About URGE
URGE envisions a liberated world where we can live with justice, love freely, express our gender and sexuality, and define and create families of our choosing. Young people today – a majority of whom are Black, Indigenous, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, or Latinx/a – are on the frontlines of the fight for Reproductive Justice: organizing, educating, shifting culture, and building power with URGE.
As a state-driven national organization, URGE builds power and sustains a young people’s movement for Reproductive Justice by centering the leadership of young people of color who are women, queer, trans, nonbinary, and people of low-income.
URGE focuses on policy advocacy, organizing, and voter engagement in states where the challenges and opportunities are greatest, with deep investment in Alabama, California, Georgia, Kansas, Ohio, and Texas.
From increasing youth voter engagement to engaging young people in policy advocacy, from organizing to shifting culture in our communities and online, URGE has cemented our reputation as innovative, impactful, and fearless in our fight for Reproductive Justice.
Introduction
Young people have always been a force to be reckoned with, fueling the flame for change. They know what is needed for their liberation, and they have the vision to shape our collective futures.
From voter engagement to student activism, civic education, protest movements, grassroots organizing, and influential digital campaigns, young people have moved the needle on policy time and time again. Young Black, Indigenous, Latinx/a, Asian and Pacific Islander folks; lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex folks; immigrants; low-income people; and other young people impacted by systems of oppression in particular have pushed the United States towards greater equity.
Millennials and Gen Z are an extremely diverse population with hope in their power as a collective. With 74%* of young people saying they plan to vote in the 2024 presidential election,1 motivated to make their voices heard – individually and as a voting bloc — there is no doubt they will be effecting change on issues that matter to their communities. We must take their perspectives seriously.
Since URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity first released the Young People’s Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda in 2020,2 young people have continued to demonstrate their immovable commitment to advancing justice, challenging barriers to voting, disproving cultural narratives about their political indifference, and pushing for actualized change in an economically-driven political system where corporations are king. At the core of the Reproductive Justice framework is that we all have personal bodily autonomy and the human right to have children, to not have children, and to nurture the children we have in a safe and healthy environment.3 In spite of the long list of formidable foes and barriers, young people continue to envision their collective “liberation” – a world where each of us can live, love, create families, and express our genders and sexualities with power, joy, and without stigma, scarcity, or interference.
The wave of positive policy changes at the local and state level has reflected their efforts. Since 2020:
While we are invigorated by these wins, we know that with each wave of progress comes an extremist backlash.
The 2024 Young People’s Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda builds upon a 2020 agenda that was developed through a significant stakeholder engagement process. This updated version acknowledges how in a short time, major events – in our case the COVID-19 pandemic, several significant Supreme Court decisions, and multiple mass uprisings – can significantly shift the policy landscape.
While the Young People's Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda covers several issue areas and topics, it is not an exhaustive list of all the issues and topics that are important to young people. It represents perspectives that have emerged through additional public opinion polling of young people, as well as key points of policy advocacy from within URGE and the Reproductive Justice movement. We share this agenda as a foundation for young people’s liberation and to serve as a starting point for policymakers who want to engage with young people in moving us closer to Reproductive Justice.
The Issues
Issue 1: Accessing Abortion Without Barriers
Each of us should have the rights, resources, and support to decide whether and when to become parents and that includes safe and accessible abortion care. Unfortunately, decades of restrictive laws enacted at the state and federal level, along with the fall of Roe, have resulted in inequitable access, particularly for Black, Indigenous, Latinx/a, Asian and Pacific Islander young people, LGBTQIA+ communities, and low-income people. Despite this reality, the majority of Americans believe abortion should be legal and available in our communities without barriers or stigma,10 and 90% of young adults (18-30 years old) do not want to see the right to abortion threatened.11 To bring us closer to young people’s liberation, we need policies that ensure anyone who needs an abortion can get one safely, affordably, and without stigma or criminalization.
Expand Health Coverage for Abortion Care
Lack of insurance coverage for abortion can be the difference between someone getting the care they need or having it denied altogether. Restricting insurance coverage of abortion denies people the ability to make decisions about their health and future.
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Increase Real Access to Abortion
Abortion is not available to huge areas of the country due to the criminalization of providers and intrusive abortion restrictions, like arbitrary gestational bans. This disproportionately impacts Indigenous communities, people of color, people who live in rural areas, low-income people, LGBTQIA+ people, and immigrants.
End Criminalization of Abortion and Abortion Care
With the overturning of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision, there’s been an increase in the criminalization of pregnant people – with people of color, immigrants, and low-income people disproportionately targeted. Each of us should have the right to access abortion care without government interference.
Support Young People’s Autonomy and Right to Self-Determination
Young people are fully capable of making decisions about what is best for their bodies. Unfortunately, parental involvement laws, requiring a young person to notify or obtain consent from their parents before they can receive abortion care, often delay or prevent young people from accessing care and put their health and safety at risk. Most young people involve their parents when making decisions about their health, including abortion, but we know that’s not always possible.
Remove Barriers to Safe and Effective Medication Abortion Care
Medication abortion, most commonly performed by taking a two-pill regimen of mifepristone and misoprostol, is an FDA-approved method of ending a pregnancy; it is safe, effective, and an increasingly popular method of abortion care. Unfortunately, policies enacted by anti-abortion politicians have made it difficult for health care providers to prescribe and for people to obtain medication abortion in-person at health care clinics and via telehealth.
Ensure Access to Accurate Information About Abortion
Anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers,” which often receive public funding, use deceptive practices to shame, delay, and prevent people from accessing abortion care.
With the overturning of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision, there’s been an increase in the criminalization of pregnant people – with people of color, immigrants, and low-income people disproportionately targeted. Each of us should have the right to access abortion care without government interference.
Issue 2: Supporting Trans, Intersex, and Queer Young People
Lawmakers across the country are introducing and passing legislation aimed at denying queer and trans young people access to healthcare and the ability to fully participate in public life.12 Moreover, these harmful policies are crafted with the goal of alienating these young people and obliterating their systems of support. Healthcare providers, parents, teachers, and other supportive adults are being criminalized and face the threat of losing their licenses, jobs, or custody rights. These attacks, coupled with transphobic and anti-queer rhetoric, create a hostile and unsafe environment that also infringes on young people’s autonomy and privacy. However, young people 18-30 years old primarily believe that politicians should not focus on these issues, and further, should do more to protect the rights of trans people.13 It’s critical that lawmakers repeal laws that only serve to discriminate and stigmatize and enact evidence-based policies that support and prioritize the health, safety, and needs of transgender, intersex, and queer young people. This type of approach is rooted in science and has the support of major medical organizations like the American Medical Association (AMA), the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP).
Access to Gender Affirming Care
Everyone deserves access to quality and affordable medical care, no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation. Policies that prohibit access to gender-affirming care for young people and impose penalties on healthcare professionals who provide it go against extensive scientific research and put patients’ health and wellbeing at risk. Intersex folks still face surgeries and other invasive medical treatments without consent. LGBTQIA+ people face discrimination, stigma, lack of insurance coverage, and other systemic barriers when trying to access the care they need to lead healthy lives. Many gender-affirming care practices are closing due to fears of encroaching anti-trans healthcare laws and pressure by state lawmakers on facilities that receive state funding, resulting in a public health crisis for trans and non-binary people in many states.
Expand Gender Markers and Ensure LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Forms
Having legal identity documents that accurately reflect one’s name and gender identity is essential to one’s ability to obtain healthcare, employment, and housing, travel freely, and access public programs and spaces. This is especially true for transgender individuals who are facing increasing discrimination, harassment, and attacks. Inclusive forms are also essential to support research and funding to support LGBTQIA+ people.
Support LGBTQIA+ Young People's Participation in Sports
Studies show that youth who participate in organized sports gain more than just physical benefits; they also have lower rates of anxiety and depression, higher self-esteem and confidence, and higher levels of academic achievement.14 Unfortunately, a history of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia in organized sports has meant sports, including youth sports, haven't always been welcoming and inclusive. Today, anti-LGBTQIA+ politicians who are pushing legislation aimed at prohibiting trans young people from participating in sports at their schools are relying on the same harmful and false tropes to exclude them simply because of who they are.
Issue 3: Realizing the Potential of Our Democracy
The right to vote – and make our voices heard – is the cornerstone of our democracy. Unfortunately, millions of Americans have never been able to fully exercise their right to vote because of decades of deliberate voter suppression and disenfranchisement laws that target historically marginalized communities, including Black, Indigenous, and other young people of color. Our ability to vote and to have our votes count is even more important as the integrity of elections is under attack. We cannot be a truly free society until everyone can meaningfully participate in the democratic process.
Make it Easier to Vote
Voting should be accessible to everyone who wants to participate. Outdated and burdensome voting registration requirements and systems create obstacles that prevent people from voting.
End Voter Suppression Measures
In the last twenty years, states have enacted arbitrary requirements and severe penalties that not only make it difficult for people to vote but also criminalize and create a chilling effect among communities of color. Strict voter ID laws, restrictions on voter registration, prohibiting the distribution of food or water to voters waiting in line at polling places, criminalizing innocent mistakes made while voting, and felony disenfranchisement laws are examples of policies aimed at preventing people from participating in our democracy.
Disrupt and Dismantle Undemocratic Institutions
For too long, archaic tools and rules like the filibuster, electoral college, gerrymandering, and an illegitimate court have allowed minority rule to prevail over the will of the people, undermining our democratic process.
Issue 4: Access to Healthcare and Comprehensive Sex Education
Every young person should have access to affordable, quality, healthcare and comprehensive LGBTQIA+ inclusive sexual health information and services in their communities. Unfortunately, discriminatory policies and lack of sufficient funding means young people are denied the rights, resources, and respect needed to live and make informed and independent decisions about their sexual and reproductive lives. We need policies that give young people information and resources so they can lead full and healthy lives with dignity and autonomy.
Provide Universal and Free Healthcare that Offers Full Coverage
Each person should be able to get the care they need to lead healthy lives no matter how much money they earn, where they live, or what insurance they have. Unfortunately, our current healthcare system prioritizes profits, leaving many without affordable or meaningful insurance coverage to essential services like HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, contraception, mental health care, the full range of pregnancy and postpartum care, and gender-affirming care.
Fund Programs that Support Equitable Health and Wellbeing
While we’ve made great strides in medicine, women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals and other marginalized communities continue to be disproportionately impacted by health conditions like HIV and AIDS, maternal mortality, and addiction.
Expand Access to Contraceptive Care
When someone is seeking contraceptive care, they should have easy access to the full range of services along with accurate information and counseling from a nearby trained provider. Unfortunately, lack of awareness, prohibitive costs, a shortage of trained providers, and reproductive coercion make it difficult for people to obtain contraception care. This disproportionately impacts people of color, migrants, and Indigenous people on reservations.
Ensure Health Equity for Immigrants
Every person should have the health coverage and resources they need to lead healthy lives no matter who they are or where they’re from. Discriminatory policies deny immigrants access to public programs or impose delays that inhibit their ability to access healthcare.
Support Comprehensive, Medically Accurate, LGBTQIA+ Inclusive Sexuality Education Programs
A vital element of health and wellness for young people includes medically accurate and age-appropriate material that includes information about abstinence, as well as condoms and contraception, to reduce the risk of unintended pregnancy and transmission of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV. Comprehensive sex ed also incorporates interpersonal and communication skills and helps young people explore their own values, goals, and options, and is inclusive to LGBTQIA+ individuals.
Achieve Menstrual Equity
People who menstruate need access to affordable and toxin-free menstrual products so they can fully and equally participate in school, work, and society. However, policies that tax essential menstrual products as “luxury items” make it financially challenging for young people to access products to manage their periods.
End Shackling of Pregnant Incarcerated People
The use of shackling on incarcerated people during pregnancy, labor and delivery, transportation, and postpartum recovery is an unconscionable practice and clear human rights violation. Leading experts including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), American Medical Association (AMA), and American Public Health Association oppose shackling as it interferes with the ability of clinicians to safely practice medicine, violates professional principles of justice and ethics, and puts the health of the pregnant person and fetus at risk.
Issue 5: Transforming Our Economy so Young People Can Thrive
Deciding when and how to have children is an economic justice issue. People should be able to decide if they want to have children based on their vision for their families and future – not because they can’t afford to have and raise them. For young people especially, crushing student debt, a lack of good jobs, and the high cost of living make it difficult for them to meet their basic human needs or build for the future. To achieve young people’s liberation, we must adopt policies that ensure we have equal access to employment, livable wages, and the healthcare we need to thrive.
Support Economic Security
People are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet due to the high cost of living. As prices surge and wages remain stagnant, people are being forced to take on additional jobs and choose between essentials like groceries and rent to survive.
Raise the Minimum Wage
A fundamental cause of social inequity is our capitalist economic system which prioritizes increased corporate profit margins over the wellbeing of workers. Young people across the country are working multiple jobs and side hustles in order to support themselves and their families.
Expand Paid Family and Medical Leave Policies
Paid leave policies allow workers to meet their health, safety, and family needs without jeopardizing their economic security. The United States is one of the only remaining countries to not guarantee paid family leave; there is no federal law that provides a right to paid family or medical leave and only a minority of states provide these protections.
Support Work-Family Justice
Job discrimination remains a persistent reality for many workers in the United States, especially for women, pregnant workers, caregivers, and LGBTQIA+ workers.
Access to Higher Education
Everyone should have the ability to continue their education after high school, whether at a community college, university, or technical training center. However, today it’s nearly impossible to afford the skyrocketing cost of college tuition, forcing students to rely on loans that come with high interest rates.
Reform Government Support Programs
Public safety net programs, like Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are vital lifelines for people with low income. However, rules that restrict eligibility based on immigration status or condition benefits based on a person’s decision to have additional children are rooted in faulty and racist assumptions.
Support Pregnant, Expectant, and Parenting Young People
Young people who are expecting or parenting face many barriers and discrimination. It is critical that they receive support so they can have healthy pregnancies, raise their children, continue their education, and participate in the workforce.
Issue 6: Creating Safe and Healthy Communities
The ability to live safely in one’s community is one of the most basic elements of a dignified life. However, across the United States, young people – particularly young women, young people of color, immigrant youth, and LGBTQIA+ youth – are faced with active threats to their safety: sexual violence, discriminatory policing, immigration enforcement, and environmental degradation are daily and persistent in young people’s lives. To ensure the safety of all young people, we need policies that support healthy and safe families and communities.
Support Gun Violence Prevention
Gen Z is known as the “lockdown generation.” With mass shootings an almost daily occurrence and guns leading to deaths in domestic violence and suicide, the vast majority of young people believe that gun violence is a problem. There is broad agreement that stricter gun laws could help reduce gun violence.15
Invest in Safe Communities
Policing in the United States has driven mass incarceration and traumatized and harmed communities of color, particularly Black communities. Instead of ever-increasing funding for harmful policing, we need policies that reduce the size of the police state and prison industrial complex, and instead invest in community wellness.
Advocate for Environmental Justice
Though they have little hand in creating the impending climate catastrophe, young people of color – both in the United States and across the globe – are bearing the brunt of this man-made disaster.
Support LGBTQIA+ Parents and Diverse Family Structures
Because there are no federal or state (and very few local) protections for real or perceived relationship and family structures, stigmatized structures may be used against parents in custody proceedings. Many families do not fit into the “nuclear” mold, including multi-partner families, single parents, stepfamilies, LGBTQIA+ kinship networks, multi-generational households, and other relationships. Most nondiscrimination laws were drafted prior to the recognition of such family and relationship structures which leaves folks vulnerable to discrimination in housing, employment, business, services, and many other systemic shortcomings.
Support Survivors of Sexual, Intimate Partner, and Gender-Based Violence
Survivors of rape, sexual assault, domestic/intimate partner violence, and hate crimes deserve access to trauma-informed resources that support their healing and overall physical and mental health.
End Discriminatory Criminalization
People of color, immigrants, low-income people, and LGBTQIA+ individuals, and sex workers are more vulnerable to reproductive and sexual criminalization due to decades of systemic racism, reproductive oppression, and transphobia. These populations are more often investigated, detained, and arrested by the police, with trans women of color often accused of sex work even when not engaged–just walking while trans. Alternatively having to rely on survival methods like sex work when discriminated against in other facets of their lives leads to devastating impacts on their health and livelihoods.
Conclusion
There is no one policy – not even one policy area – that will usher in an era of Reproductive Justice and liberation. And young people are not a monolith; there are as many different perspectives on the issues and ideas for change as there are young people in this country. At the heart of this vision for Reproductive Justice are the voices of URGE chapter leaders and young people engaged in their communities. It represents young people living in big cities, small towns, and rural parts of the country.
URGE envisions a liberated world where we can live with justice, love freely, express our gender and sexuality, and define and create families of our choosing. This policy agenda is not exhaustive, and the policy areas do not stand alone; each issue is inextricably bound with the other, as much as our individual liberation is inextricably bound up with that of our communities.
It is our hope that the Young People's Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda will fuel the flame for change with young people – it is a tool for liberation!
Policymakers: This is the future, and we invite you to join us in building it.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to URGE staff, board, chapter members, volunteers, and partners for your leadership and commitment to Reproductive Justice!
This report was developed through a collaborative effort across URGE departments. Staff that provided insight and support towards the creation of the Young People’s Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda include:
Kimberly Inez McGuire, Executive Director
Hope L. Jackson, JD, Deputy Director of Programs & Policy
Rebekah Spicuglia, Communications Director
Austin Roark, Alabama Policy & Movement Building Director
Ainslee Johnson-Brown, Ohio Policy & Movement Building Director
Jen Miller, Senior Communications Manager
Aleo Pugh, Georgia Communications & Cultural Strategies Manager
Jasmine Dean, Communications Manager
Kai Gurley, Deputy Director for Resource Development
Patricia Munoz-Chernitsky, Deputy Director of Finance and Administration
We’d like to acknowledge the contributions of Winnie Ye; Lydia Stuckey; Diana Adams, Chosen Family Law Center; Mo and Jasmine Banks, Designers; and the team at Global Office Consulting for their writing, editing, and design assistance. Additionally, URGE is grateful for the contributions of those who worked on URGE’s 2020 Young People’s Policy Agenda, which this builds upon.
Endnotes
1 2024 National Public Opinion Survey of 18-30 Year Olds on Civic Engagement and Reproductive Justice. HIT Strategies on behalf of URGE. March 2024.
2 Young People’s Reproductive Justice Policy Agenda. URGE. April 2020.
3 “What is Reproductive Justice?” SisterSong. Accessed February 2024.
4 Addressing Abortion Access through State Ballot Initiatives. By Mabel Felix, Laurie Sobel, and Alina Salganicoff. Kaiser Family Foundation. February 9, 2024.
5 Arkansas, Missouri (August 2020 ballot), North Carolina, Oklahoma (June 2020 ballot), South Dakota (November 2022 ballot). Status of State Medicaid Expansion Decisions: Interactive Map. Kaiser Family Foundation. February 7, 2024.
6 “What is the Tampon Tax.” Alliance for Period Supplies. Accessed February 2024.
7 Michigan (2023), Minnesota (2023), Utah (2023), Virginia (2020); Arizona (2023), North Dakota (2021), Pennsylvania (2022), Wisconsin (2021). LGBTQ Youth: Conversion “Therapy” Laws. Movement Advancement Project. Updated November 23, 2023.
8 State Voting Laws. The Brennan Center for Justice. Accessed February 2024.
9 Florida (November 2020), Nebraska (November 2022), Nevada (November 2022). Voters Turned Out for Economic Justice: A Review of Key Ballot Measures from the 2022 Midterm Elections. By Nina Mast, Lea Woods, and Jennifer Sherer. November 17, 2022. Working Economics Blog. Economic Policy Institute.
10 Public Opinion on Abortion. Pew Research Center. May 17, 2022.
11 2024 National Public Opinion Survey of 18-30 Year Olds on Civic Engagement and Reproductive Justice. HIT Strategies on behalf of URGE. March 2024.
12 National Survey on Opinion about Transgender Topics. Data For Progress. March 26, 2023.
13 2024 National Public Opinion Survey of 18-30 Year Olds on Civic Engagement and Reproductive Justice. HIT Strategies on behalf of URGE. March 2024.
14 Benefits of Youth Sports. President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition Science Board. September 17, 2020.
15 Youth Attitudes on Guns. Everytown for Gun Safety. July 24, 2023.