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, [...]
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 [...]
Both NIRH and the NIRH Action Fund have worked steadily in Virginia for several years — Virginia has now passed proactive abortion laws two years in a row, rolling back a host of restrictions to create a much-needed access point in the Southeast. Virginia had once been infamous for its attacks on abortion care, passing [...]
One of our core strategies has been to pass laws in every state possible to secure reproductive freedom. In Massachusetts, we worked alongside partners for many years to reform the Commonwealth’s surprisingly restrictive reproductive health laws, securing reproductive freedom in state law, removes barriers to abortion and expands access to this care. In 2017, we [...]
In 2019 Illinois and Vermont passed bold legislation that protects and enshrines the right to reproductive health care. NIRH launched digital campaigns in Illinois and Vermont to celebrate this groundbreaking legislation and to guard against potential backlash by promoting accurate information about the laws.
In 2017, NIRH successfully fought for no-copay coverage of abortion and contraception for all state-regulated insurance plans in New York. However, many New Yorkers are covered by employer-provided self-funded plans which are governed by federal law and do not have to comply with state-level requirements. NIRH then urged the state to find a creative solution [...]
New York City made history for abortion access as the first city in the nation to directly fund abortion care! NIRH Action Fund and our partners in the #FundAbortionNYC Coalition worked with the New York City Council to ensure that financial barriers don't interfere with anyone's ability to control when and whether to become a parent.
With the implications of a gutted Roe, and fewer abortion clinics open and accessible, we now face the perfect storm for the criminalization of women and medical professionals for seeking or providing abortions. Archaic laws criminalizing abortion could become enforceable and states could introduce new legislation to ban abortion outright, as they have in Ohio. In 2018 and 2019, NIRH supported statewide campaigns in Ohio, New York, and Michigan to decriminalize people seeking abortions and providers who offer abortion care.
For more than 10 years, NIRH and the NIRH Action Fund led the advocacy campaign to educate the public, rally New Yorkers, and convince elected officials to update New York’s laws by passing the Reproductive Health Act.
After 5 years of NIRH’s advocacy, public education efforts and deep work with legislators, the Comprehensive Contraceptive Coverage Act (CCCA) became law in 2019. The CCCA ensures that all New Yorkers have access to the contraception that is right for them at no cost. Following years of grassroots organizing, the 2018 election delivered a pro-choice [...]
