NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR REPRODUCTIVE

Local programs: for more than 15 years, the national institute for reproductive health (nirh) has been at the vanguard of efforts to secure reproductive health, rights, and justice at the local level. This focus on local advocacy is based on four core assumptions: 1) for most people, local governments have the greatest, most immediate impact on their lives; 2) local governments, which act as laboratories for democracy, can directly increase access to reproductive health care, create more expansive rights, and work with communities to advance justice; 3) a focus on local advocacy builds the broad-based movements necessary to create and secure lasting change; and 4) building such movements requires ensuring that those most impacted by restrictive lawsparticularly black, indigenous, and other people of color (bipoc) communitiesare not only at the table, but also centered in the agenda and in decision-making. We support advocates secure policy change that will create just and equitable communities for all and educate and engage the public about these issues. This past year, nirh worked hand-in-hand with local advocates to pursue and win expansive policies, including municipal funding for abortion care, clinic protection policies, and referenda espousing support for abortion access. We also created new tools to support these efforts, including our local reproductive freedom index (published in early 2024), a one-of-a-kind biennial analysis of how cities are addressing reproductive health, rights, and justice issues and a call to action for local elected officials to use all the tools at their disposal to fight for reproductive freedom. We have also used the lrfi framework to help local advocates score their own cities so they can use the results for advocacy and provided other resources to help advocates engage their communities.