If you’re a western Massachusetts native, you’ve most likely been to or at least heard of the Big E. Every year around mid-to-late September, The Eastern States Exposition (the Big E), one of the most popular fairs in New England, is held in West Springfield, Massachusetts. The Big E is a fun place to shop, eat and play games if you’re local to the West Springfield area.
The Better Living Center is one of the buildings located on the fairgrounds and features hundreds of unique vendors trying to sell fairgoers their product. One, however, stood out to me, making me wonder why something like this would even be advertised at the Big E: The Massachusetts Citizens For Life (MCFL). The organization had a booth this year, handing out free brochures and pamphlets for the purpose of “educating the public.” This ‘pro-life’ organization based out of Walpole, MA is featured year after year, and 2024 was the first time I saw the booth up close.
The giant “Choose Life” banner above the booth with a picture of a human fetus is enough to make many people walk the other way, especially in the highly blue and progressive state of Massachusetts. Seeing this booth in past years while walking around the Better Living Center only piqued my curiosity. I approached the volunteers running the booth this year, and said I was affiliated with the Massachusetts Daily Collegian and asked if it was okay to take photos. They respectfully agreed, and proceeded to hand me a rubbery model of what a ten-week-old fetus supposedly looks like.
The president of MCFL and I emailed back and forth for about a week, and in the organization’s defense, I never replied to her latest email before going to the Big E to cover the event. I initially reached out via the MCFL website to ask if it was okay to ask if the booth organizers would be willing to be interviewed, or if I could simply chat with one of them. MCFL’s volunteers running the Big E booth are told not to interact with the media, which is understandable considering that their organization directly opposes abortion procedures.
According to the “About” section on MCFL’s website, the organization aims to “restore respect for human life and defend the right to life of all human beings, born and preborn.” Its mission is to “influence public policy at the local, state, and national levels through comprehensive educational, legislative, political, and charitable activities.” Along with being an anti-abortion group, they also oppose euthanasia procedures on the terminally ill and dying.
I would not use “pro-choice” to describe myself and my stance on the hefty ethical and emotionally charged topic of abortion. “Pro-choice” inherently implies that people have autonomy over their own bodies under the law, hence “my body, my choice.” While my stance is heavily pro-choice, it is also pro-abortion. If a pregnant person decides to have an abortion procedure for any reason at all, that is none of my business, and it shouldn’t be anyone else’s, except for a medical doctor who can offer judgment-free advice. That is a decision solely on a pregnant person’s shoulders and should not at all be up to lawmakers or politicians who don’t know someone’s specific case. Abortion is healthcare in my eyes, a procedure that no one should ever feel guilt or shame about.
Now, I’m quite shocked at the Big E’s decision to even give a highly controversial organization like MCFL a platform at the annual fair, nonprofit or not. I will fight for anyone’s right to speak their mind; I believe in the first amendment and freedom of speech and the press. However, I don’t support anyone’s right to harmful free speech, specifically speech aimed at pregnant people seeking an abortion, calling those people “baby killers” and other horrible things in an attempt to harass them out of getting the procedure.
I don’t think anyone from MCFL is trying to harass anyone, but it’s exactly this type of cause and ideology that attempts to sway people’s opinion on an issue that has a very large gray area of opinions to begin with. So does the issue of free speech and expression– anything can be classified under the law as “freedom of speech,” even if it’s factually false.
The Big E has an official Exhibitor Manual that includes its Mission Statement and Statement of Purpose. The Mission Statement is as follows: “Eastern States Exposition is a not-for-profit corporation committed to excellence in providing year-round opportunities for the development and promotion of agriculture, education, industry and family entertainment while preserving our New England heritage.” The Statement of Purpose has four bullet points, the first being the most applicable to my argument: “Eastern States Exposition is organized as a not-for-profit corporation under the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to: 1) Provide an educational experience for urban and rural persons, especially youth, through programs and exhibitions designed to include local and regional participation, demonstration, and competition…”
These quotes, which I pulled directly from the Exhibitor Manual, show why it’s inappropriate to feature an anti-abortion organization. The Big E has plenty of young people attend every year. What exactly is the Big E trying to “educate the youth” on by featuring MCFL’s booth? Teaching a young girl that if she were to get pregnant someday, she has the moral obligation to carry that pregnancy to term whether she wanted to be pregnant or not? Regardless of if her body could or couldn’t of carry or birth a child? It’s this type of indoctrination of the youth that comes with MCFL’s message that I think is too much for a child or even some adults to handle, let alone comprehend.
MCFL’s mission is solely a political stance, as stated on its website. The organization poses as a credible source for legitimate and factual information to try and sway the general public. This tactic works, as MCFL has plenty of donors who keep them financially afloat. If there are enough people in Massachusetts to privately or publicly support MCFL by donating to its cause, the organization would accumulate enough money to pay the Big E to host their booth in the Better Living Center each year; but that’s just speculation, as the MCFL website won’t disclose who funds them.
To understand why the Big E would feature an organization like MCFL in the first place, we have to observe the cultural landscape of western Massachusetts. There are plenty of conservative farmers and agriculturalists from rural Hampden and Hampshire counties for example, but vocal anti-abortion views can come from the left or the right. The Big E, being the “third largest fair in North America,” welcomes political views from all over New England as the organizers have no real policy on what is “education” and what isn’t. That being said, if the Big E received enough negative attention for giving MCFL a platform, they would likely have no choice but to cut the organization from its list of vendors.
At the end of the day, the Big E is somewhere people go to have a good time and enjoy themselves. It should not be a place where people feel uncomfortable with the presence of an organization that aims to give unsolicited advice to people who don’t need it.
Liv Cushman can be reached at [email protected]
