National Institute for Reproductive Health

Local programs: for more than 15 years, the National Institute for Reproductive Health (nirh) has been at the vanguard of efforts to secure Reproductive Health, rights, and justice at the local level. This focus on local advocacy is based on four core assumptions: 1) for most people, local governments have the greatest, most immediate impact on their lives; 2) local governments, which act as laboratories for democracy, can directly increase access to Reproductive Health care, create more expansive rights, and work with communities to advance justice; 3) a focus on local advocacy builds the broad-based movements necessary to create and secure lasting change; and 4) building such movements requires ensuring that those most impacted by restrictive lawsparticularly black, indigenous, and other people of color (bipoc) communitiesare not only at the table, but also centered in the agenda and in decision-making. We support advocates secure policy change that will create just and equitable communities for all and educate and engage the public about these issues. This past year, nirh worked hand-in-hand with local advocates to pursue and win expansive policies, including municipal funding for abortion care, clinic protection policies, and referenda espousing support for abortion access. We also created new tools to support these efforts, including our local Reproductive freedom index (published in early 2024), a one-of-a-kind biennial analysis of how cities are addressing Reproductive Health, rights, and justice issues and a call to action for local elected officials to use all the tools at their disposal to fight for Reproductive freedom. We have also used the lrfi framework to help local advocates score their own cities so they can use the results for advocacy and provided other resources to help advocates engage their communities.

State programs: since its founding, nirh has focused on securing Reproductive Health, rights, and justice through its work at the state level. At the heart of nirh's work is our partnership model, through which we work hand-in-hand with state advocates to pursue specific policy wins that will impact their communities, as well as create the foundation for long-term change throughout the country. With a National vantagepoint that looks at how individual state and local efforts can interconnect, nirh provides our partners, individually and collectively, with an array of tools and other resources and strategic guidance focused on advancing the state of Reproductive freedom policy, politics, and culture within their localities as well as longer-term, nationwide change. The throughline in nirh's efforts is meeting immediate needs, while setting the stage for the future. Thus, the research-based resources we create (including legal analyses, poliing data, toolkits, talking points) place abortion in the context of what is needed to actualize Reproductive freedom and creates a roadmap that advocates and policymakers can use to pursue more expansive, forward-looking policies in their communities, while our trainings, webinars, convenings, and other hands-on efforts are designed both to increase skills and knowledge and to create ties across state lines. This past year, these efforts led to significant policiy wins, including measures that will increase access to abortion care in Colorado, Minnesota, new jersey, and new york.