Em-URGE-ing Voices

4 Ways to Navigate Educational Privilege as a First-Generation College Student

“One of the most rewarding things I did during college was start and lead a feminist activist group on campus. Do what you can, when you can – from calling out and confronting elitism in the classroom to more seriously pursuing the niche of social justice that calls to you most. It all matters and it all counts. Here are a few ideas to get you started: Start or Join an Intersectional Feminist Student Organization: URGE (Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity) is an amazing organization dedicated to young activists like you. With their help, it’s easy to start an URGE chapter and apply an intersectional feminist lens to your campus and community organizing.”

Horrific Gang Rape At UVA Reopens The Debate About Whether We Should Ban Frats

So far, most activists and survivor-led groups on campus aren’t calling for that. Kierra Johnson, the executive director of Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE) — a group that engages campus leaders on issues of sex, health, and wellness — told ThinkProgress she doesn’t know of any colleges that have an active campaign to ban fraternal life. At UVA specifically, a petition demanding reforms that’s garnered thousands of signatures calls for Phi Kappa Psi to be shuttered, but doesn’t seek to crack down on other fraternities or sororities. Instead, the students involved with URGE are mostly working on efforts to engage the Greek community in consent education and bystander intervention efforts. Thanks to a renewed national focus on issues of campus sexual assault — and particularly on men’s role in creating a culture where sexual violence is… Read more »

URGE Conference at Alabama

Kemi Oso, Southern States field associate for URGE, said the purpose of the conference was to show that the current generation of college students isn’t apathetic about these issues by building support among each other and developing leadership skills. “I feel like one of the most important things we discussed is that there is more to reproductive justice than abortion, and that these issues are based in larger structures such as racism, classism and sexism,” Oso said.

We Know College Feminists Care About Sexual Assault. But What About Abortion?

“Kierra Johnson, executive director of URGE, a national campus organization committed to reproductive and gender equity, says that the leaders of many URGE chapters tend to focus on sexual assault because there is less official support for abortion work, even when a group is affiliated with a campus women’s center. “We might be able to push for more access to contraception,” Johnson says. “But the more the conversation centers around abortion, the more uncomfortable the administration is with getting behind it. Regardless of how people feel about abortion, when you talk about it, it charges an environment, and that’s the last thing campus administrators want.”

The Growing Push To End A Decades-Old Policy That Denies Women Their Abortion Rights

“People are definitely uneducated about this, and when they hear about it, it really makes them angry,” Kierra Johnson, the executive director for URGE, one of the national groups that helped organize the recent bus tour, told ThinkProgress in an interview. “I think, often, Americans don’t know how far-reaching this policy goes.” Johnson is referring to the Hyde Amendment, which marks its 38th birthday on Tuesday. That policy, abudget rider that’s been renewed in each federal spending bill since 1976, prohibits federal funding from covering abortion services. That prevents low-income women from using their Medicaid plans to pay for the procedure, and has spawned similar restrictions banning abortion coverage for government employees, Peace Corps volunteers, federal inmates, military personnel, and Native American women.

GET THE URGE TO BE INVOLVED

“In the midst of several active and rising feminist forces on CSULB’s campus, Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity (URGE for short) has begun to make its mark at several school events. Formerly Choice USA, URGE rebranded this summer following the Western Regional Conference in Long Beach’s own Hotel Current. Since the emergence of the new title, URGE board members Nathalia Diaz, Karina Sarabia, Dana Kerns, and Nathan Sollenberger have focused to create an inclusive space for all those involved in the reproductive justice movement.”

Reclaiming Our Rights: Going Proactive to End Discriminatory Abortion Restriction

The debate over abortion access is longstanding, and all around the country people are fighting back regressive policies that would continue to chip away at our steadily diminishing access to reproductive health care. Now we are taking matters into our own hands. Last year, more than fifteen organizations joined URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity to come together and made a commitment not just to defend against the tidal wave of restrictions, but to work together to actually move forward in securing support in favor of coverage of abortion by Medicaid, the health-care program funded by the federal government and the states for lower-income patients.

This Bus May Be Coming To Fight Abortion Restrictions In Your Town

“This is an opportunity for us to be doing more than just defending against restrictions, but to actually work to move forward,” Kierra Johnson, the executive director for URGE, one of the national groups helping to lead the All Above All coalition, said in an interview with ThinkProgress. “I think people have been waiting for something new, bold, and powerful. This is not your mother’s pro-choice movement!”

Reproductive Justice and ‘Choice’: An Open Letter to Planned Parenthood

Over the past 20 years, RJ activists have changed the trajectory of the pro-choice movement and helped to inform and expand the analysis of reproductive issues in ways that are more inclusive of the lived experience of all marginalized communities that contribute significantly to major organizing and political victories.

Beyond ‘Choice’: Youth-Focused Reproductive Rights and Justice Organization Renames Itself URGE

In her email to RHRC, Johnson also offered an interesting, sex-positive reflection on the incorporation of “gender” into her organization’s name: Gender and sexuality (and our assumptions, expectations, fears, and aspirations of them) are at the core of the fight for sexual health, reproductive rights and gender equity. But as a general rule, our movement doesn’t talk about gender unless we mean women and we don’t talk about sex unless we are referring to how to prevent the unwanted consequences of it. Our hope is that URGE will continue to evolve into a place where we can talk about both and discuss how our experience and understanding of gender and sexuality is political and impacts policy change. Our goal is to share a vision of a world that celebrates human… Read more »