AUGUSTA, Maine — For the 33rd time, the Maine Women's Hall of Fame inducted a new class on March 19, 2022. The Saturday ceremony was held at the University of Maine at Augusta campus.
Julia "Judy" Kahrl, an activist for women's autonomy and freedom to make their own health care choices, and NASA astronaut Jessica Meir were the two women named to this year's class of inductees.
“I am deeply honored and really humbled by joining this group of very distinguished women," Kahrl said before the ceremony. “I still can’t believe it, in a way, because it’s just an amazing group of women to be with.”
For decades, Karhl fought for reproductive freedoms for women in Maine. In later years, she founded the organization Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights.
She said her father was a pioneer in advocating for those freedoms, and they were dinner conversation for years when she was a kid. Now, she admitted, it's time for her to lay down the torch, but she said she is confident the next generation of Maine women will pick it up.
“If young people want to have a say in how they have access to sexual and reproductive health care, the whole spectrum, they need to become active," she said. "It’s not talked about enough, and it’s not seen enough as basic to so many of the policies that we have."
Caribou native and scientist Jessica Meir was the second woman inducted to the Hall of Fame Saturday.
Meir is best known for her time working as a NASA astronaut. During her months-long stay aboard the International Space Station, she was part of the first all-women spacewalk.
Meir spoke at the event virtually and said she doesn't recall one specific moment from her childhood that made her want to become an astronaut but added that growing up spending time outside in Aroostook County may have helped.
"I believe that emergent of that local, natural beauty of our planet was at least partially responsible for stimulating my inquisitive nature about the world around me and fueling my scientific curiosity and passion to explore," Meir said during her remarks.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a 2019 inductee to the Hall of Fame, spoke at Saturday's event.