Phoebe Gates Urges Gen Z To Vote In Support Of Reproductive Freedom

I’ve been passionate about sexual and reproductive health issues since my early teenage years, inspired by my mother’s focus on gender issues around the world. My own interest was sparked when I learned how challenging it is for young people in the U.S. to get medically accurate and relevant information about our own bodies, but by the time the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade — gutting abortion rights and putting our health and humanity in the hands of politicians — that spark had turned into a fire.

I was overwhelmed with anger, and since then, my passion has turned into a full-on pursuit. I’ve traveled to Louisiana, Mississippi, and, most recently, the DuPont Clinic in Washington, where I’ve witnessed firsthand the impact of extreme abortion bans on women, families, and health care workers. These bans are killing women. There are girls — including one 13-year-old in Mississippi — being forced to carry their rapists’ babies to term.

This is the new reality my generation has faced since the Dobbs decision was handed down by Donald Trump’s Supreme Court picks. Instantly, we had fewer rights than those who came before.

But we won’t accept that.

We are at a crossroads with this election. There are an estimated 41 million of us Gen Zers who are eligible to vote, and we need to do so as though our lives and futures depend on it — because they do. That’s why I am voting for the presidential candidate who will fight for reproductive freedom: Vice President Kamala Harris.

With this election, we are all fighting for a future in which our reproductive rights are recognized as foundational, and Vice President Harris has promised to sign national legislation to restore our rights.

Understandably, our attention is on the top of the ticket, but reproductive freedom is directly on the ballot in states including New York, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Missouri, and Montana, meaning the health and lives of millions of women are at stake. Winning these measures is crucial — especially if Trump wins. There are also critical races for the Senate, where, if Trump is to go unchecked, he will try to lock in a Supreme Court that will last until Gen Z is middle-aged. We know he will do this because he did it before when he nominated three justices intending to deliver this chaos and loss of rights we have now.

This is the first presidential election since the devastating aftershocks of Roe swept across our nation, so now is the time to fight for our rights. It was just over two years ago that I was with my mom when Roe was overturned. She saw how upset I was, and that’s when she said the most important thing anyone has ever said to me: “Get mad. Stay mad. But ask yourself, ‘What are you going to do about it?’”