How Local Officeholders Can Protect and Expand Abortion Rights
The frontlines in the fight for abortion rights are shifting to the state and local levels. You don’t need to be a Supreme Court justice to improve abortion access in your community — women like you are leading the fight for abortion rights in their neighborhoods right now!
Keep reading to learn the ways different state & local offices can support reproductive freedom in your area. We need to make sure these offices are held by Democratic pro-choice women who understand the stakes and are willing to use their positions to fight — that’s why we need you to run. You can find local races through 2024 using our Where Can I Run? tool. Figure out which offices seem like a good fit, and then check out this list for inspiration on how you could use those offices to protect abortion in your community. Not all of these ideas may be right for you, your area, or for the specific rules of your local office, so take this list as a starting point for inspiration.
State legislators can:
- Codify the right to an abortion
- Expand access to abortion by repealing physician-only requirements allowing nurse practitioners, nurse-midwives, and other health professionals to provide abortion care
- Regulate deceptive fake clinics, also known as “crisis pregnancy centers,” which manipulate people seeking abortion care
- Allocate state funding to abortion funds
- Require insurance plans in your state to cover abortion care
- Decriminalize self-managed abortion
- Repeal parental notification/consent laws for young people accessing abortion
- Establish a state-funded reproductive health training program to educate physicians, nurses, and midwives on providing abortion care
- Remove in-person requirements for abortion to allow telehealth access
City Council members & Mayors can:
- Establish buffer zones that protect abortion clinics from harassment
- Allocate municipal funding to abortion funds
- Study reproductive health outcomes in your city and how to improve them
- Ensure municipal employee insurance plans cover abortion
- Require city contractors to cover abortion care for all of their employees
- Officially recognize Abortion Provider Appreciation Day
School Board members can:
- Implement a comprehensive sex-education curriculum
- Distribute free menstrual hygiene products to students
- Ensure students have access to information on local reproductive health clinics and how to access services
- If your state has parental notification or consent laws for young people accessing abortion care, partner with legal organizations and create a program to assist students navigating the process
County Commissioners can:
- Create a county-wide public awareness campaign on abortion care with information on nearby clinics, current laws, and local abortion funds
- Adopt noise ordinances to protect abortion clinics from protester harassment
- Post information on local abortion clinics and funds in your county health department and make sure the staff is up to date on information to be able to direct residents to abortion care services as needed
- Update county zoning ordinances for abortion clinics eliminating unnecessary hurdles to opening new clinics
District Attorneys can:
- Pledge not to prosecute abortion providers or pregnant people suspected of self-managing an abortion
- Prosecute anti-choice protesters harassing clinics
- Enforce proactive abortion laws passed in your state
Even if you live in an area hostile to abortion access by being in office you can help by:
- Shining a spotlight on bad legislation. Work with allies to convince your opponents that negative press & public outcry is reason enough to pull a bill.
- Telling your abortion story to bust stigma and start community-wide conversations about the importance of abortion access.
- Sharing information about abortion providers in other states and your local abortion funds which help people with travel, lodging, and other expenses.
- Speaking out on the record against anti-abortion legislation, ordinances, and policies — even if a bill passes, vocal opposition is vital to keeping the fight alive and keeping your community engaged.
- Hiring abortion workers looking for new work. They have incredible experience in community engagement, outreach, and crisis management which makes them strong assets for political work!
This list is just a starting point — connect with abortion clinics and funds in your area and talk to them! Listen to what they need, and brainstorm ways you can work together in office. The fight for abortion rights takes each one of us finding creative, brave ways to work in our communities and make a difference.
Start your candidate journey today with the EMILY’s List Training Center and defend abortion in your neighborhood!
