New Voices Pittsburgh
New Voices Pittsburgh is a bold, grassroots organization that uses a Reproductive Justice framework to organize and build a social change movement dedicated to the health and wellbeing of Black women and girls through leadership development, human rights advocacy and social change activism. Founded in 2004, New Voices Pittsburgh has served and organized more than 10,000 women of color throughout the Pittsburgh area.
New Voices Pittsburgh is deeply committed to elevating the lived experiences of Black women and resisting reproductive oppression. Working under the National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda (RJ Agenda), New Voices Pittsburgh will implement state-based strategies around Black women and reproductive health, rights and justice focused on 1) creating an organizing and capacity building infrastructure to facilitate statewide policy advocacy, 2) promoting Reproductive Justice as a pathway to secure abortion rights, and 3) identifying and training Black women as spokespeople, community organizers and advocates on these issues in order to demonstrate the state leadership of Black women and to counter the lies perpetuated by the anti-abortion forces.
New Voices Pittsburgh is known for our fearless approach to securing human rights and is seen as a statewide and national catalyst in the Reproductive Justice Movement. Using a human rights framework, we have developed a remarkable track record of winning public policy victories through strategic coalitions building and constituency mobilization. Our policy change campaigns began with creating a baseline for fair representation with Women and Girls Foundation in the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County (2005-2006) and continued with our work with the Women’s Law Project to preserve unobstructed access to abortion clinics in the City of Pittsburgh (2005). New Voices Pittsburgh has also advocated for comprehensive sexuality education in Pittsburgh Public Schools, to advance policy to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations in Allegheny County, and to ban shackling of pregnant incarcerated women before, during and after childbirth in all correctional facilities in Pennsylvania.
To learn more about New Voices Pittsburgh, please go to our website.