“Massachusetts is an incredibly important state in the abortion access puzzle,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now. “We have an opportunity to set the pace for the nation and I think we have an obligation to advance access to care not just for residents of Massachusetts but people across the country.”

“City leaders are in a really unique position in their communities because they’re on the ground, they understand where people get their information, and they can reach more vulnerable populations in a different way than some other leaders can in the same space,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of Reproductive Equity Now.

“I could not think of a more perfect or deserving State of the Union guest than Kate Dineen,” Hart Holder said in a statement to MassLive. “Kate turned her pain into power, using her story to drive forward legislation in Massachusetts to expand access to abortion care throughout pregnancy.”

The Reproductive Equity Now Foundation—along with Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, The Women’s Bar Foundation, The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts and five law firms—launched a new Abortion Legal Hotline.

As the retail pharmacy chains prepare to certify their pharmacies to dispense mifepristone — the first of two medications taken in a medication abortion regimen — I can’t help but remind CVS and Walgreens that there is more they can and should be doing to expand access to all types of reproductive health care.

The hotline, which went live Monday morning, provides free and confidential legal advice to patients and providers seeking abortion care in the commonwealth.

Rebecca Holder, president of the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation, said reproductive equity is about more than access to abortion.

When a patient or provider calls the hotline — which went live Monday morning — coordinators from the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation and the Women’s Bar Foundation will help connect the callers to one of about 150 volunteer attorneys who are specially trained, and come from one of five of Boston's most prominent law firms or the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts.

"We have been preparing for passage of these draconian, anti-abortion, anti-science laws by ensuring that clinicians in the commonwealth can continue to provide loving and compassionate care, and patients seeking that care in Massachusetts can access it," said Reproductive Equity Now President Rebecca Hart Holder.