Repro Round Up 11.17.23

Remember that best-in-the-nation shield law we passed last summer to protect Massachusetts’ providers offering abortion and gender-affirming care to people from out of state? We’re seeing the impact of that bold legislative action today. 

After many months of work, Cambridge Reproductive Health Consultants, a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, launched The Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project (The MAP). The MAP serves medication abortion seekers via telehealth in all 50 states up to 11 weeks gestation. All services are provided by clinicians who are experienced medication abortion providers. The MAP costs $250 and uses a pay-as-much-as-you-can fee structure. Pills arrive within 2-5 days. 

We are so grateful to these heroic providers who are working to ensure medication abortion care remains accessible to all people. Learn more about The MAP. 

And remember, if you are a patient or provider seeking or offering abortion care in Massachusetts, Reproductive Equity Now’s Abortion Legal Hotline is a free and confidential resource to learn more about your rights to abortion care.

Onto this week’s headlines—

New England Round Up

→ Boston Globe: Campbell says new unit will crack down on crisis pregnancy centers, providing guidance in era of abortion misinformation

This week, the Boston Globe took a look at Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s new Reproductive Justice Unit and its commitment to combating anti-abortion centers’ misinformation. The story highlights Repro Equity Now’s partnership and our work to crack down on anti-abortion centers’ deceptive and dangerous practices, including the letter we sent to the Department of Public Health in late October urging the Department’s licensure and certification division to investigate Your Options Medical’s new anti-abortion center mobile van on Cape Cod.

The Globe also reminded folks that patients with questions about their care can call our Abortion Legal Hotline to be connected with legal assistance from pro bono attorneys. The Hotline can serve as a resource for people who have had negative experiences with anti-abortion centers.

And lastly, the Globe used our data from the New England Abortion Abortion Care Guide to create a visual map of the anti-abortion centers throughout Massachusetts. It reminded readers that these facilities outnumber legitimate abortion clinics in the state by more than two to one.

→ Repro Equity Now Rallies Support Around NH Independent Clinics Ahead of Family Planning Contract Vote

This week, we joined Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington at Lovering Health Center to hear how New Hampshire’s independent clinics rely on family planning funding to provide basic reproductive health care to Granite Staters. For the past two years, Councilor Warmington has been the sole Executive Councilor to vote in support of family planning funding for New Hampshire clinics.

The New Hampshire Executive Council is a five-person elected body that must approve state contracts over $10,000. Right now, the Council is preparing for an upcoming vote in which they could once again deny critical funding for the family planning programs at New Hampshire’s sexual and reproductive health clinics. This loss of funding has prevented New Hampshire communities and patients from accessing low-cost, essential health care like birth control, annual exams, pregnancy tests, STI tests and treatment, and cancer screenings. Read New Hampshire State Director Christina Warriner’s Letter to the Editor in the Portsmouth Herald about why electing Executive Councilors who support reproductive freedom is so critical.

ACT NOW: Tell your Executive Councilor to support New Hampshire’s reproductive and sexual health clinics and the patients they serve. 

→ CT Mirror: Awaiting state decision, advocates protest proposed Windham Hospital birthing unit closure

Three Connecticut hospitals have proposed to close their labor and delivery units, ostensibly because they are struggling to recruit providers to staff the units. Windham is one of very few rural hospitals in the state, and the closure of their labor and delivery unit will greatly impact families’ ability to seek birthing care. Medical workers, nurses and physicians rallied in Hartford to ask the state to support the continued operation of these labor and delivery units. 

→ Axios: Boston's plan to offer doula services is taking shape

The Boston Public Health Commission received a massive grant to help connect pregnant patients to doulas and certify 25 new doulas from underrepresented communities. This would be one of the first municipal doula programs in the nation, and it may be able to help address the racialized maternal mortality gap in Massachusetts. Black families are twice as likely to experience delivery complications during childbirth. Doula services can expand the breadth of services available to expectant parents, provide much needed emotional support, and empower pregnant people to be their own advocates during birth. 

A report in USA Today last week brought attention to the critical support Black doulas can provide to Black parents and other parents of color. Doula support is not only statistically linked to lowering labor complications, but can also support patients after birth, by providing guidance on breastfeeding, early childhood development, and emotional regulation, which can reduce the effects of postpartum depression and anxiety. Doula care is often inaccessible to Black and low-income patients because of the limited number of available providers and the high cost. 

→ Reproductive Equity Now Organizes Massachusetts’ North Shore

This week, Reproductive Equity Now took our Roe’d Show to the North Shore. We were grateful to have advocates from across New England, including Mayor Dominick Pangallo, State Sen. Joan Lovely, State Rep. Manny Cruz, our friends from HealthQ, and the Salem Human Rights and Race Equity Commission, join us to discuss how we can build movement power around reproductive equity. For those interested in upcoming events, check out the ‘Get Involved’ section of the newsletter and make sure you’re signed up at reproequitynow.org/joinus.

→ Hey Jane Expands Throughout New England

The telemedicine abortion provider Hey Jane, which currently offers telemedicine abortion care to patients in Massachusetts and Connecticut, is now expanding to all six New England states. Because of the great distances some New England patients have to travel within the region to seek in-person care, the expanded provision of medication abortion will help greatly reduce the strain on both the limited provider network in New England and allow patients more flexibility with how they seek care. Hey Jane’s expansion will help support patients who have to travel to New England for abortion care because the organization does not require that patients be full-time residents of New England – just that they have a local address that the medication can be mailed to.

National Notice

→Abortion Wins Big Across the Nation!

Since our last Repro Roundup, the movement has had a lot to celebrate! Abortion was a winning ticket item in Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Voters in Ohio approved a constitutional amendment enshrining the right to abortion into state law, and therefore halting the six-week ban passed by the legislature that has been in litigation for some time now. In Kentucky, voters rejected Daniel Cameron’s anti-abortion agenda and re-elected Governor Andy Beshear, a defender of abortion rights. Virginia’s state legislature flipped to pro-choice majorities in both chambers, putting a damper on Glenn Youngkin’s plans for a 15-week ban on abortion. And Pennsylvania voted to keep their courts pro-abortion by electing Dan McCafferty to the Supreme Court. This Election Day was yet another reminder that abortion, and candidates who run on abortion, wins.

→Abortion Stories Changed the Playing Field

How did election day turn out to be such a huge success for abortion rights? Some analysts believe it was the ads featuring abortion storytellers that won over undecided voters. A major ad against Daniel Cameron featuring abortion storyteller Hadley Duvall ran all across Kentucky and was referenced by Andy Beshear on the campaign trail as a reason why defending abortion access is critical for Kentuckians. According to the Washington Post, “Ohio saw the most abortion ad spending in 2023, with $32 million total spent on the issue in the five weeks leading up to the election, according to AdImpact data.” 

→ Abortion Bans Are Causing More Kids to be in the Foster System

Many anti-abortion advocates rely on the argument of adoption as opposed to abortion. But a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that there is a statistical link between abortion bans and children ending up in the foster care system, which is decidedly different from the stable home adoption anti-abortion extremists tout. Pregnancy in states with abortion bans or limitations is associated with an 11% increase in children entering the foster care system. 

Get Involved with Reproductive Equity Now

- Massachusetts -

📍BROOKLINE: Join us at a private screening of Preconceived, a film by Sabrine Keane and Kate Dumke, to benefit Reproductive Equity Now.

The film screening will be held at the Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline, MA, on December 5th. Doors open at 5:45PM and the program will begin promptly at 6:15pm. We encourage you to arrive on time for a complimentary drink and light snack. Purchase tickets today (we are almost sold out)!

- New Hampshire -

📍NEW HAMPSHIRE! Sign our petition to protect reproductive health access in the Granite State.

The Executive Council is preparing to vote to defund family planning clinics for the fifth time. This critical funding supports low-income Granite Staters seeking reproductive and sexual health services such as STD testing, mammograms and other cancer screenings, and more. Sign our petition to demand that the Executive Council fund our care. 

📍ANYWHERE! Follow Repro Equity Now on Social Media

Stay up to date on the latest in the reproductive equity movement by following Reproductive Equity Now on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tik Tok.

- Connecticut -

📍ANYWHERE! Follow Repro Equity Now on Social Media

Stay up to date on the latest in the reproductive equity movement by following Reproductive Equity Now on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Tik Tok.

Our Resources

Need to understand your legal rights to provide or access abortion care? Reproductive Equity Now’s Abortion Legal Hotline will help connect Massachusetts-based health care providers and helpers, as well as patients obtaining care in Massachusetts, with free legal advice and resources about abortion access.

Looking for an abortion provider in your area? Our New England Abortion Care Guide [http://reproequitynow.org/abortioncareguide] allows you to search by zip code for legitimate abortion clinics near you. It even flags dangerous and deceptive anti-abortion centers to avoid at all costs.

Do you want to help advance reproductive equity in your community? Our Win & Deliver Toolkit offers policy proposals and supporting materials to serve as a starting point for municipal leaders looking to move the needle forward on reproductive equity.

Thank you so much for powering this fight.
We’re grateful to have you in the movement with us.