The LWVODC Reproductive Healthcare action team was founded in 2023. Guided by LWVUS policy positions, we:
- Create opportunities to provide factual reproductive healthcare information to the community
- Partner and network with organizations to support efforts to protect and expand access to reproductive choices in our area, such as Chapel Hill – NOW
- Support reproductive rights organizations and abortion funds across the state, such as Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, the Carolina Abortion Fund (CAF), Pro-Choice North Carolina, and Interfaith Voices for Reproductive Freedom (IVRF)
- Contact NC state and federal representatives and speak up at the General Assembly to support having access to affordable, quality health care, including birth control and the privacy to make reproductive choices
At the LWVODC 2025 annual meeting we reported that over the next year we will continue our networking, promoting attending rallies, protests, and educational events. We are focusing our efforts on NC Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). Most CPCs do not have medical staff and radiologists and have provided misleading information about abortion services and birth control options (see What are crisis pregnancy centers?, MedicalNewsToday, April 18, 2023). Millions of NC taxpayer dollars are funding CPCs with little oversight or outcome data demonstrating what the money is spent on. See our report and research on CPCs, Reproductive Justice Updates, in the LWVODC August 2025 newsletter.
Members of LWVODC, Chapel Hill-NOW, IVRF, and other advocacy groups have been meeting to discuss North Carolina’s CPCs to strategize what can be done about them. We have formed a network and are in the process of implementing our strategies to achieve our goals and shared values to:
- Decrease CPC influence in our area
- Address the developing healthcare crisis as CPCs are getting more public funding (Anti-abortion centers raked in $1.4bn in year Roe fell, including federal money, The Guardian, Feb. 14, 2024) while legitimate healthcare clinics, such as Planned Parenthood (PP), are set to lose Medicaid funding (NC House Passes Legislation to End Medicaid Funding for Planned Parenthood,NC Political News, Oct. 23, 2025).
In January 2025, The Assembly reported that over the past three years, the NC state legislature has given $30 million of taxpayer money to crisis pregnancy centers, with little oversight or outcomes.
Our strategy includes educating the public, healthcare providers, public health officials, local leaders, politicians, and the media about CPCs with the goal of disrupting their state funding. We aim to disrupt the need for CPCs by distributing free women’s healthcare kits with pregnancy tests and informing and educating the public about legitimate healthcare clinics.
Current Projects
Below are two projects we are working on currently. With each passing day, access to reproductive healthcare is getting more restrictive. Please consider joining or donating. (When donating, please indicate “For LWVODC Reproductive Healthcare Action Team” in the instructions to the seller.)
Reproductive Healthcare Education Symposium
We’re planning a Reproductive Healthcare Education Symposium on Sat., Feb. 7, 2026. This symposium will provide an update on reproductive healthcare since the fall of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court's 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion. There will be a focus on Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs) -- what they are and what they are not -- and a call to action for attendees to contact state officials to stop state funding of CPCs.
Free Healthcare Kits
We are creating free healthcare kits for distribution (in English and Spanish) to reduce people’s need to seek services at CPCs. We are networking with groups that distribute food, feminine products, diapers, and formula, to request they include free pregnancy tests in their distributions. As a pilot program, the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service in Carrboro has agreed to distribute our kits. After piloting with IFC, we plan to expand to other organizations, businesses, and counties. We also will involve college and graduate students, since Chapel Hill and Durham have large student populations who may not want to obtain a pregnancy test at a student health clinic. In addition, we will place kits at businesses near college campuses whose owners have agreed to distribute them.
Resources
For films, reading, and other resources, see LWVODC Reproductive Rights Resources (PDF).
Annual Reports
League of Women Voters US: Reproductive Rights
Reproductive rights statements from LWVUS:
- The League of Women Voters believes every US resident should have access to affordable, quality health care, including birth control and the privacy to make reproductive choices. As an ally of reproductive rights organizations, we know that safe access to health care, including abortion, is essential to our democracy.
- Democracy depends on equal rights for all people. Losing our right to reproductive choice opens the door to the loss of other freedoms like marriage equality, contraception, and the right to engage in private, consensual intimacy. The attack we have seen on voting rights is an attack on democracy. The attack on reproductive choice is a continuation of silencing people in this country.
- Not only is the right to a safe and legal abortion a matter of personal freedom, it’s also a major factor in the movements for racial and economic equality. Black women and all underserved communities already experience inequitable barriers and limited access to adequate health care services. Many of the communities targeted with voter suppression are the same ones who will be most impacted if reproductive freedom is also taken away.
- The League of Women Voters stands in solidarity with women and individuals who may become pregnant in the fight to protect reproductive freedom.
