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The Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice Releases First Priorities for an Incoming Administration
WASHINGTON — Today, the Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice released First Priorities, a detailed punch list of executive and agency actions for the opening days of an incoming administration.
First Priorities is based on the Blueprint, a bold, intersectional, and proactive policy agenda to advance sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice released last year and developed by a diverse coalition of more than 90 organizations.
First Priorities for the Blueprint for Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice is a roadmap for an incoming administration’s first days. It lists specific actions centered around six key points and milestones:
1. On day one, issue an Executive Order unequivocally committing to reproductive health care, rights and justice. Specifically, the Executive Order must:
Revoke the January 23, 2017 Presidential Memorandum Regarding the Mexico City Policy and clarify what is permitted under current law to ensure access to comprehensive reproductive health care, including foreign assistance for abortion, to the maximum extent allowed;
Rescind Executive Order 13535 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s Consistency with Longstanding Restrictions on the Use of Federal Funds for Abortion;
Direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue guidance to lift the FDA’s in-person dispensing requirement for mifepristone for the duration of the public health emergency, consistent with similar directives and waivers issued to reduce risk of COVID-19; and
Direct all executive departments and agencies to rescind other harmful policies and regulations, and take proactive steps to protect care, including but not limited to those actions listed under Sections 5 and 6 below.
2. Publicly commit the U.S to re-engaging on a global scale to advance the health and rights of individuals worldwide and re-engage with international organizations.
3. Propose a budget that demonstrates a commitment to sexual and reproductive health. This includes significant investments in global family planning and reproductive health programs, the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program, the Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), the Title X Family Planning Program, the Title V Maternal & Child Health Services Block Grant; the CDC Safe Motherhood and Infant Health Initiative, and the Surveillance for Emerging Threats to Mothers and Babies, among others. The budget must also end the Hyde Amendment and related restrictions, and ensure that everyone has abortion coverage, regardless of their income or source of insurance. The Administration must also commit to veto legislation that extends, reiterates or incorporates the Hyde Amendment and related restrictions, including annual appropriations bills.
4. Nominate and appoint individuals for executive branch positions who are experts in their field and possess a positive record on reproductive health, rights, and justice.
5. Halt all non-final regulations that limit access to reproductive health care, including abortion and initiate the process of rescinding harmful regulations, including the “Domestic Gag Rule.”
6. Within 90 days of assuming office, institute key agency policy and practice changes that advance reproductive health care, rights, and justice. These changes ran the gamut from HHS to the State Department to the Department of Justice and include:
The Department of Health and Human Services must protect patients’ choice of reproductive health care provider, in part by reinstating 2016 guidance reaffirming Medicaid’s free choice of provider provisions, and ensuring that states may not exclude qualified providers of reproductive health care from Medicaid for reasons unrelated to their qualifications, including their provision of abortion care;
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) must rescind a 2008 policy that requires heightened ORR involvement in abortions and issue new guidance to ensure that all care facilities provide minors with timely, confidential access to family planning services, including pregnancy tests and comprehensive, non-directive information about and access to reproductive health services, such as abortion and contraception, including emergency contraception.
The administration must use every mechanism at its disposal to encourage states to extend Medicaid and CHIP coverage to at least 12 months postpartum, including by issuing guidance, while ensuring continued Maintenance of Effort (MOE);
First Priorities and the Blueprint are grounded in the fundamental belief that in order for people to be free and equal they must be able to exercise complete autonomy over their bodies. They stem from the palpable urgency, in light of increasingly hostile attacks on reproductive autonomy and rights, for a transformative vision for the future that centers reproductive health, rights, and justice.
First Priorities can be found at: reproblueprint.org
Organizational Sign-Ons*
Abortion Care Network
Advocates for Youth
AIDS Alliance for Women, Infants, Children, Youth & Families
All-Options
All* Above All
American Atheists
American Civil Liberties Union
American Jewish World Service
American Medical Student Association
Black Mamas Matter Alliance
Black Women for Wellness
Black Women’s Health Imperative
Catholics for Choice
Center for Disability Rights
Center for Reproductive Rights
CHANGE (Center for Health & Gender Equity)
Colorado Organization for Latina Opportunity and Reproductive Rights (COLOR)
EMAA Project
EngenderHealth
Feminist Women’s Health Center
Forward Together Action
Friends of UNFPA
Global Justice Center
Guttmacher Institute
Healthy and Free Tennessee
Healthy Teen Network
Human Rights Watch
Ibis Reproductive Health
If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice
In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda
International Center for Research on Women (ICRW)
International Women’s Health Coalition
Ipas
Jacobs Institute of Women’s Health
Jewish Women International
JUMUIYA WOMEN FUND
March for Moms
Minority Veterans of America
MomsRising
NARAL Pro-Choice America
National Abortion Federation
National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF)
National Center for Lesbian Rights
National Council of Jewish Women
National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association
National Health Law Program
National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice
National LGBTQ Task Force
National Network of Abortion Funds
National Organization for Women
National Partnership for Women & Families
National Women’s Health Network
National Women’s Law Center
New Voices for Reproductive Justice
Not Without Black Women
Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health
Oklahoma Call for Reproductive Justice
PAI
People For the American Way
Physicians for Reproductive Health
Planned Parenthood Federation of America
Population Connection Action Fund
Population Institute
Positive Women’s Network-USA
Power to Decide
Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice
Reproductive Health Access Project
SIECUS: Sex Ed for Social Change
SisterLove, Inc.
SisterReach
SisterSong: National Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW!, Inc.
Sustainable Development Solutions Network-KENYA
TEACH
The Womxn Project
Union for Reform Judaism
URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity
Whole Woman’s Health
Whole Woman’s Health Alliance
Wisconsin Alliance for Women’s Health
Women of Reform Judaism
Women With A Vision, Inc
*Endorsement is an indication of solidarity within our movement and a recognition of the urgency of these policies. Endorsement does not necessarily mean that organizations have expertise on or are actively working towards each priority or policy list.
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