Ever since Donald Trump’s election, reproductive rights advocates have had to counter a continuous stream of legislative and policy attacks. Each week brings more talk of what the fall of Roe v. Wade could look like.
Planned Parenthood clinics have stopped using Title X funds thanks to new rules imposed by the Trump Administration. Unconstitutional abortion bans continue to work their way through the courts. And new government policies privilege religion over patients’ rights. Under these pressures, Planned Parenthood recently removed its CEO, in part due to concerns over her ability to advocate for abortion rights.
It can start to feel like the fight for reproductive rights is only about preventing backslide, but that’s far from the truth. Recently, a coalition of nearly eighty organizations—including Planned Parenthood—unveiled their Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice. It’s a plan focused on moving reproductive rights forward.
Organizations spanning a range of missions, from racial equity to religious freedom, collaborated on the policy agenda, which approaches reproductive rights through an intersectional lens. Groups include the ACLU, Black Women’s Health Imperative, American Atheists, American Jewish World Service, Catholics for Choice, National LGBTQ Task Force, and dozens more.
Organizations spanning a range of missions, from racial equity to religious freedom, collaborated on the policy agenda.
The authors of the blueprint bill it as a map for policymakers, and as the plan was unveiled, some called on 2020 presidential candidates to take note.
“Today, we’re joining nearly eighty other reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations to release the #ReproBlueprint—a policy agenda to guide #2020Election candidates on how we fight for a world with reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy for ALL,” tweeted NARAL, one of the blueprint’s authors.
Through five key principles, the collaborating organizations aim to achieve equal sexual and reproductive rights for all, especially for “those of us who have fewer resources and means to navigate systemic barriers,” the blueprint states. The five principles are:
- Ensure sexual and reproductive health care is accessible to all people.
- Eliminate discriminatory barriers in health care.
- Promote research and innovation that advances sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice now and in the future.
- Seek health, rights, justice, and wellness for all communities.
- Demand that judges and executive officials advance sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice.
The policy agenda offers specific legislative paths for achieving these goals, including repealing the Hyde Amendment, implementing legislation to require coverage of reproductive health care, and passing the Equality Act.
Despite recent setbacks, most adults in the United States consider themselves pro-choice, according to a recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll. Sixty percent think abortion should be decriminalized and restrictions loosened. Only 13 percent believe Roe v Wade should be overturned.
These numbers have given confidence to pro-choice political candidates. During the Democratic Party’s first round of debates, participants supported abortion rights in general. But they shied away from the details.
The Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice is a challenge to 2020 candidates to do more than pay lip service to reproductive rights. It’s a call to presidential and Congressional hopefuls to commit to implementing meaningful legislative protections that ensure no one has to play defense when it comes to making decisions about their own body.