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

A Repugnant Attack—Defeated

A Repugnant Attack—Defeated

With a unanimous decision yesterday by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, the Center for Reproductive Rights has won our legal challenge to strike down a ballot initiative that would have given every fertilized egg the full legal rights of a person. 

We challenged this initiative as soon as it went on the ballot—arguing that this frontal assault on reproductive rights clearly violated the U.S. Constitution. The Oklahoma court agreed…

District Court Order on Permanent Injunction, Following Opinion by Fifth Circuit

U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks denied the Center’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed in part and granted in part the State Defendants’ motion…

Fifth Circuit Opinion

The U.S…

Our Work in Focus

Every year, anti-choice state legislators propose hundreds of measures intended to erode women’s rights to abortion and reproductive health care. …

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

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:…