It’s no secret that President Donald Trump, his administration, and Republican lawmakers are trying to dismantle women’s reproductive rights in 2017. Trump has already taken steps to defund Planned Parenthood and expand the global gag rule. The Department of Health and Human Services hired women who have said that contraception doesn’t work, that IUDs have “life-ending properties,” and that abstinence-only education works to serve in leadership positions. Republicans in Congress are trying to dismantle health care provided to women by the Affordable Care Act. The list goes on and on, but this is not the time to give up.
Despite the threats to reproductive rights at the federal level, state legislators are finding ways to protect women. States have always been vital to expanding and restricting reproductive rights. Before Roe v. Wade in 1973, for example, states decided the legality of abortion, and only three had repealed their abortion laws by the time the landmark decision was made. But while Roe v. Wade took away one decision for states, according to Gloria Totten, the founder and president of a policy and leadership center called the Public Leadership Institute (PLI), plenty of other legislation that threatens women—attacks on Planned Parenthood, shutting down abortion clinics, and enacting bans on specific procedures—often starts at the state level. However, the reverse is true too, and state lawmakers are harnessing their power to enact policies that protect and expand women’s reproductive health rights.
For example, New Mexico just approved a new policy whereby pharmacists can directly prescribe women birth control, a move officials say will help women in the largely rural state have better access to contraception. Democratic lawmakers in Nevada are working to pass a bill that would require all insurers to cover patients’ contraception, regardless of a business owner’s religion. They also just passed legislation to make insurers cover 12 months of birth control at a time without copayments; Colorado recently signed a similar bill into law, and Virginia has one in the works.
With abortion rights threatened by a Supreme Court dominated by conservatives, it’s state lawmakers who will have to step up if Roe v. Wadeis dismantled. The state of Maryland just enacted legislation to guaranteePlanned Parenthood funding in the event that the federal government cuts it. Oregon is looking to pass a law that would require all insurers to cover abortions in the state regardless of a person’s gender, income, or citizenship status. Meanwhile, Illinois is trying to undo a “trigger law” that would outlaw and criminalize abortion if the Supreme Court’s historic Roe v. Wade decision was ever overturned, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed writing a woman’s right to an abortion into the state constitution—a major achievement for a state whose biggest city has been called “The Abortion Capital of America” for its centuries-old progressive views on the issue.
But there’s a long way to go before every state actually respects reproductive rights. Each of these bills faces resistance from antiabortion activists, but tensions between community activists and lawmakers who are trying to pass actual reproductive rights legislation can be just as damaging to the process.
“Part of the advice that we’re constantly giving both the lawmakers and the advocates is that you need to start working together early on in the process,” Totten tells Glamour. Totten’s organization offers support to local and state-level lawmakers, providing resources to better understand the issues and figure out the best tactics for passing legislation. “Too often what we find is that policymakers will say, ‘I want to do something!’ and they’ll know their legislative process really well. Or the advocates will say they want to do something and they’ll know the external environment really well, but [lawmakers and advocates] fully bake their ideas before coming together,” Totten notes.
One of PLI’s recent achievements was convincing 52 lawmakers across 27 different states to pledge to introduce proactive abortion rights legislation. Totten hopes lawmakers will meet with advocates and organizers earlier in the process of drafting legislation to streamline the system and figure out how to effectively promote and enact bills.
For those looking to get involved in reproductive rights issues close to home, Totten says people should look for nearby chapters or affiliates of organizations like Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and interfaith alliances, many of whom also work with legislators.
Even with these encouraging developments, Totten knows not every proabortion bill will get passed—in many cases, they won’t even be debated, let alone get a vote. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to throw in the towel. “In most places we will not pass anything, so we have to be even more strategic about when we’re using policy,” she says. The fight might seem overwhelming at times, but Totten knows from experience that even the smallest actions—like getting groups to sign resolutions or volunteering with proabortion organizations—really do add up.
