Texans Take a Stand for Reproductive Rights at 2025 Advocacy Day
Story by Nina Alegre
Edited by Abigail Vela
- April 23, 2025
This month, on April 2, abortion funds and reproductive justice organizations at the local, state and national levels, such as Frontera Fund, Texas Youth Activist Alliance (TXYAA), The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice (NLIRJ), and others, took a stand for reproductive rights at this year’s 2025 Texas Abortion Funds Advocacy Day.
For eight hours, 2025 Advocacy Day attendees arrived at the Texas State Capitol, where they checked in, received advocacy training, and prepared to meet with their state legislators, among many other activities planned for them throughout the day.
The 2025 Advocacy Day attendees were from all over the state of Texas and stood firmly with abortion funds. They spoke to their legislators, pushing them to act in support of bills such as HB 2585/SB 1303, The “My Body, My Future” Act, which states that young people should have access to reproductive healthcare without parental consent.
Attendees also urged their legislators to oppose or fix bills such as SB 31/HB 44, which, as written, could revive the 1925 abortion ban and reverse long-standing Texas policies that reject the prosecution of people who have abortions. Other harmful bills include: SB 33/HB 1806 and SB 2880/HB 5510, which target and criminalize reproductive justice funds.
Among the participants of this year’s advocacy day, there were familiar and new faces. Yet, everyone was united for one cause: supporting abortion and reproductive rights, because all Texans deserve access to care.
During Advocacy Day, Cathy Torres (she/her/ella), the Organizing Manager for Frontera Fund, led the RGV group that signed up to support the organization. Frontera Fund is a non-profit organization based in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) that funds abortion, provides practical support, participates in community advocacy efforts, and gives financial assistance to people residing within 100 miles of the Texas/Mexico border. Some people from the RGV group were part of Frontera Fund’s Street Team or volunteers, and others were part of TXYAA.
Standing Up For Abortion Access in Texas
It’s important to stand with abortion funds in Texas, because they’re here to support us, whether it’s Frontera Fund, Lilith Fund, Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund or Jane’s Due Process and so many others, which are constantly putting in the work despite Texas legislators putting each and every barrier their way.
SB 33/HB 1806 aims to ban local reproductive justice funds and prohibit abortion funds and practical support funds from receiving funding from any government entity. This bill, if passed, is extremely harmful to all reproductive justice funds across the state. However, in the RGV, Frontera Fund is the only abortion fund we have, and these bills could pose serious and long-term risks to our communities.
Torres spoke about these harmful bills, “Every legislative session, we pretty much brace ourselves, right? Because historically, look at the climate we’re in today. There’s a total abortion ban, before that was a 6-week ban, and the Texas legislature, for several years […] has made it to where they have just been chipping away at access until they ultimately completely banned it.”
Torres brought up SB 31/HB 44, which is a harmful bill that can turn back progress made to abortion rights. The bill states, “relating to exceptions to otherwise prohibited abortions based on a physician’s reasonable medical judgment.”
“So, we just talked about [SB 31/HB44] and how it’s disguised as something that would provide medical exceptions, which is important. However, the author of this bill, Senator Hughes, was also involved with SB 8 in 2021, [and also wrote] SB 2880, [which] would further criminalize medication, abortion information sharing and abortion funds,” Torres said.
She continued, “So, it’s right in front of you, showing [you] that the intentions there are not good. As abortion funds, we are going to continue funding, we’re going to continue doing what we need to do and mobilizing to push back against these bills because everybody deserves the right to have access to information about abortion.”
Torres has been going to the Capitol during legislative sessions since 2015, and has dedicated a decade to doing everything she can, from coordinating to participating. She also shared that she started as a youth activist and started organizing when she was 19 years old, which reflects the power that youth from the RGV and Texas have when they volunteer and sign up to support abortion.
Texas Youth Fight For Abortion Access in Texas and the RGV
Mary Jane Padrón (she/they/ella) is one of the co-leads for TXYAA, a non-profit, non-partisan organization and project under Advocates for Youth, a nationwide advocacy organization based in Washington but works with people all over the country. Padrón works under the TXYAA project, advocating for reproductive justice, LGBTQIA+ issues, immigration and environmental justice.
Padrón talked about when she began to support the fight for reproductive rights, “I started doing advocacy work since middle school. […] I would get into disagreements with people in my classroom about how we should mind our own business about people’s bodies.”
Padrón has also participated in raising awareness on her social media and digitally, “On my personal social media, I would speak about the controversy [on] abortion by sharing polls and putting my opinion. Obviously, in the comments sections, I would get into disagreements with people, but that didn’t stop me from advocating, from speaking out on what is correct with facts and backed-up information.”
Besides being a co-lead for TXYAA, Padrón is constantly involved in her community and volunteers in the RGV and beyond with other reproductive organizations, such as South Texans for Reproductive Justice (STRJ) and Planned Parenthood South Texas (PPST). Last month, she volunteered for a packing party with Islander Feminists, a student organization from Texas A&M Corpus Christi (TAMUCC).
Padrón is one of the many youth activists involved in the fight for abortion access in the RGV. At 2025 Advocacy Day, the RGV organizations Frontera Fund and TXYAA formed a group of over 10 individuals who worked together to get training and practice for their legislative meetings with their Texas State representatives, such as Erin Gámez, Terry Canales and Senator Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa.
Unfortunately, the RGV teams were only able to meet with Texas Representative Gámez.
For many, Advocacy Day was an emotional, long battle, but for a good reason: to safeguard abortion for Texans. For the storytellers who spoke to their Texas reps, it was a big mix of emotions.
Cindy Ruiz (she/they) is a UTRGV student, the President of the Intersectional Feminist Student Organization (IFSO), and a member of Frontera Fund.
Ruiz commented that it was her first time attending Advocacy Day. “I’m coming here to advocate for abortion rights and for abortion funds rights, so we can have access to them,” Ruiz said. “We also advocate for contraceptives, and access to those when you are a minor and [for] protective services toward sexual assault survivors.”
Ruiz talked about how it felt to speak to her state representatives and to share a personal story with them, “At first I thought that we were going to go and talk to them personally […]. But at the end of the day, we got [along] well with the representative Erin Gámez, and with the other representatives we couldn’t meet, but the staff was friendly and they were nice about guiding us and [listening] to our stories.”
Citlaly Lopez (she/they) is a local Brownsville activist. Lopez said this was not her first time participating in Advocacy Day and has gone to Washington, D.C., to do advocacy work.
Lopez shared, “I decided to attend Advocacy Day because of the issues that [have] been happening in the Valley. Especially that the Valley is known for the most underage pregnancies. I wanted to go to [Advocacy Day] to learn more about what’s happening with what bills are being passed, what Senate bills are being passed, but also to bring that information back to people that I feel close with and let them be informed along with me.”
Like Ruiz, Lopez was also a storyteller for her group. Lopez shared how emotional it was, “Well, talking with Erin Gámez, first of all, I didn’t expect to be talking with her. Actually, I thought it was [going to] be maybe one of the people that were there working, but not with her personally. It definitely felt emotional sharing my personal story because that [was] the first time that I ever shared my story out in the open, and it also was emotional for me because I didn’t realize that I wasn’t over that trauma that I had from that story.”
Support Texas Abortion Funds: Forever, Always!
Frontera Fund held various fundraisers this month. On April 19, they held a bake sale at The Gremlin in McAllen. Torres says The Gremlin is a big supporter of Frontera Fund, and they’ve been holding bake sales there since last year.
If you want to support abortion funds near you, you can start by donating to Frontera Fund, which does so much for the people at our border. Frontera Funds’ support knows no limits, and neither should your care for a reproductive justice organization in the Valley, which is doing so much constantly.
For people who want to show their support, Torres advises: “One way [to help is by] sharing things, sharing our posts, sharing our fundraisers, and plugging in wherever you can if there are calls to action. That is always super helpful. Collectively, we are very powerful and we try to create opportunities for [the] community to get involved as much as they can.”
Don’t be afraid to advocate for the rights we all deserve. We hope to see you attend Advocacy Day in 2027 at the Texas State Capitol. But in the meantime, follow Frontera Fund and other organizations in the Valley and stay updated. Keep track of bills that can harm Texans’ rights and organize where you can!
