Publications & Resources

A project of the National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH) and the National Women’s Health Network (NWHN), Increasing Access to Long-Acting Reversible Contraception & Protecting Patient Autonomy: A Resource For Evaluating LARC Public Policy Initiatives is a toolkit designed to support reproductive health, rights, and justice advocates assess proposed legislation or policy initiatives related to long-acting reversible contraception (LARC).

NIRH’s white paper, “When Self-Abortion is a Crime: Laws that Put Women at Risk: An Analysis of Massachusetts Law,” raises awareness about the harms of criminal bans on self-abortion, with a particular focus on Massachusetts, which is one of a handful of states with criminal laws on the books that explicitly make self-abortion illegal.

The legal status of abortion has changed throughout American history – from legal to illegal and back to legal again. However, women seeking to end an unintended pregnancy have always done so, whether it is legal or not. Our white paper, “When Self-Abortion is a Crime: Laws that Put Women at Risk,” documents this history in New York and assess whether there is any justification for the state’s criminal abortion ban.