LOCAL REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM INDEX 2023

The LRFI is intended to be a one-stop shop for advocates and local leaders who are ready to do more in their community to protect and advance reproductive freedom. 

The Scorecards (Local and Comprehensive) can be used to understand the policies, initiatives, and funding in place in each locality between January 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022, and to compare data across localities.

The Self-Scoring Tool can be used by advocates and leaders to apply the LRFI framework to their communities. 

The Model City provides a framework that all localities can use to work toward reproductive freedom and to brainstorm and map out the policies and initiatives they’d like to put in place to get there. The Policy Roadmap provides concrete recommendations for funding, policies, and initiatives that localities can put in place to move toward the NIRH Model City framework and increase their scores on the Local Scorecard.

The impact of the overturning of Roe v. Wade on cities

As of December 31, 2022, 13 US states had banned abortion entirely and abortion was barely accessible in many others. In this report, the “Abortion Clinic” count reflects the number of abortion clinics actively providing abortion care as of December 31, 2022. To this end, for cities located in states that have restricted and/or banned abortion, the number of abortion clinics often had to be marked as “0”, even if the clinic building is still standing. Despite the many harms caused by abortion bans, there is much that cities can do to protect and support abortion access, such as allocating funding to abortion care or providing public education on abortion access points.

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