Sexual & Reproductive Health

The Sexual & Reproductive Health team at the National Health Law Program is committed to building a future where everyone in the United States has equitable access to all sexual and reproductive health services, free from discrimination, delivered with dignity, and where cost is never a barrier.

We affirm that all people—not just those who are wealthy, cisgender, heterosexual, without disabilities, born in the U.S., and white—are entitled to comprehensive and quality sexual and reproductive health care. Yet many people continue to face systemic obstacles created by harmful legislation and policies, health care refusals, complex managed care systems, racism, ableism, ageism, homophobia, xenophobia, and stigma.

The National Health Law Program approaches its sexual and reproductive health work through the lens of reproductive justice: the right to bodily autonomy, have a child, not have a child, and parent the children we have in safe and healthy communities. Through this lens, we examine how sustained imbalances in power and resources, including inequitable access to truly comprehensive health insurance coverage, operate as tools of sexual and reproductive oppression. While not a reproductive justice organization, NHeLP’s Sexual & Reproductive Health team strives to incorporate lessons of the reproductive justice movement in our work to center the concerns of those most harmed by reproductive oppression and work toward a country in which everyone has meaningful access to the health care they need to support self-determination over their bodies, sexuality, health, families, and reproduction.

Note on language: On this page and throughout our work, NHeLP strives to use gender inclusive language to accurately reflect the scope of people with various reproductive and sexual health care needs and related experiences. We employ “women” in limited instances when necessary to accurately reference legal terms or cisgender women-centered research and to honor how advocates or groups self-identify. More inclusive policy language and research is needed to better serve, understand, and illuminate the needs of all people who need equitable access to health care, including sexual and reproductive care.