Funding Area: Health
Jane’s Due Process helps young people in Texas navigate parental consent laws and confidentially access abortion and birth control. We provide free legal support, 1-on-1 case management, and stigma-free information on sexual and reproductive health.
Our work includes:
- Legal support and 1-on-1 case management for Texas teens obtaining judicial bypass.
- Text line for young people needing information on birth control and family planning services without parental involvement.
- Advocating for and centering the voices of young people in the fight for reproductive rights.
We are working towards a future where young people in Texas have full reproductive freedom and autonomy over their healthcare decisions.
Our involvement: The Marty Tomberg Charitable Fund has financially supported this organization.
Projects We Support
Youth Power for Reproductive Rights
This project will engage young people to advocate for their reproductive rights during the 2021 Texas legislative session. Young people face many unique barriers to reproductive healthcare, especially in states like Texas with parental consent laws. Even within the movement for reproductive freedom, young people’s reproductive rights and access are sometimes stigmatized or ignored. Teens deserve the right and ability to make decisions for their own bodies and futures. We know from almost 20 years of working with teens that these laws create dangerous situations for young people who are often already experiencing systemic oppression and are deeply marginalized by society. Parental consent laws disproportionately impact young Black, Indigenous, and people of color. These laws further criminalize teens and families that already experience oppression in the criminal justice system. We have designed this project to center the young people most impacted by parental consent laws for abortion and birth control in Texas. We seek to build and center their leadership within the reproductive health, rights, and justice movements.
We will recruit at least three Youth Advocacy Fellows during the 2021 Texas legislative session, which runs from January 12th through May 31st. Given COVID-19 and 2021 redistricting process, we also anticipate extended special sessions being called after May 31st by our Governor. These young people will work with the program manager to design our advocacy agenda for the session. The advocacy agenda will be how we educate legislators and the public as we seek to eventually repeal parental involvement laws. The program manager will provide organizing education, training, and support. This includes how to develop advocacy priorities, campaign tactics, and power mapping. The program manager will strategize with the fellows on how to engage with legislators, the press, and community members. The youth fellows will gain experience with digital organizing, communications, and public testimony. The program manager will act as a mentor, a guide, and a support, but the power will reside with the fellows. All the youth fellows will be former Jane’s Due Process clients. We will recruit former clients who have indicated an interest in advocacy work and feel safe speaking publicly about their experiences seeking abortion and birth control in Texas. Some of the fellows may be young people who have already engaged in other advocacy activities with us and are seeking to build on that experience with even more in-depth organizing.
Support Dates: March, 2021 – March, 2022
