, only 6 other states have higher abortion rates than New Jersey, which is mainly due to these states having higher populations than our state.

 

Project Citizen has taught me to recognize issues like this and seek to rectify them. It has broadened my horizons and made me realize that one person really can make a difference, or at least get the ball rolling. Overall, this assignment has taught me that I have the right to express my opinion and the right to have a say in my government.