North Dakota Women’s Network

In 2017, North Dakota Women’s Network (NDWN) strengthened its grassroots and grasstops base by working in collaboration with NIRH partner North Dakota Women in Need Fund to build power, and hosting community events to shift the culture around abortion access and reproductive health, rights, and justice in the state. NDWN hosted trainings and organized rallies across the state including turning out 700 Bismarck area residents to attend the local Women’s March, and nearly hundred activists to lobby at their fifth biennial lobby day, WE RISE. NDWN (North Dakota) engaged North Dakotans through grassroots organizing and activist events and strengthened their relationship with Family Planning directors. NDWN effectively built up their Feminist First Friday’s event series to expand across all corners of the state, and engaged their activists in preparation for a strong proactive approach to reproductive healthcare in the 2017 legislative session. In 2014, along with their advocacy partners, NDWN successfully defeated North Dakota’s Personhood ballot measure. NDWN, the only statewide multi-issue women’s advocacy organization in North Dakota, involved the public in policy advocacy to increase the impact of a rapidly growing coalition of reproductive rights allies in the state. Also in 2014, the North Dakota Women’s Network successfully expanded their Feminist First Friday events, informal gatherings that enable allies to engage and discuss issues and areas of interest, from 4 to 7 cities.