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NEWS FROM POWER TO DECIDE
Wrapping Up #TalkingIsPower Month
Thank you to everyone who recognized Talking is Power Month by participating in our recent Twitter Storm, sharing our blogs and conversation prompts, or talking to a young person in your life about your sex ed story. You helped us make #TalkingIsPower 2023 a success.
Just because May and #TalkingIsPower have ended doesn’t mean you should stop talking. Check out all of the amazing resources we posted over the last month to start a conversation today! Remember, champions, you’re more powerful than you think.
Our Newest Power Player
We’re committed to uplifting the many individuals championing reproductive well-being. This month’s Power Player is David L Bell, MD, MPH, Professor, Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Read his story.
Meet our HBCU Student Ambassadors!
Power to Decide is proud to announce our 2023 HBCU Student Ambassadors. The Ambassadors are the core of our new initiative to empower young adults through student-led peer education and support at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This initiative also aims to advance a culture of reproductive well-being, an innovative framework centered on the belief that every person should have equitable access to the information, services, systems and support they need to have control over their bodies, and to make their own decisions related to sexuality and reproduction throughout their lives. We are thrilled to welcome the following students and reproductive well-being champions that will lead this movement across 5 HBCU campuses:
- Fayetteville State University: Andre Poysner & Kaila Coleman
- Tougaloo College: Nayla McClure & Rokiyah Hobbs
- Tuskegee University: Haileigh Trainer & Wischell Joseph
- The University of the Virgin Islands (OEK Campus): Jackeima Flemming & Kurvonte Richards-Willett
- Xavier University of Louisiana: Jalah Bates & Mya Bledsoe
To learn more about our ambassadors and the work they are doing, visit our Campus Sexual Health webpage.
Riley on Research: Trust Teens
Riley Steiner is the Senior Director of Research and Evaluation at Power to Decide. In her new blog, she writes about the importance of trusting teens.
“May is National Adolescent Health Month during which we emphasize the importance of building on young people’s strengths and potential, encouraging meaningful youth engagement in adolescent health activities, and highlighting key topics in adolescent health.
As a behavioral scientist, I have long been interested in the positive role parents can play in supporting adolescent sexual and reproductive health. As a daughter, my mom was my first (and best!) source of information about sex, and as a parent, it is important to me to provide developmentally appropriate sex ed to my son.”
What’s Your Birth Control Story?
The FDA will decide soon whether to approve an over-the-counter birth control pill option, and sharing your own contraception journey can help! The Contraceptive Access Initiative is looking for people who have used any birth control method to tell their stories.
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POLICY UPDATES
Federal Update
Congress to Consider Spending Bills
In May, Congress began marking up, or considering, spending bills for fiscal year (FY) 2024, which runs from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2023. In June, Congress will begin marking up the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (LHHS) bills, which includes the Title X Family Planning and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) Program. Your voice is needed to urge Congress to increase funding for these programs, which give young people the tools they need to live healthy lives and achieve their goals. Please contact your members of Congress today.
FDA Expert Advisory Committee Recommends Approval of Over-the-Counter Pill
On May 10th, the FDA’s expert Advisory Committee voted unanimously (17-0) to recommend the approval of Opill, a progestin-only birth control pill for over-the-counter (OTC) approval. This is not the final step in the process—the FDA still must decide whether to follow the recommendation of the advisory committee. However, despite many critiques from FDA staff, the experts on the Advisory Committee were united in their strong belief that the benefits far outweigh any risks, and that barriers to contraceptive access necessitate an OTC pill. Power to Decide’s Senior Director of Health Care, Robin Watkins, had the opportunity to give oral testimony during the Advisory Committee meeting, and to speak at a press conference on capitol Hill, hosted by Senator Patty Murray and Representative Ayanna Pressley.
Affordability is Access Act Introduced in House and Senate
Senators Murray, Hirono, and Cortez Masto and Representatives Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, and Bera recently introduced the Affordability is Access Act, a bill that requires insurance coverage of OTC birth control methods without the requirement of a prescription. Power to Decide CEO, Dr. Raegan McDonald-Mosley spoke during a press conference on the bill, urging its passage to address contraceptive deserts and the deep inequities in access to birth control. Please contact your members of Congress and urge them to support the Affordability is Access Act!
State Update
More States Enact Abortion Bans
In April, three more states enacted bans on abortion care (Nebraska, and North Carolina, and South Carolina). On May 16, legislators in North Carolina overrode a veto by Governor Cooper to enact SB 20, a bill restricting abortion care. It includes a 12-week ban on surgical abortions and a 10-week ban on medication abortions that will go into effect on July 1, 2023. On May 22, Governor Pillen signed a 12-week abortion ban in Nebraska that immediately went into effect. As widely reported by the media, the abortion ban was tacked onto a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors, after an earlier attempt to pass a six-week abortion ban was defeated. Finally, on May 25, South Carolina’s Governor McMaster signed a bill limiting most abortion care across the state as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
These bans come as a real blow to the abortion access landscape as currently 14 states have no clinic providing abortion care. In addition to the states mentioned above, seven states have gestational age limits that were allowed to go into effect since Dobbs was overturned nearly a year ago.
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GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM OUR SPONSORS
A year ago this month, the Supreme Court issued the Dobbs decision, which rolled back generations of reproductive rights and exponentially expanded the existing gaps to reproductive and sexual health care.
As the ongoing attacks on reproductive and sexual health care grow, we need the funds to help continue to provide the information and resources so desperately needed by millions. Consider supporting Power to Decide with a donation today. Your gift will help us fund initiatives such as AbortionFinder and Bedsider, as well as our essential policy work, which continues to become even more critical.
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