“Reproductive health is a wide issue, and depending on current legislation that may affect information, we want to provide (information) so that people understand the history of the Supreme Court decision ?Roe versus Wade,” said Joy Whitten, the executive director for Michigan Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

Elementary education senior Kelley Nobles showed her support for the court decision and abortion rights policies by reading a story of 21-year-old Molly who received an abortion after an unplanned pregnancy.

The monologues performed during the event weren’t personal accounts of the readers but were true stories of others.

“I support it because I don’t know exactly what choice I would make in that situation, but I want to know that I have a choice for myself and I don’t want to take that choice away from anybody else,” Nobles said.

The event was sponsored by Lansing area abortion rights advocacy groups.

Whitten said she is looking to President Barack Obama for the change he promised during his campaign, even with only one full day under his belt as president.

“After eight years of laws chipping away at reproductive justice, we’re looking forward to President Obama,” she said. “We’re looking forward to the fact that more women will have access to health care, and that is very hopeful.”

More progress is needed although steps have been taken forward for women, said Shannon Nobles, coordinator for the Michigan Resource Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence.

“I feel like we have come a long way, and we’ve made progress in some aspects, but I really feel like, at least in my personal opinion, we’ve taken a couple of steps back,” Nobles said.

“Sometimes you have to go a couple of steps back. I think especially with the new president and new administration, we’ll definitely be taking big steps forward in the next couple of years.”

Obama’s abortion rights record gives Whitten faith for the reproductive rights of future generations.

“It’s also a promise of hope because the right to choose is something that our mothers and our grandmothers didn’t have,” she said.

“They fought to have better access, to have better choices that we — their daughters, their granddaughters — need to now assume responsibility to protect.”