New Campaign Encourages Women to Make Their Voices Heard on Personal Reproductive Health Issues

Campaign uses social media, satire and celebrities to educate and engage young women on threats to their reproductive health decisions

Washington D.C. – Citing a dramatic increase in legislative attacks on a woman’s ability to make reproductive health decisions, the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) today launched This Is Personal,™ an exciting new effort to educate young women about the growing threat to their reproductive health and to encourage women to act to protect it. Supported by a broad range of national organizations, This Is Personal is a nationwide campaign that will leverage the latest trends in social media, paid advertising, and celebrity-driven videos to empower women to take action.

Nationwide, women’s reproductive health care is under unprecedented attack. Birth control and abortion have become national topics of conversation in recent months, following highly publicized efforts to restrict access and inflammatory comments by a number of public figures. In 2011, state legislators proposed more than 1,100 provisions on women’s reproductive health care, the vast majority of which were restrictions on services such as birth control and abortion; 109 of these measures were enacted, effectively chipping away at a woman’s ability to make decisions for herself.

“Decisions about women’s reproductive health are personal. Period. But across the country, many politicians are actively trying to restrict women’s access to everything from birth control to well-woman visits to maternity care, cancer and STI screenings, and abortion,” said NWLC Co-President Marcia Greenberger. “These decisions should be a woman’s to make with the important people in her life. The personal beliefs of lawmakers should not trump a woman’s ability to take care of her health.”

To mark the launch, This Is Personal released a satirical video, the first in a series, shining a spotlight on some of the outrageous laws restricting women’s reproductive health – including in Arizona, which has made it easier for a boss to fire an employee for using birth control. In Missouri, the state legislature went even further, overruling the governor's veto of a bill that allows any boss or insurer to refuse to cover birth control, abortion, or sterilization for his own religious or moral reason. 

The video series features comedians Bryan Callen from The Hangover, Nikki Glaser, co-host of the upcoming MTV series The Nikki and Sarah Show, and Judith Greentree of the Onion News Network. View the video at the campaign website: www.thisispersonal.org.

“Politicians are trying to take my decisions away from me,” said Thao Nguyen, This Is Personal campaign director. “I’m excited about this campaign because this stuff is personal.”

Visit http://www.thisispersonal.org to learn more about the campaign and read about the latest actions young women – and men – are taking nationwide to protect women’s health and let legislators know, this time, it’s personal.

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About This Is Personal:

This Is Personal is a campaign to empower, educate and activate women across the country to protect women’s reproductive health care. We are equipping women with the facts and tools they need to talk to their friends, write to their elected officials, and make a difference. 

This Is Personal is brought to you by the National Women’s Law Center, a national non-profit organization, and is supported by a broad range of campaign allies.