Reproductive Healthcare

Reproductive Healthcare

Reproductive Freedom for All

The LWVODC Reproductive Healthcare action team was founded in 2023. Guided by LWVUS policy positions, we:

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:

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. We have also initiated a petition, NC's Reproductive Healthcare Crisis: Misdirected Funding. Please consider signing the petition. With each passing day, access to reproductive healthcare is getting more restrictive. 

Donations Welcome

Please consider joining or donating. To donate, click the Donate button at the top of this page. When paying via PayPal, select Add special instructions to the seller and enter "Reproductive Healthcare Action Team." If paying by check, follow the instructions on the Donate page and include "Reproductive Healthcare Action Team" on the memo line.

Successful Reproductive Healthcare Education Symposium

symposium organizers

L to R: Amy Jeroloman (LWVODC), Diane Stephens, Wendy Michener (IVRF), Tara Romano (Pro-Choice NC), Dr. Amy Bryant, Emma Horst-Martz (Planned Parenthood), Gerri Richards (NOW)

On Sat., Feb. 7, 2026 members of LWVODC, Durham / Chapel Hill NOW, and Interfaith Voices for Reproductive Freedom (IVRF), held a free Reproductive Healthcare Symposium.

Over 150 people registered and 105 attended. The partner organizations included: Pro-Choice NC, Planned Parenthood, IVRF, NOW, LWVWake, LWVODC, and the Carolina Abortion Fund (CAF). 

The symposium focused on NC’s reproductive healthcare system and the growing role of Crisis Pregnancy Centers (CPCs). These unlicensed non-medical centers are receiving $19 million in state funds. They’re not healthcare clinics, not regulated or under HIPPA, and don’t provide prenatal care.  CPCs frequently mislead people about birth control options, and have little oversight or outcome data demonstrating what State funds are spent on. 

Morning speakers, Dr. Amy Bryant, MD, MSCR at UNC-CH, and Tara Romano, Executive director of Pro-Choice NC, presented a deep overview of the workings of CPCs. Emma Horst-Martz of Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic outlined how defunding trusted legitimate clinics and Medicaid adversely affects health care throughout North Carolina. Each speaker also discussed how CPCs are receiving State Funding. (CPCs function as material vouchers for healthcare similar to private school vouchers.)

The afternoon panel discussion focused on the why and how the speakers came to supporting reproductive healthcare, the efforts to expose and regulate CPCs, and how advocates for justice sustain their work towards the goal of legitimate reproductive healthcare for all.

Diane Stevens

L: Diane Stevens, Chicago ‘Jane’ or Jane Collective, R: Diane Stevens today.

The speakers were joined by Diane Stevens, a member of the Chicago Abortion Counseling Service (Jane or Jane Collective) which operated from 1969 to 1973, when abortion was illegal in most of the United States. Diane assisted women to obtain abortions, and was one of seven arrested and faced felony charges which were dismissed after the Roe v. Wade decision. (To learn more: See 2022 HBO Max Documentary: The Janes which tells the story of the Jane Collective members; a group of women who performed approximately 11,000 abortions in Chicago between 1968 and Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in 1973.)

Participants took part in two direct actions - signing postcards and a petition to the NC Auditor, AG, and NC Office of State Budget and Management, calling for an audit of CPC funding. You can participate by signing the Change.org petition, NC’s Reproductive Healthcare Crisis: Mis-Directed Funding. Share the link with NC Residents. Donating to Change.org and/or signing other petitions is not required.

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. We have modeled our kits after those created by Carolina Abortion Fund (CAF) and have  a wish list on Amazon to restock supplies.

Kit deliver team. Gerrie Richards NOW; Nat Flow, IFC; Amy Jeroloman, LWVODC; Wendy Michener, IVRFThe kits include legitimate clinic information.  As a pilot program, the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service (IFC) in Carrboro has agreed to distribute our kits. In January we delivered our first kits to IFC. 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). In addition:

Annual Reports

League of Women Voters US: Reproductive Rights

Women’s Reproductive Health

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.