Life

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.

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