Americans for Contraception is a movement of people all over this country — Democrats, Republicans, and independents — using our voices to protect the right to contraception before it can be taken away.

Together, we’ve:

Here’s a closer look at the work we’ve done to advance the fight for contraception.

We closed the “believability gap.”

Early research told us that the vast majority of Americans didn’t think the right to contraception was under threat. We shared explainer videos and articles about the right-wing attacks on contraception and shined a light on real lawmakers debating our right to access it.

 

We took action – and inspired others to join us.

We sent thousands of letters to state representatives, called our governors, and delivered hundreds of thousands of prayer petitions to state legislators, urging them to prioritize contraception access.

We also organized a rally for the Right to Use Contraception Act in North Carolina, with speakers from all walks of life representing our wide-ranging coalition: state legislators, faith leaders, organization heads, the leader of the state Democratic Party, and social media influencers. The event garnered coverage on all of Raleigh’s major news channels.

We also hosted an event unveiling the Right to Contraception Act in Arizona. Governor Katie Hobbs joined, and the event earned coverage in numerous Arizona news outlets.

In Mississippi, we worked closely with the Legislative Black Caucus to run ads highlighting Governor Tate Reeves dodging questions about his stance on the right to contraception. Our ads helped make contraception an election issue in the governor’s race, and Reeves won just 50.9% of the vote – a much tighter margin than in 2019.

 

We engaged communities that are often left out of the reproductive rights conversation.

We made a point to invite people of faith into this movement by introducing state-specific faith resources through our faith portal, "Family Compassion," and by offering Spanish-language content.

The scale of our faith engagement cannot be compared to any other on the expanding rights side of the reproductive rights conversation. Over 166,000 Americans signed a prayer petition urging their representatives to do the right thing and protect contraception.

Click to listen to this statewide Christian radio initiative to broaden our outreach.

Hispanic Pentecostal pastors in Wisconsin organized a lobbying trip to D.C. and wrote op-eds in English and Spanish. The head of the National Latino Evangelical Coalition wrote an op-ed for us in the largest Christian publication in America and has been asked to do a series with Telemundo next year.

Men do not receive as much reproductive rights messaging as women. So we’ve made a point to engage men aged 18-24 on this issue, running ads like “Happy Hour” on unlikely platforms like ESPN and “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

 

We also turned to Instagram and TikTok to talk to a wider range of people. Our political creators talked directly to fired-up young activists, while moms, students, LGBTQ+ creators, pharmacists, comedians, reality TV stars, crafters, and others got contraception on the radar for their followers.

A group of progressive gaming streamers have come together to raise the alarm on efforts to restrict contraception access, too. They are doing it live, on camera, mobilizing their audiences to protect our right to contraception. These creators have generated 4.2 million views and recruited 110 volunteers to take continuous action on this issue. 

We passed the Right to Contraception Act in Nevada – and will hold Governor Lombardo accountable for vetoing it. 

Nevada was our first concerted push to pass the Right to Contraception Act in a state. Through lobbying efforts and grassroots pressure, we ensured that legislation to protect contraception was bipartisan to maximize its chance of being signed into law. Pro-choice voters and women in two key districts sent hundreds of letters to their Republican state senators, both of whom voted to pass the bill.

The legislature sent the bipartisan Right to Contraception Act to Governor Lombardo’s desk — but shockingly, he vetoed it without explanation. After that, we knew three things for sure:

  1. When folks believe the right to contraception is under attack, they get fired up. 
  2. Extremist Republicans aren’t going to fall in line easily.
  3. This will be a critical issue in Nevada in 2024 – and our supporters won't forget who voted against the right to contraception. 

 

We set 2024 up to be a banner year for contraception rights.

We’re making sure the energy around contraception breaks through the national political noise in this critical election year. 

We worked with Lisa Shumway — a lifelong Republican, member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and mother of five from Nevada — to pen an op-ed that caught fire across the nation. From her unique perspective, Shumway expressed her disappointment with the recent attempts by right-wing politicians to restrict access to contraception, even though over 90% of Americans – including the majority of Republican voters – support it. Shumway's op-ed has reappeared in 16 unique media outlets and reached a potential audience of as many as 20.5 million readers.

Shumway’s op-ed reached national and local news readers across the U.S.

We’re connecting our work to the news stories of the day. Last August, we latched onto the GOP presidential primary debate, where Nikki Haley asked why everyone can’t just agree on contraception. One of our partner pastors was on the ground interviewing folks on just that topic.

Bonnie, a diehard Trump supporter, doesn’t understand who would want to take away contraception. Neither do we.

We also captured the attention of D.C. decision-makers while they were “off duty” — watching football. Our ESPN ad tying football themes to the fight for contraception was seen by D.C.-market sports fans over half a million times in one month.

We put the D.C. establishment on blast with our ESPN ad.

The fight to pass legislation that protects the right to contraception, no matter how many Americans support it, is not easy. But together, we will win — and send anti-contraception politicians packing in 2024.