Latina Women

Activist Olivia Julianna Talks Repro Rights and Young Women’s Futures on Ms. Magazine’s New Gen Z Podcast

A fair amount of news coverage this election cycle has focused on the Gen Z vote, and for good reason. Besides being the most diverse generation in American history, Generation Z—born between the mid 1990s and the early 2010s—has grown up in a turbulent time in this country, from the rise of school shootings to the COVID-19 pandemic to the first (and soon to be second) Trump presidency and legislative attacks on reproductive freedom.

In The Z Factor’s third episode, host Anoushka Chander interviewed 21-year-old Olivia Julianna, who has advocated for abortion in her home state of Texas. On the podcast, she and Chander delved into the unique worries of young women in America right now and Julianna’s own advocacy work.

A Texas Woman Died After the Hospital Said It Would Be a ‘Crime’ to Intervene in Her Miscarriage

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Josseli Barnica grieved the news as she lay in a Houston hospital bed on Sept. 3, 2021: The sibling she’d dreamt of giving her daughter would not survive this pregnancy. The fetus was on the verge of coming out, its head pressed against her dilated cervix; she was 17 weeks pregnant and a miscarriage was “in progress,” doctors noted in hospital records. At that point, they should have offered to speed up the delivery or empty her uterus to stave off a deadly infection.

But when Barnica’s husband rushed to her side from his job on a construction site, she relayed what she said the medical team had told her: “They had to wait until there was no heartbeat,” he told ProPublica in Spanish. “It would be a crime to give her an abortion.”

For 40 hours, the anguished 28-year-old mother prayed for doctors to help her get home to her daughter; all the while, her uterus remained exposed to bacteria. Three days after she delivered, Barnica died of an infection.

Mass Deportation Won’t Solve U.S. Immigration Policy. Here Are Three Things That Will.

There are three things the U.S. government must do to address immigration. None entails policing the U.S. border, and none are prioritized by U.S. politicians today. 

Support of land sovereignty, reproductive autonomy and safe borders would do far more to address the problems accompanying U.S. immigration, than threatening expensive deportation and promising ineffective border walls.

Liberation, Family Style: Latina Voters Advance the Fight for our Freedoms

Solidarity has always been at the heart of Latina and Chicana liberation movements. Its thread binds the spirit of our community’s diversity, uniting us in pursuit of a democracy where all individuals and their families can lead safe, healthy, self-determined lives.

As men of color find their corner in the fight for abortion, and recent survey findings show that most Latinos support abortion access, families can continue fostering understanding around the importance of reproductive freedom. These conversations help dismantle stigma, encourage empathy, and promote a culture of respect for one’s own choices.

Some of the Hardest Questions Kamala Harris Has Been Answering Lately, ICYMI

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Two weeks before the election, with early voting already ongoing in a majority of U.S. states, Vice President Kamala Harris is making her way through interviews, explaining her positions and taking tough questions on her validity as a candidate, abortion rights, the Supreme Court and the preservation of democracy.

We have listened and read through five of these tough interviews—Alex Cooper’s podcast Call Her Daddy; Charlamagne Tha God’s The Breakfast Club podcast; the Univision Town Hall; a Fox News interview with Bret Baier; and Howard Stern’s show—so you don’t have to.

Here are some of the toughest questions she faced, and her frank answers, in her own words.  

Greedflation: Corporate Profits Are the Driver of High Prices

Depending on who’s doing the talking, inflation can be blamed on President Joe Biden or on his predecessor, Donald Trump. But one—and perhaps the greatest—driver of higher prices lies under the radar: corporate profits.

Women are the majority of the population, the majority of registered voters and the majority of those who actually show up at the polls. Let’s hope they do their homework and remember in November which candidates are coziest with the profit-mongering corporations picking their pocketbooks.

(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox! )

Realizing Youth Power: Engaging Youth Beyond Elections

Ever since I could remember, the prevailing narrative about young people and elections has been that they don’t care and don’t vote. As a result, politicians have expressed no obligation to young people and their priorities. Yet, in August, as I watched the Democratic National Convention, I saw something different: Broadcasters and commentators referred to “the youth vote” as a meaningful voting bloc. For the first time, our political discourse was acknowledging the critical role young people have played in the last several elections.

Issues like climate change, reproductive justice, student debt, education and gun violence are life-and-death issues, with clear implications for young people’s daily experiences. Drawing from the work of foster care system and disability justice activists, young leaders rally for “Nothing about us without us.”

(This essay is part of a Women & Democracy multimedia package focused on Gen Z and student voters. The future envisioned by young leaders is bright—it’s built on reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, sustainability, freedom from violence and economic opportunity. Explore essays, a brand-new podcast, videos and more from some of your most loved [or soon to be!] influencers and writers, brought to you by Ms., DoSomething, the nonprofit that helps make volunteerism “cool,” and The Anthem Awards, the social impact arm of The Webbys.)

The Size of Discrimination: Racism and Bias in the Fight Against the ‘Obesity Epidemic’

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The thread of social stigmatizing and racism has long woven through the fabrics of science and medicine. Sarah Baartman, an indigenous South African woman born in 1789, was subjected to profound cruelties, specifically associated with her body size and shape—placed at first in a cage alongside a rhinoceros, and later in circuses and so-called “freak-shows” throughout Europe under the name Hottentot Venus.

To this day, women experience weight discrimination at significantly higher rates than male peers.