Congratulations. Words seem too small to express the historic nature of this election. A country founded on and formed by racial slavery and genocide has elected a person of color to its highest office. The fight for racial justice continues, but this is a vital moment in our national story.
And now the real work begins.
Young voters supported you by an astounding margin, over two to one. Perhaps more importantly, youths played a crucial role in your grassroots-style campaign. A new generation of organizers has been activated, and not a moment too soon.
The past eight years have been devastating for human rights in the US and abroad. The neoconservative Christian fundamentalist agenda has attacked the reproductive rights and health of young people, a crucial part of any comprehensive human rights framework. Mr. President-elect, we need you as an ally in our quest for Reproductive Justice.
Federally funded abstinence only programs have left a generation unprepared to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive health. In this election young people have shown themselves to be highly motivated critical thinkers. Mr. Obama, we need you to fulfill your promise of providing federally funded comprehensive sexuality education that respects our intelligence and ability to make decisions for ourselves.
We’ve also seen federal funds funneled into Crisis Pregnancy Centers, far right religious organizations that often deliberately mislead women in order to prevent them from pursuing and obtaining abortions. It’s time to start trusting people to make their own decisions about their health, and to make available the necessary resources, including contraception and birth control, so those decisions can be informed and based on the a wide range of available options.
The attack on reproductive health has been part of a broader attack on the well being of Americans. Too many young people do not have the option of making the choices they want to about their health because they cannot afford medical care. Healthcare should be, must be a human right. This country is long overdue for a truly universal healthcare system. In a time of economic crisis the ability to afford medical care should never be a question. No one should ever have to worry about being able to obtain the reproductive healthcare they need.
Reproductive Justice is about more than access to quality care and prevention methods, though. Intersections of oppression along lines of gender, race, class, ability, geography, and immigration status negatively affect the reproductive health of so many young people. Environmental degradation isn’t just about moose – the harm we are doing to our environment has a huge negative effect on our health, and hurts those with the least relative power and privilege first and most dramatically. We need the right to have children, too. This is impossible when, for example, indigenous women find themselves unable to conceive or giving birth to children who are sick because of environmental toxins. Racist anti-immigrant sentiment and laws puts the health of undocumented immigrants at risk. We need you to be a president who will think about the impact to our reproductive health of every major issue that crosses your desk.
The past eight years have hurt us, but this movement has been fighting an uphill battle for a lot longer than that. For over thirty years we have watched as the right to have an abortion has been limited more and more. If young women can’t afford the procedure what good does that right do them? It’s time, finally time, to repeal the Hyde Amendment. It’s time to trust women to make decisions about their own bodies, not to limit when medical care should and should not be available based on moralistic ideas that ignore lived experience. Choice needs to be possible.
Despite legislation like the Violence Against Women Act, the nightmare of sexual violence has not gone away. Instead, such policies have led to a massive prison system that does nothing to make people safer, and in fact has the opposite effect. While we debate marriage rights, queer and trans youth are dying in cold blood. We need radical new ideas about how to address violence in a way that does not resort to government violence, to fundamentally change our culture.
US policy has a large impact on people the world over. War in Afghanistan and Iraq makes even the idea of reproductive and sexual freedom impossible for so many people. Mr. President-elect, end these wars.
And end the Global Gag Rule. Please, let healthcare providers do their jobs.
Mr. Obama, the challenges you face as you prepare to take office are daunting. I was grateful you recognized this in your acceptance speech, and heartened by your openness to hear from your constituents about our needs, our desires, our hopes. The above are just some of the issues my friends and I care deeply about. In the next few weeks, months, and years you’ll be hearing a lot more from us about these and other concerns.
The pro-choice youth of the US have a clear picture of what we want our future to be and are not afraid to demand of government what we need to realize that vision. I look forward to working with you, to an impassioned debate of ideas, to forming a government and culture in the business of ensuring human rights for all. Watch and listen, Mr. President-elect, and work with us, as a movement of young people turns our dream of Reproductive Freedom into reality.
