Our Mission

The Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP) trains, supports, and mobilizes primary care clinicians to ensure equitable access to sexual and reproductive health care, including abortion. By centering communities most impacted by barriers to care, RHAP fills critical gaps in clinical education and care delivery.

 

The Challenge

People in the United States face huge barriers to accessing reproductive health care. Nearly 9 out of 10 counties do not have an abortion provider. In rural areas, 1 in 3 abortion patients has to travel more than 100 miles to receive abortion services. In 34 states and the District of Columbia, low-income individuals are barred from receiving Medicaid to cover abortion services in most cases.

Primary care clinicians, who are the main health care providers working in under-served urban and rural U.S. communities, are the key to expanding access to quality reproductive health care. However, merely 6% of family medicine residency programs offer training in abortion care. Most of them do not offer training in the most up-to-date miscarriage care or the broadest range of family planning methods. There is a great need to expand reproductive health training and provision of these services among primary care clinicians.

 

Our Response

The Reproductive Health Access Project is guided by the principle that individuals of all socioeconomic levels—no matter where they live—should have safe access to abortion, contraception, and miscarriage care from their primary health care providers. That is why RHAP works to expand access through the support and training of family medicine clinicians and other primary care clinicians nationwide. RHAP forms a bridge between the primary care community and the reproductive health, rights, and justice movement.

 

RHAP accomplishes its objectives in three key ways:

Training & Support

RHAP is building a national community of abortion, evidence-based contraception, and miscarriage care providers—a group that has shrunk due to both legislative and violent attacks. RHAP provides a wide range of supports to new and experienced clinicians, many of whom are the lone pro-choice, pro-contraception providers in their communities. RHAP connects these clinicians to like-minded colleagues and helps them navigate the challenges of adapting their health centers or practices to provide comprehensive reproductive health care. Through our fellowships, grants, and training programs, we offer hands-on training as well as financial and technical assistance.

 

Clinical Tools & Publications

RHAP is one of the most trusted sources of clinical information related to reproductive health care. RHAP harnesses extensive scientific information to help physicians use the latest research to counsel their patients on abortion, miscarriage management, and contraception. The resources are freely available on our website and in 2014 were downloaded by more than 480,000 users worldwide. Additionally, RHAP conducts research and publishes evidence on reproductive health training and access.

 

Advocacy & Research

RHAP works closely with established professional organizations, such as the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, to ensure that family physicians and other primary care providers receive adequate training and meet educational standards required to provide their patients with comprehensive, evidence-based abortion, contraception, and miscarriage care.