Christen Reighter

Featured Guest Speaker | September 2017 | Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition (in partnership with the United Way) | Amarillo, TX Topic: Societal & medical resources and the implications of being supported vs. silenced with the intention of raising awareness of the prevalence of childfree-inclinations in order to improve support. Audience: Various professionals who encounter teen pregnancy—through prevention, healthcare, providing social or living resources and services, parental-education, and more.

Featured Speaker | October 2016 | TEDxMileHigh Women: It’s About Time | Denver, CO (Description from TED.com) “1 in 5 women in the US will not have a biological child, and Christen Reighter is one of them. From a young age, she knew she didn’t want kids, despite societal and medical resistance. In this powerful talk, she shares her story of seeking sterilization, affirming that motherhood is an extension of womanhood, not the definition.”

Title: "Defending My Bodily Autonomy (And Why I Should Not Have To): Confronting Paternalistic Culture as a Childfree-By-Choice Woman" Featured Session Speaker | November 2015 | ‘Feast of Pleasures and Delights’—North Texas Mensa Regional Gathering | Fort Worth, TX (Description from the conference program) “Who determines what a family looks like? How is a woman’s value and identity quantified? Learn about one woman’s quest and the struggles therein to obtain voluntary surgical sterilization to ensure her desire to maintain a child-free life. Discuss how medical paternalism restricts the bodily autonomy of women in general and how our culture views and condemns child-free women.”