Local programs: in parallel to its state-based efforts, nirh has also invested deeply in work at the local level, understanding that city and county governments play a crucial role in ensuring that people can control their reproductive and sexual lives, choose whether and when to become parents, and get the support they need to raise their families. Work at the local level provides an exciting opportunity to move beyond defense to develop and implement reproductive health policies that improve and expand access to vital services, even in the most conservative states. Nirh's 2021 partnership efforts at the local level included efforts to increase equitable access to abortion care in los angeles county, CA, cook county, IL, kalamazoo, MI, New York city, and multiple localities in minnesota and oregon; it also supported efforts to safeguard clinics and health care providers against attacks in louisville, KY. In addition, in multiple localities in maryland and rhode island, it worked to help eliminate disparities in maternal health, including through expanded access to doula care and the creation of local reproductive justice commissions. Finally to support and encourage work at the local level, nirh published its third biennial local reproductive freedom index. This past year's report, which looks back at how cities addressed the intersection of reproductive freedom with the major events of 2019-2020 (e.G., The onset of the covid-19 pandemic, uprisings for racial justice, unprecedented restrictions on abortion care, and attacks upon voting), provides a roadmap for leveraging the unique position that cities hold to providing access to care for their residents and those who travel to them. With the local index and its other publications, nirh is providing advocates and policymakers with information, ideas, tools, and strategic guidance that they can use to make their cities more equitable places to live.

Service Area:

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