On World Contraception Day, Reproductive Equity Now Launches Toolkit to Assess Successes and Challenges of Implementing 2017 Contraceptive ACCESS Law

Toolkit is intended to help advocates across the U.S. pass and implement contraceptive protections of their own

BOSTON (September 26, 2022) – Reproductive Equity Now today launched the Contraceptive ACCESS Toolkit, which includes a comprehensive assessment of the organization’s advocacy work to pass the ACCESS Law (An Act Relative to Advancing Contraceptive Coverage and Economic Security in our State) in 2017, in addition to challenges the organization and state have faced in the implementation of the law. The toolkit also offers recommendations to advocates in other states for best practices when writing, advocating for, and implementing similar legislation. Launch of the toolkit comes on World Contraception Day, a global campaign to increase education and access to contraception.

“It has been four years since the ACCESS law was passed, yet implementation of several regulations—including the 12-month contraceptive dispensing requirement—have been plagued by systemic failures, communication breakdowns, and a lack of compliance from various stakeholders,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, Executive Director of Reproductive Equity Now. “Our goal with the ACCESS Toolkit was to understand what went right, what went wrong, and how we could have improved our advocacy work to ensure a seamless implementation of the law. We hope this toolkit can serve as a template for advocates in other states to draft, advocate, and implement laws of their own to expand contraceptive access. In a post-Roe America, activists in blue, purple, and red states must work together, share resources, and learn from one another’s successes and challenges in order to pass equitable and expansive protections for reproductive health care. We know the benefits of increased contraceptive access: fewer unintended pregnancies, better health care outcomes, and far lower costs on consumers.”

The online ACCESS Toolkit can be found HERE. A PDF of the Toolkit can be found HERE.

The ACCESS law requires fully-insured Massachusetts health care plans to cover at least one contraceptive drug, device, or other product with no deductible, copayment, or coinsurance. The law also allows consumers to access up to a 12-month supply of a patient’s prescribed contraception at once. In 2021, the Legislature allocated the Department of Public Health $500,000 towards ACCESS law implementation efforts.

Included as part of the ACCESS Toolkit are: communications documents and talking points that were used to get the legislation passed; discussion of supporting and supplemental materials necessary to properly effectuate the law; and analysis of how the law was implemented in Massachusetts, analyzing the successes and failures of the process as well as what Reproductive Equity Now would have done differently in retrospect. 

Reproductive Equity Now is a grassroots organization focused on passing policies to promote reproductive health equity and ensure the full spectrum of reproductive health care for every person. The ACCESS Toolkit is the first project of its kind for the organization and was made possible, in part, through a fellowship grant from Justice Catalyst, as well as funding from the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH).