A year ago, we really had no idea what the future would hold for our organization or our movement. We feared the worst after the 2016 election—a roll back of federal rights and advancements made with regard to reproductive health care and an increase in state-level anti-abortion, anti-reproductive rights laws and policies.  What we didn’t expect was the HUGE outpouring of activism and support for our work.

We were inundated by people wanting to volunteer their time with us, so much so that we started a volunteer program and now have more than 420 volunteers registered! We experienced an influx of nearly 2,000 new supporters and 500 new donors—which helps us expand our influence and reach. And, we received new, significant support, from several foundations.

And, most importantly, we experienced a huge increase in activism from clinicians all around the country. For the past 8 years we have been doggedly reaching out and connecting with pro-choice clinicians all across the country to build a strong Network of clinicians we can all on to work with us to improve access to reproductive health care.  Over the past 12 months this Network has expanded to more than 1,600 members and many are deepening their involvement. We now have 20 active local “Clusters” in states like Idaho, Georgia, Ohio, Maine, North Caroline, and Vermont.

Our organization grew as a result.  We have a more robust programmatic team managing our programs, and we took steps to strengthen our infrastructure. We are now able to more easily communicate with supporters and have the capacity to develop online advocacy and educational campaigns. And, we moved into a new office.

Here are some other highlights from the past year:

• We celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Reproductive Health Care and Advocacy Fellowship, and added a new site to our fellowship program in 2018: Minneapolis, Minnesota!
• We’ve taken on a new Miscarriage Care Initiative site, the Community East Family Medicine Residency Program, in Indianapolis, Indiana.
• We have continued to develop strong relationships with our coalition partners and ally organizations. This year, we’ve signed onto several letters of support for protecting reproductive rights from the Coalition on Liberty and Justice, joined social media storms to support our partners’ efforts, and attended Netsroots Nation and SisterSong’s 20th anniversary conference in hopes of expanding and diversifying how we approach our own work in the reproductive health, rights, and justice movement.
• We continue to update and develop new patient education materials. We translated 33 of most popular patient handouts into Hindi and Vietnamese. Of our newest materials, we are especially excited about our new miscarriage-centered offerings, such as What Is a Miscarriage? We’ve also updated our website to make these materials more easily searchable and accessible. Be sure to check it out if you haven’t already!

Our work in 2018 and beyond is to build on and harness the increased activism and support we experienced in 2017. We have seen that grassroots involvement is what is needed to hold back regressive and oppressive policy change, both nationally and at the state level.  We will use our unique position, as an organization working directly with primary care clinicians promoting comprehensive evidenced-based reproductive health care, to resist policies—both local, national—that limit access to reproductive health care.  Expect more outreach from us to engage in critical campaigns like our recent Net Neutrality campaign.

We also reaffirm our commitment to expanding our core clinical training and support efforts such as the Reproductive Health Care and Advocacy Fellowship and our work to expand to other sites in 2019 and beyond. We will continue to support primary care providers and organizations to integrate abortion and manage pregnancy loss.

Thank YOU for being part of the movement to make reproductive health care accessible to everyone.