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-engage 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 vetoing 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 included:

• • 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 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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Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider and advocate of high-quality, affordable health care for women, men, and young people, as well as the nation’s largest provider of sex education. With more than 600 health centers across the country, Planned Parenthood organizations serve all patients with care and compassion, with respect and without judgment. Through health centers, programs in schools and communities, and online resources, Planned Parenthood is a trusted source of reliable health information that allows people to make informed health decisions. We do all this because we care passionately about helping people lead healthier lives. 

In Our Own Voice: National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda is a national Reproductive Justice organization focused on lifting up the voices of Black women leaders at the national, regional and state levels in our ongoing fight to secure Reproductive Justice for Black women, femmes, queer, trans and gender non-conforming people and youth. Our strategic partners include Black Women for Wellness, Black Women’s Health Imperative, New Voices for Reproductive Justice, SisterLove, Inc., SisterReach, SPARK Reproductive Justice NOW, The Afiya Center and Women With A Vision.