The Reproductive Health Access Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to preventing unintended pregnancy and promoting high-quality reproductive health care. Only when women at all socioeconomic levels have access to birth control and abortion services in secure primary care settings will they truly have the right to choose. Our mission is to improve reproductive health through:
- Training primary care clinicians in an evidence-based, patient-centered, flexible approach to contraception.
- Surmounting financial, legal, and administrative barriers to providing contraception and early abortion in primary care settings – including restrictions related to medical centers’ religious affiliations.
- Developing a national network of primary care experts in reproductive health issues.
- Collaborating with advocacy and educational organizations to promote understanding about contraception and abortion.
Fighting punitive medical traditions
Many aspects of standard medical practice impede women’s ability to obtain birth control. For example, despite the fact that hormones do not increase the risk of cervical cancer, many physicians require Pap smears before prescribing contraception. Many physicians refuse to refill contraceptives without an office visit (even if there is no medical need for the visit). Doctors often display punitive attitudes about prescribing birth control, denying women refills of emergency contraception or refusing to honor women’s preferences regarding the choice of contraceptive method. RHAP teaches patient-centered contraceptive care to primary care physicians and community-based pharmacists to improve women’s access to effective birth control.
Developing the next generation of physician activists and leaders
RHAP collaborates with doctors-in-training on research projects, clinical presentations, and advocacy for better reproductive health care.
Addressing the abortion provider shortage
In the United States, 87% of counties have no abortion provider. RHAP focuses its outreach to family physicians, most of whom work in medically underserved urban and rural communities. Expanding abortion care in family-medicine settings could greatly offset the national abortion provider shortage.
Providing abortions in a safe, familiar setting
Women need high-quality, comprehensive contraceptive care from their family doctors. More than one-third of all women in the United States have an abortion at some point in their lives. Having an abortion with the doctor they know and trust, in a supportive, private, and nonjudgmental atmosphere can make a potentially traumatic experience a kinder episode in a woman’s life.
Building healthier families
Improving reproductive health services in medically underserved areas has the potential to improve these communities on many levels. When women take control of their fertility, they can prepare themselves educationally, financially, and emotionally before deciding to have children. Wanted children, born to older and better-educated parents, have a higher chance of achieving success and happiness. Because family physicians care for entire families, they are well positioned to recognize the importance of preparing for parenthood, and to understand reproductive freedom as an essential prerequisite for creating healthy families.
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2006 Annual Report (pdf)
RHAP Newsletters
Volume 2/Issue 1/Spring 2008 (pdf)
Volume 1/Issue 2/Summer 2007 (pdf)
Volume 1/Issue 1/Winter 2006 (pdf)
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