NARAL MA Unveils City Champion Pledge
BOSTON–NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, the Commonwealth’s leading grassroots, reproductive freedom political advocacy organization, today unveiled its City Champion Pledge. The nonprofit does not endorse in municipal elections, but this pledge is an opportunity for candidates running for mayor or city council to make their position on important reproductive freedom policies clear to voters. Visit www.prochoicemass.org/pledge to see the full list of signers.
Candidates who take the pledge affirm their commitment to protecting every person’s right to access the full range of reproductive health care options and supporting policies that promote and expand reproductive freedom. This stance is likely to help campaigns build support at a key time in the local election calendar – a 2018 poll from MassINC found that 80 percent of Bay Staters support the right to access safe, legal abortion care and 83 percent believe it should be legal in almost all or most cases.
“Protecting abortion access is a state-by-state, community-by-community battle. There are a lot of ways for city leaders to affect change and make reproductive health care more accessible. We created this pledge to help voters elect the candidates that will lead on reproductive freedom,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts. “This pledge is part of our efforts to ensure that local officials and future state leaders are committed to protecting reproductive freedom and the right to safe, legal abortion care. We are growing Massachusetts’ pro-choice majority at the grassroots level.”
The pledge covers seven key reproductive health care positions, such as protecting the 2020 ROE Act and the ability to access safe legal abortion care; supporting insurance coverage for full-spectrum pregnancy care without any forms of cost sharing or copays; spreading awareness of fake women’s health centers and crisis pregnancy centers; aiding efforts to eliminate racial disparities in maternal health; working with school committee members to ensure public schools teach inclusive, medically accurate, and consent-based sexual health education; helping increase access to affordable child care to support gender equity; and promoting and expanding voting access.
There is no deadline for taking the pledge. Candidates interested in becoming City Champions can email NARAL Massachusetts at pledge@prochoicemass.org
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Contact:
Jon Latino
jon@prochoicemass.org