Have Period, Will Rally: Let Young Women Speak for Ourselves about Abortion Rights

By Erin Matson, NOW Action Vice President

I am shaking with anger.

Newsweek is bringing that same tired old narrative back:

Young women don’t care about abortion rights.

The only visible women fighting for reproductive justice belong to a “menopausal militia.”

Young women don’t understand what older generations have done for them.

Young women need to be educated about what is at stake.

Young women are not passionate about abortion rights.

Once again, the media is making this claim without interviewing a single young woman.

News flash:

Young women are absolutely fired up about abortion rights. We believe in full reproductive justice.

We do phone-a-thons for abortion rights. We escort outside clinics. We write op-eds. We are on TV. We are all over the Internet.

We organize rallies and marches around the country. We bring pro-choice license plates to states as conservative as Virginia.

We create Twitter petitions when Newsweek publishes an irresponsible story.

We are transforming the reproductive justice movement in partnership with older women. We are intersectional, inclusive, and don’t use cliches like “political football” and “bargaining chip” to describe our fundamental human rights.

We are not cliches.

We are not invisible.

We are available to be interviewed the next time you wish to write about us.

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