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Gretchen Borchelt, Senior Counsel & Director of State Reproductive Health Policy

Gretchen Borchelt is Senior Counsel and Director of State Reproductive Health Policy at the National Women’s Law Center. She oversees the Center’s state-based legal and policy efforts to protect and expand women’s access to reproductive health care. Gretchen also works on a range of issues as part of the Center’s Health and Reproductive Rights Team, including health care law implementation, access to contraception, refusals to provide health care, and judicial nominations. Previously, she worked at Physicians for Human Rights and was a Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellow at the National Partnership for Women and Families. Gretchen is a graduate of Columbia Law School and the University of Virginia.

My Take

Abortion Opponents are Not Giving Up on Taking Benefits Away from Women

Oh no he didn’t! Virginia Governor McDonnell Monday night added a ban on insurance coverage of abortion to a health care bill passed by the Virginia legislature. The underlying bill was meant to bring the state into compliance with the federal health care law – in other words, to help ensure affordable and comprehensive coverage for people, not take benefits away. But that’s exactly what Governor McDonnell’s amendment would do. And he’s not the only one.

Abortion insurance coverage bans have been introduced so far this year in at least 10 states. Some of these states are already among the 21 states that have such bans. But this year abortion opponents in those states want to prohibit even more women from obtaining abortion insurance coverage. Like Alabama, where a bill has been introduced to expand their exchange ban to all private plans and to take coverage away from survivors of rape and incest.

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Help #StopTheBans in North Dakota by Joining our Twitter Campaign

They're Wrong

When you try to ban abortion in one state — you are hurting women in every state: join our Twitter campaign and stand with the women in North Dakota.
Take Action

Last Friday, North Dakota's legislature passed a bill that bans almost all abortions in the state. This outrage comes on the heels of Arkansas politicians passing an extreme abortion ban in their state. These politicians don't think that people across the country will notice or care if they eliminate the rights of women in their state.

They're wrong. When you try to ban abortion in one state — you are hurting women in every state.

The abortion ban isn't the only harmful piece of legislation aimed at North Dakota women and families. In the next week, North Dakota politicians will work to push through a sweeping package of bills that also aim to close down women's health centers and could prevent couples from using in-vitro fertilization to build a family. In the face of such an assault, organizations across the country are joining together to remind North Dakota's women (and the politicians that are supposed to represent them) that we are watching.

Will you take two minutes to join our Twitter campaign and show your support for the women of North Dakota? It's simple:

  • First, make sure you're signed in to your Twitter account(s)
  • Visit our Thunderclap page at https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/1622-stop-the-bans and click "Support with Twitter"
  • A pop-up will appear — click on the orange "Add my Support" button
  • Another new pop-up will appear. Click the blue "Sign In" button on the left side of the pop-up
  • Once you click the blue button the pop-up will close and you'll be set

On Tuesday, March 19 at 2:00 p.m. ET, everyone who joins the campaign will send the same tweet at the same time to send one loud and resounding message to the state's politicians: RT 2stand w/ #NorthDakota women. Tell Gov Dalrymple 2veto and shut down abortion bans. #NDleg #stopthebans http://thndr.it/WlP5kA

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Alabama Legislators Want to Let Bosses Make Your Reproductive Health Care Decisions

Posted by Gretchen Borchelt, Senior Counsel & Director of State Reproductive Health Policy | Posted on: February 07, 2013 at 03:23 pm

Alabama politicians will be voting on whether to allow your boss to make your reproductive health care decisions. H.B. 108 was introduced just last week and voted out of committee yesterday without a public hearing. It’s moving to the House floor for a vote as early as today. Alabama politicians want to allow bosses to use their religion to discriminate against the 637,666 Alabama women who get health insurance through their job or their spouse’s job.

(For a flavor of the kinds of bosses who claim their religious beliefs should dictate what medical care someone can receive, check out Jezebel’s recent examination of the businesses in the 18 for-profit cases against the federal contraceptive coverage benefit.)

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Roe and Me at 40: Rough around the Edges but Still Fundamentally the Same

Posted by Gretchen Borchelt, Senior Counsel & Director of State Reproductive Health Policy | Posted on: January 22, 2013 at 05:18 pm

Happy birthday Roe! If you’re turning 40 this year, it means that I am too. Given that we share this significant milestone, let’s take a look back at how we’ve fared over the last 40 years. Both of us are a little worse for wear. The Supreme Court weakened you in subsequent decisions. Your opponents have repeatedly chipped away at you – passing new restrictions on abortion and thinking up creative new ways to attack you.

As for me, well, let’s just say that I think I’ve held up pretty well for someone who grew up in the pre-sunscreen era and has two kids under the age of 4. Still, there’s no doubt I have more wrinkles, more aches and pains, and less flexibility than I used to.

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Virginia Legislators Refuse to Listen to Women, Again

Posted by Gretchen Borchelt, Senior Counsel & Director of State Reproductive Health Policy | Posted on: January 18, 2013 at 12:38 pm

Remember how Virginia became a national laughingstock last year and “transvaginal ultrasound” became a new buzz word? Remember how Virginia women let it be known that they didn’t want their legislators forcing them to undergo medically unnecessary and physically invasive ultrasounds? Remember how Virginia politicians didn’t listen – they passed a mandatory ultrasound law anyway? Well, Virginia politicians had a chance to right their wrong, and show that they listen to and respect women. A Virginia state senator introduced a bill last week to repeal the ultrasound requirement. And just a week later, a Republican committee has killed the bill.

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