Since 2020, Equity Forward has conducted investigative research on anti-abortion centers (AACs) and how states have financially supported and legitimized them through Alternatives to Abortion (A2A) programs. Our new research  provides, for the first time, a full funding portrait of public dollars invested into A2A programs and individual AACs at the state level since the practice began.

April 3, 2024 Update

SCOTUS heard oral arguments for FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine on March 26, 2024, with a decision likely to be released in June. Importantly, SCOTUS will hear cert petitions from the FDA and Mifeprex manufacturer Danco Laboratories, but not the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine. Due to a stay issued by the U.S.

Background

Anti-abortion centers (AACs) exist solely to deter pregnant people from receiving abortions and comprehensive reproductive health care.

Background

On December 1, 2021, the Supreme Court will hear arguments for Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The case will weigh a Mississippi abortion ban and call into question the future of Roe v. Wade. In anticipation of Roe being overturned and abortion clinics subsequently being forced to close, anti-abortion centers (AACs) claim they are ready to absorb the burdens of people forced to carry a pregnancy to term.

April 29, 2021 marks President Biden’s 100th day in office. In that time, Equity Forward has seen significant and encouraging action in both personnel appointed to the administration and the policy it has implemented. What we are missing, though, is boldness—the kind that moves beyond repair and into advancement.

On November 7, 2020, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were announced winners of the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Since then, Equity Forward’s research team has tracked the names of nominees and appointees to key cabinet and leadership positions which have purview over our main issue areas regarding abortion, reproductive health and justice, and policies singularly impacting LGBTQ communities. 

Background

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been deemed the “most important advance in women’s health policy since Medicare became law in 1965” by the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office on Women’s Health.

This fact sheet lays out Equity Forward’s transition recommendations for a new administration. Some of these recommendations were developed in collaboration with broader coalitions supporting the sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice movements, as well as the broader human rights sphere and groups working to protect science and evidence-based policymaking.

Research using fetal tissue has been used to create lifesaving vaccines and treatments for a myriad of diseases and medical conditions. Yet, in 2019, the Trump administration issued restrictions banning the use of newly acquired fetal tissue research in federally funded research. This decision came contrary to the word of National Institute of Health (NIH) scientists, and rather, at the behest of anti-abortion lobbyists with outsized influence over the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the creation of a new Commission on Unalienable Rights in May 2019 and was

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) political staff have routinely pursued anti-science and anti-abortion policies and actions. Using rhetoric pulled directly from far-right and anti-abortion groups, HHS political appointees have disrupted effective and important research, putting scientific advancement for lifesaving vaccines and treatments at risk. One such example is research using fetal tissue, where focus from anti-abortion groups has resulted in actions and policy goals that fail the real needs of the American public.

The Trump Administration Has Attacked The Intent, Purpose Of The Nation’s Family Planning Program — Beginning With Its Politicization Of The Title X Grant Process

Since Trump took office, Title X — the nation’s family planning program for low-income individuals — has been in constant peril.

The Heritage Foundation and Family Research Council: Mirror Images of Hate

The Heritage Foundation is fond of branding itself as a think tank of establishment conservatives. In reality, Heritage regularly spouts hateful ideas that are detrimental to LGBTQ individuals, women, people of color and low-income workers.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) exists “to ensure that people have equal access to and the opportunity to participate in and receive services from HHS programs without facing unlawful discrimination.” However, under the Trump administration, OCR has pursued policies and taken actions to further a radical, ideological agenda at the expense of its underlying mission.

The Title X Family Planning Grant Process Has Been Altered Drastically From The Obama Administration Through The Trump Administration.

The Trump administration scrapped what was formerly anon-political processunder the Obama administration with their 2018 and 2019 grant announcements for the Title X Family Planning Program.

Research Relying on Fetal Tissue: The Facts

Critical for understanding human biology and development of new medical technologies.

• This research has profound potential to advance clinical knowledge and treatment options for life-threatening and chronic diseases.
• Researchers use fetal tissue to produce cell cultures that can be maintained in a laboratory environment for very long periods of time, in some cases indefinitely.

Fetal tissue donation and use in research has been strictly regulated for decades to ensure that the highest ethical standards are upheld.

• Fetal tissue research has been conducted in the United States since the middle of the twentieth century.
• The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, which was adopted by the states in the 1970s, regulated the use of organs and tissues after death and prohibited their sale for profit or use for anything but research or therapeutic reasons.
• In 1974, the National Research Act created a national commission to evaluate the ethics of