Kelly Baden on the anti-abortion agenda at #IWPR Power+ Summit 2024

On top of a national agenda, not just to reinstate Roe because that is not enough, but to actually reimagine what abortion rights can look like. We also need states to continue mitigating the harms caused by Dobbs in this moment to see the bigger picture and find the smaller wins. So that looks like expanding and strengthening shield laws states like Massachusetts and New York and California have done to make sure that abortion providers in those states are not prosecuted or criminalized by states with abortion bans. Yes, it has to look like seeing how attacks on gender-affirming care are the same fight as attacks on abortion rights and need to be worked on together in unison to protect people who need care. It looks like protecting consumers healthcare privacy when they're seeking reproductive health care service, which Maryland has done, protecting the right to contraception, sex education, certainly to protecting and improving maternal health, especially for Black women. It looks like removing any and all bans on public or private insurance coverage for abortion, bans on later abortion. It looks like cities and states funding abortion directly. And tactically, we do know how to do this. Lessons from state wins are clear. You speak authentically, you find your values and that is what you extend to other people to find common ground with. You use those shared values to advance policy change. You don't shy away from the hard conversations. Research and science is necessary, but not sufficient for policy change. The voices of providers and patients have to be paramount.