State Advocacy

State Advocacy

Through our Reproductive Health Access Network, we are working intensely in states where we have a critical mass of motivated clinicians. Below are actions and campaigns we know of that are active in our Network states. If you know of any additional campaigns in these states, please let us know!

Click on your state to learn how to contact your representatives.

New York State

• Support the passage of the Reproductive Health Act and the Comprehensive Contraception Coverage Act. These laws will bring abortion out of the criminal code and into public health law and require that insurers offer contraceptive coverage without co-payment to all New Yorkers.
• To learn more and contact your representatives, click here.

 California

• Speak out in support of SB 320, a bill that creates a fund to receive private money to provide medication abortion at all public university health centers in the state.
• To learn more and contact your representatives, click here.

Colorado

• Find out how your Congress representative votes on issues regarding reproductive health access.
• Contact your representatives to let them know what you think about these issues.

Georgia

• Speak out against SB 74, which would require minors to provide “clear and convincing evidence” to a judge in order to waive parental notification when getting an abortion.
• Speak out against SB 23, a bill that requires doctors to notify patients receiving abortions about the ‘abortion reversal pill,’ which has not been scientifically proven.

Idaho

• Currently, most health care providers allow for patients to receive their contraceptives and reimbursement for them in one- to three-month intervals. Support  SB 1281, a bill that would require access to all twelve months of contraceptives and the respective reimbursement at one time, unless the patient or prescribing provider requests otherwise, in order to increase access to contraception. 

Illinois

• Support a bill that requires schools to provide information about the HPV vaccine to students entering sixth grade, as well as their parents.
• Chicago has an ordinance called a “Bubble Zone” that provides patients with 8 feet of personal space when they are within 50 feet of a family planning clinic. Anti-choice protesters have filed a lawsuit against this ordinance; if they win, visitors to clinics will lose the autonomy that this physical safety gives them. Sign this petition to encourage your lawmakers to protect the safety of everyone who enters family planning clinics.

Maine

• Support HB 1217, a bill that allows physicians assistants, advanced registered nurses, allopathic physicians, and osteopathic physicians who are licensed to perform abortions do so, instead of only authorizing physicians to perform abortions.

Maryland

• Support HB 787, which would ensure that prisons have written policy outlining that pregnant inmates have access to quality pre-natal health care. 

Massachusetts

• Support an Act to Improve the Safety of Young Women, which would remove the parental consent requirement for underage patients seeking an abortion.
• Support an Act Relative to Healthy Youth which would ensure comprehensive sex ed in public schools. 
• Speak out in support of S 619, a bill that creates Medicare for all Massachusetts residents by utilizing a single-payer health care system
• Support a bill that repeals the requirement that abortions 13 weeks and later be performed in a hospital, repeals laws that criminalize miscarriage, contraception, and the advertising of both, and removes the word “married” from laws permitting the legal providing of information and care regarding contraception and conception.

Michigan

• Support a bill that requires emergency, urgent care, or health facilities to provide female patients who are victims of “criminal sexual conduct” and of “childbearing age” essential information on emergency contraception and offers them emergency contraception.
• Speak out against House Bill 4500, which would classify an embryo or fetus as a person/victim.
• Sign Planned Parenthood’s My Health, My Life Pledge to communicate to your legislators that you have the right to comprehensive medical information and health care, including information and care regarding abortion.

Minnesota

• Speak out against HF 2792, which would ban all abortions from the point of fertilization.
• Speak out in opposition to a bill that requires abortion providers to retain 30 years of records for every abortion patient including, but not limited to, an ultrasound copy, gestational age of fetus, and sex of fetus.

New Jersey

• Encourage your lawmakers to prioritize funding for family planning by sending them a personalized message.
• Speak out against the Protection of Fetuses from Dismemberment Abortion Act, which prohibits dilation and excavation abortions, which are the most common form of second trimester abortions in the US. For more information on this issue, click here.
• Support incarcerated women’s access to reproductive health care by speaking out against a bill that would require women incarcerated in county correctional facilities to cover the full cost of their abortions.
• Speak out against S404, which prevents fetal tissue obtained from abortions to be used for research other than genetic or health tests specifically requested by the parents.

North Carolina

• Speak out against Ashley’s Law, which would require doctors to notify patients 72 hours before receiving an abortion about the ‘abortion reversal pill,’ which has not been scientifically proven.
• Support the Whole Woman’s Health Act, which would impede new restrictions on abortion that have no legitimate medical benefits.

Ohio

• Capital Care Network, the only abortion clinic in Toledo, OH, has secured a hospital transfer agreement, fulfilling its requirements under Ohio state law. However, state attorneys still believe CCN should lose its license. Write to the Director of the Ohio Department of Health to ask him to restore CCN’s license immediately.
• Speak out against HB 565, which bans abortion, making it illegal for both public and private hospitals to perform abortions, and removes government funding from any organization that performs or provides abortion.
• Support a bill that criminalizes impeding access to abortion and protects abortion providers from harassment and intimidation.

Oregon

• Support HJR 203 A, which would ensure all Oregon residents access to affordable health care.
• Speak out against a bill that prohibits abortion past 20 weeks, and requires reporting of abortions that take place after 20 weeks to the Oregon Health Authority.
• Speak out against HB 4101, which prohibits the performance of late-term sex-selective abortion. You can read more about this here.

Pennsylvania

• Speak out against Pennsylvania’s potential ban on dilation and excavation abortions, which are the most common form of second-trimester abortions in the US.
• Voice your opposition to HB 643, which prevents abortion based on the diagnosis or belief of Down Syndrome.
• Speak out against SB 23, which would further restrict the use of commonwealth or federal funds for abortions.

Rhode Island

• Support H 7340, which would prohibit the state from restricting any person from terminating a pregnancy prior to fetal viability (the stage in which the fetus could survive outside the womb). This bill would also repeal the laws that regulate abortion, spousal notice of abortion, partial birth abortion, and those that classify abortion as murder. Further, all health insurance contracts would be mandated to cover procedures involving abortion.
• Speak out against H 7180, which would recognize the fetus as a human life with the presence of a heartbeat.
• Let your representatives know that you do not support a bill that would classify encouraging, aiding, or contributing to the transportation of a minor across state lines to get an abortion a felony.

Vermont

• Support a bill that would keep abortion legal in Vermont if Roe v. Wade is overturned. 

Washington

• Speak out against SB 5320, which requires parental notification in cases of abortion.
• Speak out against The Washington Pain Capable Unborn Child Act, which criminalizes abortions after 20 weeks.
• Voice your opposition to HB 1971, which states that only physicians may perform abortions. This limits other people who are licensed to perform abortions, such as physicians assistants and nurse practitioners, from doing so.