The National Women's Law Center Launches Initiative to Protect Abortion Rights

WASHINGTON, July 16, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) launched the Abortion Rights Project to respond to the unprecedented assault on abortion rights in this country. A major focus of the initiative will be supporting state and local groups working on the frontlines of the fight to protect the right to abortion and expand abortion access. The Abortion Rights Project is providing an initial investment of $350,000 to 11 groups across the country doing critical work to keep clinics open, help people access abortion care, drive public education and narrative change on abortion, engage in grassroots organizing especially among communities of color, challenge abortion restrictions, and strengthen abortion rights. It will also provide these organizations delivering vital services with legal and technical assistance, as well as research, analysis, and grassroots media and visibility efforts.

"Our country is engaged in one of the greatest gender justice fights of our time," said Fatima Goss Graves, President & CEO of NWLC. "Anti-abortion politicians are banning abortion, shutting down clinics, criminalizing providers, and shaming women who seek an abortion. Make no mistake: an abortion ban in Georgia is the same as the attempt to shut down an abortion clinic in Arkansas, and these are the same as the next attack in the next state. This is a coordinated effort to end abortion at any cost, and to strip away our rights to safety, dignity, and equality."

As part of the Abortion Rights Project, a national public education campaign will engage and mobilize the public, strengthened by local and state efforts led by our partner groups. The campaign will work to achieve a national landscape where all of us, no matter our race, income, zip code, immigration status, or gender, can safely access abortion with dignity.

The Abortion Rights Project's inaugural launch partners include:

• Little Rock Family Planning Clinic (Arkansas)
• Black Women for Wellness (California)
• DC Abortion Fund (District of Columbia)
• Progress Florida Education Institute (Florida)
• Feminist Women's Health Center (Georgia)
• EverThrive IL (Illinois)
• Lift Louisiana (Louisiana)
• Mabel Wadsworth Center (Maine)
• Access Reproductive Care (ARC) ? Southeast (serving Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida)
• New Voices for Reproductive Justice (Ohio/Pennsylvania)
• Women's Law Project (Pennsylvania)

For more information on NWLC's Abortion Rights Project, including donation information, please visit: www.nwlc.org/abortionrightsproject.

The National Women's Law Center fights for gender justice ? in the courts, in public policy, and in our society ? working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. We use the law in all its forms to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of us ? especially those who face multiple forms of discrimination, including women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families. For more than 45 years, we have been on the leading edge of every major legal and policy victory for women. Find out more at NWLC.org.

Contact: LySaundra Campbell, [email protected]

SOURCE National Women's Law Center