Power To Decide

Systems and practices: power to decide's reproductive well-being (rwb) efforts focus on empowering individuals and communities to make informed choices about their reproductive futures. By fostering collaborative partnerships, we engage local stakeholders to design and implement solutions tailored to the unique needs of each community, ensuring resources and support are accessible to all, especially those facing the greatest access barriers. Through our campus sexual health program, we partner with institutions like historically black colleges and universities (hbcus) to improve campus-wide access to sexual and reproductive health education and services. Since 2023, we have spearheaded a student-led initiative called beyond the sheets. The goal of this student-led initiative is to empower students on hbcu campuses to promote a culture of sexual and reproductive well-being through student-led engagement strategies aimed at raising awareness, providing education, reducing stigma, and promoting advocacy and movement building. Research (available at https://www.routledge.com/sexual-health-and-black-college-students-exploring-the-sexual-milieu-of-hbcus/hall/p/book/9781032015705) has shown that black students at hbcus bear a disproportionate burden of poorer sexual health outcomes. By blending community engagement, cultural competence, and systemic change, power to decide's work on college campuses ensures students and communities have the tools and resources they need to thrive.

Marketing & communications: the marketing and communications team at power to decide plays a pivotal role in advancing the organization's mission, ensuring that everyone has the information and resources they need to achieve and maintain their reproductive well-being. Through strategic press outreach, entertainment media partnerships, and the creation and dissemination of relevant, timely content, the team amplifies key messages and drives meaningful engagement. In november 2024, we celebrated the 12th anniversary of thanks, birth control day, our cornerstone campaign that empowers young people to speak openly about all that birth control makes possible while reinforcing the critical importance of access. This year's campaign engaged a diverse array of participants, including celebrities, media outlets, policymakers, and partner organizations. In just one month, #thxbirthcontrol sparked more than 19.6 million engagements across social media platforms, expanding the conversation and deepening its impact. By leveraging rapid response efforts, targeted outreach, and prompt press release distribution, our expert insights, quotes, and resources received widespread coverage in leading national and local media outlets. Notable highlights include ceo, raegan mcdonald-mosley, md, mph being interviewed by nbc news and the independent discussing mifepristone and emergency abortion access in the wake of the supreme court ruling; word in black to discuss two years post-roe; and repros fight back podcast to discuss birth control mis- and dis-information. Additionally, an op-ed was placed in ms. Magazine addressing the impact of the dobbs decision two years later. Our beyond the sheets media highlights include atlanta daily world and black enterprise. Notable abortionfinder and bedsider mentions include u.s. News, cosmopolitan, vox, msnbc, ms. Magazine, and self.for nearly 30 years, power to decide has partnered with popular culture and entertainment industries to encourage and inform stories about sex, love, relationships, birth control and the context in which it all happens. From grey's anatomy and teen mom to tlc and bet, we collaborate with storytellers and media decision-makers across the pop culture landscape to portray sexual health, relationships, and birth control in a relevant, approachable way. Through comedies, dramas, unscripted and digital/social content, our media partners reach audiences where they are with helpful messages and trusted resources like bedsider and abortionfinder. Together, these creative collaborations spark conversations and help catalyze a culture of reproductive well-being for all.

Public policy: power to decide's policy work focuses on protecting and expanding policies that empower people to decide if, when, and under what circumstances to get pregnant and have a child with an emphasis on addressing the needs of those who face the greatest barriers to information and care. These policies and programs enable people to achieve and maintain their reproductive well-being. At the federal level, some examples of our work include a provision of the 2025 ndaa that expands no co-pay coverage of contraception to all tricare beneficiaries. We also provided technical assistance on an unprecedented volume of bills introduced in congress, including the convenient contraception act, the stop anti-abortion disinformation act, and much more. Additionally, in 2024 we briefed more than 900 policymakers and advocates at the federal and state levels regarding how to combat contraceptive mis and disinformation.like our federal work, power to decide's state work aims to inform and advance policies that reduce inequities in reproductive health care coverage, access, and information. We maintain a state contraceptive access toolkit that tracks state policies that improve contraceptive access. We have also provided technical assistance to additional states as they think through how to move these policies forward. Our state policy work also addresses abortion access at the state level. We monitor state legislation and litigation impacting abortion access as well as contraception, and that information informs the state-by-state guide on abortionfinder.org (available at https://www.abortionfinder.org/abortion-guides-by-state).