In 2021, Jane’s Due Process celebrated 20 years of helping teens in Texas access abortion care. We also faced some of our biggest challenges to protecting youth reproductive rights yet. JDP expanded to meet the moment, supporting thousands of young Texans as they sought abortion and birth control. As we look to the future, we know JDP will continue fighting harder than ever to protect & expand teens’ reproductive rights.
We wanted to share with you some of what we accomplished in 2021 — and what we’ve got planned for the future of Jane’s Due Process.
In 2021, Jane’s Due Process:
- Received 2,531 calls on our 24/7 hotline.
- Helped 305 Texas teens seeking abortion care through the judicial bypass process.
- Answered over 2,600 texts on our hotline from youth seeking birth control, STI testing, and navigating a pregnancy scare.
- Distributed over 380 free repro kits – containing pregnancy tests & emergency contraceptives – in Austin and Lubbock.
We also worked with a cohort of four former JDP bypass clients who advocated for youth reproductive rights during the Texas legislative session. They advocated for the introduction of the My Body, My Future Act, a bill that would’ve fully repealed the parental consent requirement for minors in Texas seeking birth control. And when the 6-week abortion ban, SB 8, became law, our youth & staff traveled to Washington, DC to demand that Congress and the President take action.
Despite dire threats to reproductive freedom, our hotline and text line remained open everyday as a lifeline for teens in Texas seeking confidential access to abortion and birth control.
This year, our staff, board, and former clients came together to engage in strategic planning about the future of our work. Together, we developed goals to guide us as we navigate an ever-changing landscape of abortion restrictions. And we made a plan to grow into an organization that is led by values of justice and equity.
As we move into the future, Jane’s Due Process will:
Ensure that Jane’s Due Process is adaptable to the changes to the local and national reproductive rights landscape.
As we saw in 2021, the attacks on reproductive health, rights, and justice are at the worst they have been in almost 50 years. We must ensure that Jane’s Due Process is able to meet the emerging needs of young people and help them navigate this uncertain future with compassionate support.
Increase youth bodily autonomy by working to abolish parental involvement laws on sexual and reproductive health.
Jane’s Due Process was founded in response to the passage of parental involvement laws designed to prevent teens from exercising their reproductive rights in Texas. We remain committed to providing direct legal and practical support to help teens navigate these laws. But we also dream of a future where young people have true autonomy over their reproductive and sexual healthcare decisions. That’s why we are committed to repealing the laws that stand in their way.
Expand the range of our work and the effectiveness of our outreach to ensure that all youth have equitable access to Jane’s Due Process resources.
Jane’s Due Process was originally founded to help young people access abortion through the judicial bypass process. Since then, we’ve expanded our support to include helping teens access birth control, including emergency contraceptives. As we move forward, we will continue expanding direct services that help young people exercise their bodily autonomy, including sex education and supporting pregnant and parenting teens. And Texas is huge. We will expand our service area and community partnerships to work in areas of the state where youth have the least access to services. We will improve the language accessibility of our services for ESL (English as a Second Language) youth, And we will improve our digital and in-person outreach to ensure that our services are more equitably accessible across our state.
Recruit and retain a board, staff, and volunteer base that reflects the young people Jane’s Due Process serves.
Building leadership in the young people we serve is an essential piece of our commitment to building a future rooted in youth autonomy. Over the past few
years we’ve worked with a cohort of former judicial bypass clients to ensure that youth voices are an integral part of our work.
We plan to deepen this commitment by ensuring that more young people – especially immigrant, LGBTQIA+ and Black, Indiginous, and people of color youth – have the ability and support they need to join our board, staff, and volunteer community.
Implement an organization-wide strategy that centers racial justice and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The majority of the teens we serve in Texas live at the intersections of multiple forms of oppression. Systemic racism, xenophobia, ableism, homophobia and economic injustice prevent youth from accessing what they need to live full, free lives. That is why we commit to engaging in our daily work through a lens of not only diversity, equity and inclusion, but also anti-racist principles and practice. We know that to truly dismantle systemic barriers, the fight for racial justice must be reflected in our internal policies and organizational structure, as well as the outward work and advocacy we do each day.
Thank You
Your support makes it possible for us to support Texas youth in creating a future where reproductive liberation is possible. This year, more so than ever before, we were deeply grateful for the outpouring of solidarity from our community. As we look to the future, we know we can show up for young people because of your support. Jane’s Due Process will ensure that Texas youth don’t have to face these seemingly insurmountable barriers alone.
