We work with elected officials, coalition partners, and our members and activists to set the choice agenda for each legislative term. We help to introduce pro-choice legislation as well as support or oppose measures that will improve or hinder a woman’s ability to exercise her right to choose. In addition to our legislative work, we also engage the state executive branch on choice-related issues. Click here to learn about our legislative victories.

 

 

We are the only organization that evaluates the choice position and viability of every candidate, regardless of party affiliation, in every state legislative race to determine whether to make an endorsement. We also evaluate many statewide races, including candidates for Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, and frequently endorse in those races. We begin the process by sending questionnaires to candidates in targeted races, and then offer interviews to those who indicate they are pro-choice. Once we make an endorsement, we reach out to our members and activists to support pro-choice candidates. We also target a number of races each cycle for special support, including strategic assistance, phone banks, campaign interns, mailings, and election-day volunteers. This strategic targeting maximizes our impact in elections and helps us to build relationships with political leaders across the Commonwealth.

 

In the weeks leading up to the election, we publish and print a pro-choice Voters’ Guide covering every district in the state, indicating which candidates we’ve endorsed or the choice position of candidates in races where we haven't issued an endorsement. We distribute the Voters’ Guide online and by mail to all 20,000 of our members, helping them to stay informed and support pro-choice candidates at the polls.

 

 

 

We work to inform the public about timely choice-related issues, including our key priorities, in an effort to expand our member and activist base. From time to time, we hold educational, academic, and social events to increase awareness about our organization and educate the public about the latest reproductive rights and health issues facing women and families in the Commonwealth and across the country. Past activities have included Choice Reads (a book club), Choice Flicks (a film club), In Choice Company (a signature social event series), as well as other panels, lectures, and discussions.

 

We recognize that online media is an important way for us to communicate with our supporters. We use email alerts, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, blogs, and our website to interact with our members, keep them up to date on choice-related news, invite them to our events, and ask them to take action on behalf of choice causes, like petitioning elected officials on key issues.

 

 

We work with our 20,000 members across the state to spread choice-related news and information, elect pro-choice candidates, and lobby for pro-choice legislation. We mobilize our supporters to volunteer for pro-choice candidates, organizing trainings, phone banks, tabling sessions, and door-to-door campaigns with the help of our political interns and volunteers, who also work closely with endorsed candidates. We encourage our members to make their voices heard on Beacon Hill, by contacting their elected officials directly and urging them to vote pro-choice as part of our ongoing legislative campaigns and during lobby days.

 

We are also building the next generation of pro-choice leaders, with a particular emphasis on reaching young people and people of color. And we encourage activists to get involved in their own communities. For example, we recently mobilized Brookline residents to stand up for a women's health care provider facing anti-choice threats surrounding its relocation.

 

 

 

Created in 2008, the Reproductive Health Equity and Access Program (RHEA) works to improve access to reproductive health services and information, especially for underserved communities like low-income women, teens, and communities of color. To this end, RHEA engages in research, policy analysis, and outreach, the results of which often inform our public education initiatives and political work. Much of RHEA's work is done in partnership with other organizations and community groups. Click here to learn more about our coalition work.