The National Institute’s Contraception Access Program provides financial and technical assistance to organizations across the country that work to educate women and their partners about the role of contraception in protecting health and preventing unwanted pregnancies. The Contraceptive Access Program also works to ensure that no one is denied contraception they need due to ideological restrictions, a lack of information or inability to pay.

Over the last five years, a critical component of the National Institute’s work has been to promote wider awareness of and access to emergency contraception (EC), to remove barriers to obtaining EC, and to garner public, governmental, health care provider, and media support for timely, equal, and meaningful EC access.  

• The Back Up Your Birth Control Campaign is a partnership of more than 140 leading national advocacy organizations, service providers, and community stakeholders across the country conduct grassroots organizing, provider and public education, and policy debates, which take place throughout the year and culminate on the annual springtime Back Up Your Birth Control Day of Action. Since 2001, more than 350,000 pieces of educational materials have been distributed in more than 30 states.
  
  
• Since Emergency Contraception became available in pharmacies, the National Institute has been working with partners around the country to help restore EC coverage through state Medicaid programs. Despite state budget challenges, our partner in New Mexico, the Southwest Women’s Law Center, was successful in 2009 in expanding Medicaid coverage for EC OTC.