Julia Reticker-Flynn is the Youth Activist Network Manager at Advocates for Youth, where she works with young people across the country to advocate for cultural and policy change that supports young people’s sexual health and rights. Since starting at Advocates in 2010 she has trained over one thousand young people on grassroots organizing skills, mobilized thousands to take action on federal policy initiatives to protect young people’s sexual health and rights, and launched the 1 in 3 campaign to destigmatize abortion and promote access to abortion services.
By sharing their stories, young people are creating spaces where we as a society can think about issues in terms of people’s realities and not political debates. Stories dispel myths, break down stereotypes, humanize issues, and invoke empathy and urgency, inspiring people who heard them to take action.
It is time to put to rest the questioning about Millennials and whether they care about access to safe abortion care. It is time to get to work.
In her bizarre statement announcing this decision, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius effectively blames young women for her own political cowardice, saying we can’t be sure that younger women will understand how to take Plan B One-Step effective. (HINT: It involves taking one pill. That’s why it’s called Plan B One-Step.)
