January 2019

 

End of Year Fundraising Success!

Thanks to over 250 supporters, we raised over $80,000 for our year-end campaign! Your support and the impact it has on clinicians and patients keep us inspired. Thank you for taking Abortion Access in YOUR Hands by committing to expanding access to reproductive health care. RHAP will now be able to create new educational resources for clinicians to provide comprehensive care to their patients and will have the capacity to train more clinicians to provide medication abortion.

We are ready to take on 2019 with full force by increasing access to abortion in primary care settings and training more clinicians to be outspoken advocates for reproductive health care. Thank you for standing with us as we push against anti-abortion extremist efforts that aim to deny us access to the reproductive health care we all need and deserve.

We want to thank two amazing supporters – the band Yo La Tengo and comedian Krystyna Hutchinson – who helped raise funds for RHAP just before the end of the year. We are so grateful!

Yo La Tengo

With the cooperation of and support from the Bowery Ballroom, Yo La Tengo organized and headlined a concert on December 4th, 2018, to benefit RHAP. They raised over $13,000 for us! This was one of eight concerts the band played during every night of Hanukkah. Each night, the concert proceeds were donated to a different organization, with all of the musicians, comedians, and DJs performing for free. We are honored to be one of the organizations chosen to be a part of these Hanukkah concerts.

Guys We Fest

Krystyna Hutchinson, a comedian from the top comedy podcast Guys We F****d: The Anti Slut-Shaming Podcast, raised over $8,000 for RHAP through the Guys We Fest festival this summer! All proceeds from the comedy event benefitted the Reproductive Health Access Project and New Alternatives, a nonprofit that works with LGBTQ+ homeless youth.

If you have an event, would like to host a house party to raise funds for RHAP, and/or have other ideas on how to fundraise for RHAP, please reach out to our Development Officer at nushin@reproductiveaccess.org.

 

Using Papayas to Fight Stigma

What do papayas have to do with fighting abortion stigma? Great question! One of the ways that RHAP teaches both clinicians and non-clinicians about abortion is through the interactive Papaya Workshop. The Papaya Workshop is a hands-on opportunity to teach clinicians about manual vacuum aspiration (MVA) abortion – believe it or not, papayas are a great anatomical model of a uterus! This workshop also gives us the opportunity to model and role play patient-centered options counseling, discuss medication abortion as another early abortion option, and offer our clinical audiences hands-on practice with instruments used in an MVA abortion. Participants walk through every step of the procedure with a clinical facilitator who demonstrates the procedure and helps participants focus on their words and actions when providing patient-centered options counseling, and to increase competency with the instruments. 

RHAP also offers this workshop to non-clinical audiences, including students and reproductive rights and justice organizations, to help debunk common myths and misconceptions about abortion, the people who provide abortions, and the people who have abortions. By gaining a comprehensive understanding of the actual clinical procedure, audiences will be better informed and equipped as advocates, allowing them to further demystify abortion in their organizations and communities.

If you’re interested in learning more about our papaya workshops, contact Hailey or Kallie. Click here if you’re interested in hosting your own.

 

Thinking About a World With and Without Roe

January 22, 2019, marks the 46th anniversary of Roe v Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the United States. Lately, it seems as if every conversation at RHAP centers one way or another around Roe. What will happen if Roe falls? Where will people go to access abortion care? What states are safe abortion havens? How do we quickly train clinicians to provide safe access to abortion care while we still can? How can we help make sure that people have access to safe abortion care, regardless of where they live? What steps can we take now to ensure state laws will protect abortion no matter what happens to Roe? How can we support clinicians to provide patient-centered care to people who self-manage their abortions?

Answering these questions has helped us map out our organizational strategy for the next 3-5 years. One key area we have agreed upon is to focus more of our resources on ensuring access to abortion. We will ramp up our efforts to expand access to medication abortion, both by increasing clinical training and our support to institutions looking to provide this care. We will also proactively engage the clinicians we work with across the country to advocate for state legislation protecting and expanding their ability to provide abortion care. This is a shift for us, but one we feel is critical given the current judicial and legislative environment.

We have already started this work. Our #GivingTuesday campaign raised nearly $9,000 to provide medication abortion supplies to clinicians and health care institutions across the country. Our education team has developed a continuing education workshop (so clinicians can get needed education credits) on medication abortion that we will be providing through our Network all across the country. And, we are gearing up to sponsor more Papaya Workshops (our way of teaching patient-centered pregnancy options counseling and introducing skills to provide medication and aspiration abortion) for residents, nursing students, medical students, and community clinicians. We can even host a Papaya Workshop for you!

This is just the beginning. There is so much more we want to do, so stay tuned!

 

Intern Opportunities!

Are you interested in developing marketable fundraising skills? Check out our Development Internship! Are you looking to hone your creative skills and build your design portfolio? Apply to be our Graphic Design Intern! Interns play a key role in ensuring that RHAP fulfills its mission, and we are currently seeking a Development Intern and a Graphic Design Intern.

Development Intern: We are looking for a highly motivated, organized, and detail-oriented individual to join our team. RHAP expects to continue its growth in the coming years, and the Development Intern will be an integral part of sustaining this growth. This is a unique opportunity to make a significant contribution to an exciting, mission-driven organization. The Development Intern is a part-time position reporting to the Development Officer.

Graphic Design Intern: The Graphic Design Intern will play a key role in ensuring that the Reproductive Health Access Project is able to communicate complex ideas and information clearly and efficiently while creating a strong and innovative brand experience that builds upon our existing materials and style. This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic, detail-oriented, creative self-starter to support a variety of local and national initiatives. This is a part-time (hours flexible) position reporting to the Executive Director and the Operations Associate.

You can click here to find more detailed information about these positions on our website.

How to apply:

Please send a cover letter, resume, and short writing sample or your portfolio to hr@reproductiveaccess.org. Please indicate the position you are applying for in the subject line. Only complete applications will be reviewed. Please no phone calls, emails, or fax inquiries.

More information:

The Reproductive Health Access Project (RHAP) is an Equal Opportunity Employer. 

Travel stipends and membership to appropriate professional member organization will be provided. We are able to offer school credit for undergraduate interns. Although a commitment of 10-15 hours a week is expected, the schedule is flexible. RHAP sponsors all interns to attend the annual Civil Liberties and Public Policy (CLPP) conference in the spring at Hampshire College.