REGIONAL REACH — Reproductive Equity Now is expanding into New Hampshire and Connecticut as the abortion-rights advocacy group aims to turn New England into a bastion for those seeking reproductive care.

“We must focus on state-by-state work to build regional blocks for abortion access,” said Rebecca Hart Holder, president of Reproductive Equity Now. “This work will begin in New England.”

A group that’s long advocated for access to abortion and reproductive health care in Massachusetts is expanding into New Hampshire and Connecticut.

Reproductive Equity Now announced on Tuesday that it is moving into both New Hampshire and Connecticut as a part of its goal to make the region “a beacon for abortion access,” the organization’s president, Rebecca Hart Holder, said.

Reproductive Equity Now, the advocacy group behind successful efforts to bolster abortion rights laws in Massachusetts, is expanding into Connecticut and New Hampshire.

When I asked Rebecca Hart Holder, executive director of the Massachusetts-based Reproductive Equity Now, whether anything Haley said about abortion had merit, she was quick to say, via email, “I don’t.” She added, “We should not be playing ‘consensus’ with basic human rights. A 15-week abortion ban is an abortion ban, plain and simple.”

The vise-like tightening of abortion access across the country is bringing more people to Massachusetts to end their pregnancies.

New data from the state Health Department show a 16 percent increase in the number of out-of-state people receiving abortions here in 2022, as well as a rise in the use of medication, instead of surgical procedures, to terminate pregnancies.

According to Reproductive Equity Now, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decision will not lead to changes in mifepristone access until the Supreme Court rules on the case, which the advocacy group says will likely take place in 2024.

“As we navigate ongoing threats to reproductive health care, it’s never been more critical to protect and expand access to contraception in order to ensure every person has the autonomy to make decisions about if, when, and how they become a parent.”

The legislation, “An Act Relative to Hormonal Contraceptives,” which is co-sponsored by state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa, D-Northampton, eliminates the need for those seeking birth control to schedule an appointment with a primary care physician. Instead, pharmacists can now assess patients and prescribe and dispense birth control like contraceptive patches and oral pills. “This just puts control of your own reproductive destiny back in the patient’s hands,” Sabadosa said.

“It’s just critically important that the Legislature acted in the budget to expand access to birth control, giving pharmacists the ability to prescribe hormonal contraception, which of course includes pills and patches,” Hart Holder said. “[It] means that more people will get access to that consistent birth control that they need.”