Whole Woman’s Health Alliance
Whole Woman’s Health Alliance (WWHA) is both an independent abortion clinic offering personalized, high-quality abortion care, as well as a strong advocate and community pillar, becoming the voice of reproductive justice in many communities where the state has attacked the reproductive healthcare system, creating an environment that forces women to feel isolated and potentially take desperate measures.
NIRH has been proud to partner with Whole Woman’s Health Alliance for many years.
In 2013, NIRH and WWHA worked to defeat anti-choice legislation with grassroots advocacy, an abortion story collection project, and research briefings for lawmakers. This project was conducted in partnership with Avow.
In 2018, NIRH worked with the Whole Woman’s Health of McAllen clinic – the only abortion provider in the Rio Grande Valley – which had been experiencing increasingly aggressive attacks from anti-abortion advocates. This clinic serves a key border community that is experiencing poverty, increased militarization, and anti-immigrant rhetoric and actions, both nationally and from the Texas state legislature. Together, we worked to strategically shift the stigma around abortion in our culture, to educate and build relationships with local elected officials, law enforcement, and community members on the importance of protecting the clinic and its patients and providers.
Whole Woman’s Health Alliance is working as part of a cohort of organizations in Texas on a long-term initiative to develop and advance an abortion rights vision, engage a new and broad base of supporters, and reduce shame and stigma by publicly promoting the affirmative value of abortion.
Since 2022, NIRH has worked with Whole Woman’s Health Alliance in Minnesota to increase Medicaid reimbursement for abortion and win public funding for abortion care. This work included building strong relationships with independent abortion clinics across the state to understand the barriers they face to financial sustainability as they provide abortion care in this crucial access point in the state, as well as relationship building within the state legislature. In 2023, this resulted in a 20% increase in the state’s Medicaid reimbursement rate for abortion.