Dear friend,

NIRH just released Gaining Ground: 2020 Midyear Report, an in-depth analysis of the ways in which states have pushed forward reproductive freedom in 2020 -- before and during a global pandemic. [link removed]

In the several months of 2020 before COVID-19 began rippling throughout the country, NIRH saw many lawmakers introduce legislation to expand access to reproductive healthcare, support parents, families, and young people, and end discrimination and interference with reproductive health. As COVID-19 swept across the country and almost all policymaking ground to a halt, many states took action to protect access to reproductive health care - with some stepping up to protect abortion care specifically.

While some lawmakers have exploited the crisis to deny access to abortion care, many states' actions to protect reproductive health care and advance reproductive freedom stand in stark relief to the federal government's failed response to COVID-19. Already this year, 44 states and the District of Columbia introduced 546 bills to protect and advance reproductive freedom, with 47 new laws being fully enacted across the country.

To learn about all that was achieved in the last six months, including trends in state responses to COVID-19, implicit bias in maternal health care, and electoral change leading to policy change, download the full report here.

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It is clear that we cannot depend on the federal government or the Supreme Court, which came uncomfortably close to dismantling abortion access in June Medical, to uphold access to reproductive freedom. Gaining Ground shows how states are taking up the critical fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care.

In solidarity,
Andrea Miller
President, NIRH
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