COVID-19 Update

Just like you, we at NIRH and the NIRH Action Fund are closely monitoring the rapidly changing public health crisis around COVID-19, and thinking proactively about how we can prevent transmission while we support our friends and loved ones. We wanted to share with you some of the ways we are adjusting to this new reality. 

First, our office has gone remote and cancelled all travel in order to protect the health of our staff and the communities we work with. We’re also assessing our options for any in-person events planned through the spring. We will not be holding our Champions of Choice gala on April 23rd, as we had planned. We will announce updates about how we’re proceeding shortly. 

Second, we’re still providing support to our partner organizations working at the state and local levels to expand reproductive freedom. Even in moments of crisis, we know that people will still need access to reproductive health care, and that this care may become even harder to access. We also know that our opposition will continue to use any excuse to assail it, as they did last week by attempting to hijack a congressional COVID-19 relief bill to attack abortion coverage. 

NIRH believes in the power and potential of state and local leadership. As we watch in horror at the federal government’s cavalier response to this virus, we applaud the state and city elected officials across the country that are exhibiting the leadership needed to make hard decisions and protect our communities.

We will continue to urge elected leaders at all levels to move quickly and efficiently to keep us all safe and healthy — through supporting paid sick leave, demanding insurance coverage for all needed medical care, enhancing telemedicine options, and prioritizing health and wellbeing over politics and partisanship. 

While we don’t know what the next few weeks and months will bring, we know that staying safe is a community endeavor. 

We are hopeful that you are staying safe and healthy, and as always, are grateful to be in solidarity with you.