This class required my team and I to both produce and create a series over a single topic. We focused on the state of reproductive and sexual health in mid-Missouri. Below are our four installments.
Reproductive Health
Abortion ethics fuel emotional debate across Missouri
Created with Caroline Kealy, Jacqueline Lemp, Kyle McCubbin, Veronica Mohesky and Emily Powers
Carol Fick stands outside Planned Parenthood with other 40 Days for Life activists in Columbia, Mo., on Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. The organization puts the event together every year; the goal is to be a constant, peaceful presence at clinics in the hopes that they will end abortion according to their website.
Yvonne Rottjakob reads her book in a lawn chair outside of Planned Parenthood in Columbia, Mo., on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. Entitled Padre Pio of Pietrelcina, the book is about the saint’s life, spirituality and gifts. A few of the older 40 Days for Life activists also brought lawn chairs as well to take breaks from standing on the sidewalk.
Carol Fick holds her rosary outside of Planned Parenthood in Columbia, Mo., on Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. The group held many signs like the one depicted outside of the clinic as a part of 40 Days for Life.
Sonia Potts holds up a sign on the sidewalk outside of Planned Parenthood as part of 40 Days for Life in Columbia, Mo., on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. Cars driving past on busy Providence Road can see the activists holding signs like these until 40 Days for Life ends on Nov. 3.
Kathy Forck, one of the leaders of Columbia’s 40 Days for Life, looks down at some chalking the Guild of Silly Heathens drew on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood in Columbia, Mo., on Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2019. “We started coming here on the day that they did abortions… we were able to speak to a few people, but for the most part it was silent prayer,” Forck said. The group started doing this in February of 2009, and Forck says they started participating in 40 Days for Life in September of 2009.
Sexual Education
How Missourians are dealing with a lack of curriculum
Produced with Caroline Kealy, Jacqueline Lemp, Kyle McCubbin, Veronica Mohesky and Emily Powers
Created by Avery Dalal, Maddie Davis and Zephyrus Li
Claire Hornibrook adds condoms to a safe sex kit at the MU Student Center in Columbia, Mo., on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. Hornibrook is a member of the Planned Parenthood Advocates of Mizzou. The safe sex kits include three condoms, a flyer about the local Planned Parenthood and another flyer about consent.
Sophie Welch checks to make sure a condom wrapper is not ripped open in Columbia, Mo., on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. PPAM gave out the safe sex kits to people tailgating and drinking at the bars during Homecoming on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019.
Charley Buchanan and Kara Cheslock (right) examine the different kinds of condoms for the safe sex kits in Columbia, Mo., on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. “My group actually ran out of condoms within the first two bars we went to,” Cheslock said. “It was a fun way for our club to bond and to help people in the community practice safe sex.”
Claire Hornibrook offers a safe sex kit to a group of students at a tailgate in Columbia, Mo., on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. It only took the group about an hour to hand out their share of the 250 safe sex kits to tailgaters.
Two tailgaters accept a free safe sex kit from PPAM in Columbia, Mo., on Saturday, Oct. 12, 2019. PPAM hosts many other events besides the annual condom crawl like discussions about Title X legislation, healthy relationships and sexual education.
Public Opinion
How the abortion ban is dividing Missourians
Produced with Caroline Kealy, Jacqueline Lemp, Kyle McCubbin, Veronica Mohesky and Emily Powers
Created by Reagan Loftus, Christopher Martucci and Grace Vance
Health Disparities
Expectant Missouri mothers are searching for care in rural communities
Created with Caroline Kealy, Jacqueline Lemp, Kyle McCubbin, Veronica Mohesky and Emily Powers
Kellman holds a fetal doppler (left) and pinard horn (right), both of which are used to listen to a fetal heartbeat, in Ferguson, Mo., Monday, Nov. 4, 2019. “As community midwives, we’re typically holistic, so we only work with low risk findings, meaning, you're healthy, you don't have any issues and so we try to keep people healthy,” she said. “So the more and more I centered my life on holistic wellness, the more and more my passion came out.”
![Kellman shares the story behind a quilt gifted to her by a licensed Virginia CPM, in Ferguson, Mo., Monday, Nov. 4, 2019. “Due to racism and oppression in midwifery in Missouri, I had to travel [to Virginia] to complete my work in an apprenticeship that wasn’t racist,” she said.](https://cdn.myportfolio.com/b12e2e57-0844-41fe-8333-7fb5873faba4/71734204-6c1c-4d1f-beb9-547e4b645f15_rw_1200.png?h=92d425b74fad90ad455da8e9670b98bb)
Kellman shares the story behind a quilt gifted to her by a licensed Virginia CPM, in Ferguson, Mo., Monday, Nov. 4, 2019. “Due to racism and oppression in midwifery in Missouri, I had to travel [to Virginia] to complete my work in an apprenticeship that wasn’t racist,” she said.
Kellman lists off the services her organization provides to the women in her community in Ferguson, Mo., Monday, Nov. 4, 2019. “We provide peer to peer support for women who had depression and anxiety and if they need therapy and a mental health counselor,” she said.
Brittany Kellman explains why she began her organization, Jamaa Birth Village, in Ferguson, Mo., Monday, Nov. 4, 2019. “I was a teen mom, pregnant at 13, had my first son at 14, and I got treated like crap in the hospital...So all that really pissed me off me, man. But it encouraged me to study and learn more about alternatives,” she said. “I started Jamaa out of my home, which is here in Ferguson, about two minutes away from here.”
Kellman describes how she started Jamaa Birthing Village, Ferguson, Mo., Monday, Nov. 4, 2019. “I got a vision to create a birthing village for us, by us, where women, whether they decided to have a baby or not have a baby, so even if they were just menstruating women, they could have a safe, comfortable place to come to be seen,” she said.
