In an era where many marginalized groups fear their fundamental rights being stripped away, Carrie N. Baker’s role as a feminist, advocate for social justice and public writer has become indispensable.
Baker is a scholar by virtue of being the Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman chair of American studies and a professor of women and gender at Smith College. She is also an author and a women’s rights social movement historian. However, she is best known for her more public roles as a contributing editor at Ms. Magazine (a source for feminist news and information), a columnist for The Daily Hampshire Gazette (a news source for the Pioneer Valley) and as a lawyer. Unlike many scholars, Baker often finds a way to keep her scholarly work in alignment with current political climates and more accessible to a public audience.
Baker estimated she has written over 200 public pieces in the past two years. To name a few, Baker is a board member of the Planned Parenthood Advocacy Fund of Massachusetts and the former President and current advisory board member of the Abortion Rights Fund of Western Massachusetts. She also makes herself routinely available for interviews, panels and discussions locally, nationally and globally.
At one point during the interview, Baker paused to tell me, “I know. I do too much.”
As a result of the pressing political climate, both Baker’s public writing and her scholarly attention have turned to the abortion debate. In May of 2022, Baker and Julia Mathis published the study “Barriers to medication abortion among Massachusetts public university students” in the Contraception Journal.: The study gives readers a glimpse into the obstacles that college students in the local community face when trying to access medication abortion services.
Baker knew the broader impact her research would have. This scholarly article was written for a local campaign headed by Lindsay Sabadosa (D), a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Legislation passed in California a few years prior was the inspiration for Baker’s research. Researchers at universities in California helped influence the passing of the nation’s first law requiring public university health centers to offer medication abortion.
Representative Sabadosa explained that the research provided background and perspective for the legislation. The research helped to better frame the question and the problem that University of Massachusetts campuses and Massachusetts State University students face. The framework primarily focused on students’ transportation needs to off-campus clinics, as well as the capacities of campus health centers around providing medication abortion.
Sabadosa reflected on how “there is often legislation filed that is a solution in search of a problem. We wanted to underscore that there is actually a problem that needed a solution, so the research and Carrie were instrumental in that piece.”
Two months after the research publication, on Friday, July 29, 2022, a law was signed into effect. A section of the law requires public colleges and universities in Massachusetts to provide students with access to medication abortion through their campus health services or other immediately accessible local resources. Baker recounted how the research was routinely referenced in almost every stage of the process.
Baker’s intellectual beginnings are familiar to many of us. In undergrad as a senior philosophy major, Baker was not sure what the world had in store for her post-graduation. It was on a whim senior year that she embarked on her journey of fighting for gender equality.
Baker shared that being a deep thinker and questioner is what originally led her to be a philosophy major, which later also helped her in the pursuit of law. At the time she felt a lot of pushback against the ideals of the old white men. She reminisced how she finally felt like she had found her people in her intro to women’s study course.
Baker’s study focuses on 13 college campuses in Massachusetts. The research is not meant to be applied more broadly. It shows specifically what barriers exist in accessing medication abortion. The following data was gathered (contingent upon current female enrollment at a university): medication abortions per month, travel time, costs, wait times and insurance accepted at off-campus abortion facilities in proximity to the public university. Each clinic within a certain proximity was called to directly ask questions about cost and wait times.
The results of monthly usage were estimated based on age, college and state abortion rates, which indicated that between 600 and 1380 medication abortions are obtained each year on these campuses. The average travel distance is 18 miles. The average public transportation time is 103 minutes. The first available appointment is sometime within eight days. And the average cost is $680. The results confirm that public university students in Massachusetts experience barriers in accessing medication abortion healthcare.
Not every scholarly or public piece has the potential to help constitute laws, but as Baker fundamentally sees it, “[Writing has] been a way I have been able to process what is happening in the country and been able to fight back.”
Baker involves hereself in social justice movements and scholarly work surrounding the topics of abortion, violence against women and the Equal Rights Amendment.
Baker’s public advocacy for women’s rights is informed by her legal and historical background and her scholarly work is informed by her passions for social justice and equity. Baker exemplifies how an intersection between the public and scholarly selves can result in more broadly impactful and meaningful results.
