Young Abortion-Rights Advocates — We’re Everywhere
By Sarah Seltzer April 23, 2010
I appreciate the frustration fellow Sisterhood blogger Debra Nussbaum Cohen expresses at this critical juncture for reproductive rights. I also worry all the time that pro-choicers are losing the national battle over abortion rights. But as a twenty-something feminist, I don’t have to look far to find my peers — and I certainly wouldn’t blame them for our precarious perch.
No, I’m not necessarily going to find my fellow young feminists at a NARAL or NOW meeting (although NOW does have a fantastic young women’s task forcein NYC). Instead I’m going to find them online, on Twitter, at local events and readings, and when there’s a big rally, you bet they’ll be there. Many of many of my peers of color and other forward-thinking feminists have actively chosen to lead Reproductive Justice organizations. These organizations work at the intersection of many pressing social issues, promoting an agenda that includes reproductive rights, but goes beyond them. Dozens of my peers are bowling for abortion access this weekend.
And countless younger women responded online to the Newsweek article lamenting their absence from the movement. Here are a few:
• Dear NARAL and Newsweek: I am a Young Feminist and I Care
• Youth Activism: It Totally Exists on Its Own Terms, and That’s Fine
• Desperately Seeking Young Feminists
Personally, I choose not to be a member of the big feminist organizations because when I have money to give to the cause, I give it directly to Planned Parenthood. But I do spend a rather unfathomably huge amount of my life tweeting, blogging, and gathering to discuss and opine about reproductive rights, mixing cultural commentary with the protection of women’s bodily autonomy. And I’m not alone: it’s a crowded field. There are so many young feminist writers that we’ve swelled the ranks of the [Women, Action and the Media organization] (http://www.womenactionmedia.org/) with our enthusiastic presence.
We are everywhere, and when our rights are threatened, we mobilize. Instead of constantly berating our so-called apathy, I again believe that mainstream organizations need to harness the incredible energy found locally and on the internet.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
