Engaging Policymakers

In the States (USA)

The Center works with state advocates throughout the country to promote and defend women's access to reproductive health care services in state legislatures and other policy-making bodies.  Our State Program work is critical because each year state legislatures consider hundreds of bills that would restrict abortion.  Anti-choice activists intentionally target states where they are likely to succeed in passing harmful legislation, and use those victories to push similar bills in other states and on the national level.  Indeed, much of the erosion of reproductive rights in this country has come as a result of state legislative action.  The Center's State Program pays particular attention to the impact that restrictive laws and policies have on marginalized women and women who face disproportionate difficulties in achieving meaningful access to reproductive health care. The State Program also assists activists seeking to proactively strengthen reproductive rights and improve access.   

Specifically, the Center's State Program provides legal analysis, technical support and strategic advice to state legislators, advocacy organizations and individuals who want to ensure that all women have meaningful access to safe and legal reproductive health services, including abortion and contraception.   This includes model legislation; talking points; written analyses and veto letters.

The Center's State Program also monitors and analyzes proposed state laws and policies that would affect women seeking reproductive health services. Read:

In The Spotlight

Hands Tied by Appeals Court, Texas District Court Decides it Cannot Permanently Block State Ultrasound Law

(PRESS RELEASE) Following a decision by a three-judge panel on the U.S…

In North Dakota, A Fight for Access, A Fight for Common Sense

In North Dakota, A Fight for Access, A Fight for Common Sense

The women who come to the Red River Women’s Clinic, in Fargo, N.D., arrive with a range of reasons for choosing medication that induces abortion: “less traumatic,” “not as invasive,” “no needles,” “more personal,” and on.

The factors women consider in their choice of medication abortion are many, and their decision is steeped in common sense and personal understanding. The technological advances that made medication abortion possible have made a huge difference for more than one million American women. …

Birth Control Benefit for Women Preserved, CRR Calls for END TO Attacks on Women’s Health

(PRESS RELEASE) The Obama Administration has committed to preserve the no-copay birth control benefit for all women under the Affordable Care Act, according to an announcement today that employees at religiously-affiliated institutions will be able to access the coverage without co-pay…

Our Work in Focus

What’s the worst thing about bad ideas? They’re catching.

Once one state passes a new anti-choice law—no matter how outrageously invasive or unconstitutional—it’s on its way to being copied by anti-choice activists and legislators in other states, bound by the same goal: blocking women’s access to safe abortion and other reproductive health services. …

In the United States, state legislatures wield enormous power to control women’s access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare services. Each year, anti-choice state legislators propose measures intended to restrict women’s access to abortion, including mandatory delays, biased counseling provisions and other burdensome and unnecessary requirements. Hundreds of anti-choice bills are proposed annually and dozens of restrictive laws are passed, making it increasingly difficult for women in many states to access abortion…

The Center focuses on the following key issues in our state advocacy work:…