NIRH has been working for decades to improve access to abortion care in our home state of New York. In 2019 and on the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, New York enacted the Reproductive Health Act (RHA) to decriminalize and safeguard abortion and ensure greater access to reproductive health care. New York’s RHA is [...]
Oregon Commits $15million to Repro Infrastructure
Following the successful partnership with Pro-Choice Oregon and the Northwest Abortion Access Fund (NWAAF) in 2021 to secure Portland city funding for abortion care, NIRH again worked with the same advocates in 2022 to achieve this funding on the state level. Thanks to this advocacy, on March 16, 2022, Oregon passed a state budget that [...]
New Jersey Passes Reproductive Choice Act
On the eve of the 49th and presumed-to-be last anniversary of Roe v. Wade, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the Freedom of Reproductive Choice Act into law, along with a second bill ensuring coverage for 12 months of contraception without a copay. These were significant and meaningful steps forward for the state, and a [...]
Securing Municipal Funding for Abortion in Portland, OR
NIRH partnered with Pro-Choice Oregon and the Northwest Abortion Access Fund (NWAAF) in 2021 to expand access to abortion by addressing a primary barrier to care: cost. Thanks to this advocacy work, on September 15, 2021, the Portland City Council voted to allocate $200,000 to the Northwest Abortion Access Fund (NWAAF) in order to provide [...]
California Awards Reparations to People the State Forcibly Sterilized
NIRH partnered with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) in 2021 to fight for reparations for the hundreds of survivors of state-sponsored forced sterilization. Through a grassroots campaign, wide coalition support, and intense lobbying, this successful campaign resulted in $7.5 million in California’s state budget. Read our press release on this historic victory. Between [...]
Rhode Island Expands Doula Access
Expanding access to doula care — especially through insurance coverage — is critical to improving the health and safety of pregnant people and their children, and particularly Black birthing people and their families. In 2021, NIRH partnered with SISTA Fire to establish insurance coverage for doula care. This successful partnership led to securing Medicaid coverage [...]
Connecticut Expands Health Equity
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the disproportionate impact of health crises on people of color. At the same time, high-profile police killings of Black people sparked a rising awareness of the injustices of systemic racism. In 2021, Health Equity Solutions led a campaign across 21 cities and towns across Connecticut to officially declare racism a [...]
Establishing a Reproductive Health Fund in Kalamazoo
NIRH believes that localities are laboratories for innovation in policy-making that centers equitable access to reproductive health care. We are committed to securing municipal funding to support abortion access, and we ground our strategy in the growing movement to create municipal budgets that truly invest in community health and safety rather than over-policing. In 2021, [...]
Polling on New Jersey’s Reproductive Freedom Act
In its effort to move the Reproductive Freedom Act (RFA) in New Jersey, NIRH commissioned polling in New Jersey that revealed widespread public support for the RFA and access to reproductive health care in general. Read the full memo here. About the Reproductive Freedom Act Championed by the Thrive NJ coalition, which includes NIRH, [...]
New Mexico
Both NIRH and the NIRH Action Fund have worked steadily in New Mexico for several years to ensure that New Mexico repeals its pre-Roe law criminalizing abortion access and continues to be a haven for abortion access in the Southwest. In 2021, with a newly strengthened majority in support of abortion access in the State [...]
