By If/When/How
To learn more about the emerging lawyers who are embarking on our two-year-long Reproductive Justice Fellowship program, If/When/How asked five questions to each one of our ’26-’28 RJ Fellows. Here’s what Briana Torres shared with us.
Tell us the basics: Your name, law school, and what placement organization you’ll be at for your Fellowship.
Briana Torres, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, Jane’s Due Process.
Who are you beyond that? Whatever you want to share to highlight your biography or speak to the experience you’re bringing to the Fellowship.
I was born and raised in Texas, and my mom’s family history here goes back generations, so the future of reproductive rights and justice in this state is deeply personal to me. When SB 8 passed, I was considering law school, and watching what was happening in my home state solidified my decision to apply to law school and pursue a legal career focused on reproductive justice. I’ve spent much of my time at Southern Methodist University (SMU) learning what this work looks like from different angles. I’ve had the opportunity to work with many different national reproductive rights, health, and gender justice organizations and to lead SMU’s If/When/How chapter. Those experiences have given me exposure to advocacy, policy, legal research, and movement work, but they’ve also reinforced how important it is to stay grounded in the people most affected by the laws and policies we work on. I’m excited to bring that perspective to the Fellowship while continuing to learn from young people and advocates doing this work in Texas.
What are you most excited about as you start your Fellowship? Why are you driven to focus on youth access?
I’m most excited to learn directly from young people and from advocates who have been doing this work in Texas for a long time. Having spent the past year as a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow, I was able to see reproductive justice work from a national perspective and work alongside advocates responding to developments across different states. This Fellowship gives me the opportunity to bring that experience back home to Texas and work more closely with the communities directly affected by these policies.
What would be the one thing you want people to know about youth access and reproductive justice?
I would want people to know that reproductive justice is ultimately about people having the ability to shape their own lives and futures, and that should include young people. The reproductive decisions a young person makes can have a profound impact on the future they envision for themselves. Supporting young people in making those choices and trusting that they have hopes, plans, and goals worth protecting shouldn’t be controversial. Young people deserve the information, support, and access they need to build the futures they want for themselves.
What’s one new, inspiring, or fascinating thing you’ve been into lately? It can be a hobby, album, movie, internet trend, research rabbit hole, etc.
I’ve been really inspired lately by the history of the reproductive health, rights, and justice movement. I spent some time at Smith College this summer and had the chance to explore their archives, where I came across old photographs, flyers, correspondence, and other materials documenting the movement, including some from Texas. It was fascinating, and a little surreal, to see what this work looked like decades ago and how much (and, in some ways, how little) has changed. What stuck with me most was seeing the people behind the work come to life through their letters. They joked with each other, shared frustrations, and talked about their work in ways that felt surprisingly familiar. I found myself Googling the people whose letters I had read afterward just to learn more about who they were and what became of them. It made me feel connected to this much longer history of people doing this work, and now I want to learn as much as I can about the people and stories behind it.