NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation supports a wide range of pro-choice policies that help protect every woman's right to make the full range of reproductive choices, including preventing unintended pregnancy, bearing healthy children, and choosing safe, legal abortion.

In 2009, our nationwide Prevention First initiative continued to gain support, and helped create new laws aimed at making abortion less necessary by preventing unintended pregnancies. Pro-choice advocates challenged lawmakers to stand with us and unify behind commonsense prevention policies that would guarantee women's access to birth control at pharmacies, require equitable insurance coverage for contraception, prevent teen pregnancy, ensure age-appropriate and medically accurate sex education in schools, expand low-income women's access to family-planning services, and increase women's awareness of and ability to obtain emergency contraception, also known as the "morning-after" pill. In 2009, lawmakers across the country put prevention first and prioritized women's health over politics.

In addition to being another important year for prevention efforts, 2009 saw states continue their focus on expanding access to health-care services for women who choose to become parents. Six states enacted laws to help women have healthier pregnancies. This includes measures that expand coverage for Medicaid-funded services for low-income pregnant women and establish programs for engaging at-risk pregnant women, as well as pregnant legal immigrants.

In 2010, when anti-choice advocates likely will try to impose new restrictions on abortion that could test the court's interpretation of the constitutional right to choose, NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation, our affiliates, and our allies will work to defeat those divisive measures that pose such serious threats to women's health. We will also demonstrate that we have the commonsense position on not only abortion, but on a whole range of other issues— including preventing unintended pregnancies and expanding access to reproductive-health care for all women.

Measures enacted:

• 14 states and the District of Columbia enacted 21 pro-choice measures in 2009; seven of these were Prevention First measures.
• Colorado enacted the most pro-choice legislation in 2009, with five measures.
• The District of Columbia, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin enacted Prevention First measures in 2009.

Key Prevention First and Other Victories in 2009

• Utah enacted a law that ensures that sexual-assault survivors receive information about and access to emergency contraception in emergency rooms.
• California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Montana, and Oregon enacted laws that promote healthy childbearing.
• Hawaii, North Carolina, Oregon, Texas, and Washington enacted laws that improve sex education in schools.
• Wisconsin enacted a law that requires health-insurance plans that provide prescription medication benefits to cover contraceptives and both pharmacies and pharmacists to fill valid prescriptions.

1 This report uses the term "legislative measures" to refer to bills, independently operative sections of bills, and resolutions (resolutions frequently express the sentiment of the legislature but do not create new legal requirements). "Laws" refers to constitutional provisions, statutes, regulations, court decisions, and opinions of state attorneys general.

2 NARAL Pro-Choice America Foundation tracks many different types of pro-choice legislation that fully encompass a woman's right to choose, including measures that promote healthy childbearing and expand insurance coverage for women's reproductive-health services. Our Prevention First initiative focuses on those particular areas that are key to preventing unintended pregnancies, which include measures that promote: comprehensive sex education, young women's access to confidential health-care services, contraceptive equity, access to family-planning services, guaranteed access to prescriptions, and emergency contraception (EC pharmacy access, EC in the ER, and EC public education). Learn more about Prevention First.