Since the early 2000s, diverse national, state, and local partners have come together to tackle contraceptive access barriers in their states. While early efforts often focused on increasing access to long-acting reversible contraceptives, SCAI have begun employing strategies to ensure that all methods are equitably available and accessible to individuals no matter their choice. As demonstrated by CECA’s work to document lessons learned, SCAI are proving to be an effective model for building workforce capacity, innovating clinic- and community-based strategies, building a coalition of committed partners, and promoting the culture shift toward equity and person-centeredness.

First instituted in the 1970s in response to community activism, policies guiding consent for federally funded sterilization procedures have been the subject of much discussion, debate, and research in the past decades. In collaboration with expert partners, CECA has developed a new set of recommendations on needed changes to federal sterilization consent policy.

CECA is bringing together evidence and diverse stakeholders to understand the potential impact of these shifts and foster strategic collaboration and alignment of efforts among various coalitions, organizations, federal agencies, and individuals. We are excited to release an interim findings report based on these initial efforts to identify current needs of the field and considerations for developing a post-Roe contraceptive access strategy.

At CECA, Lived Experience Panels (LEPs) are a vital way to gather important and diverse insights from the real experts in contraceptive care – the people seeking that care. LEPs are a way of infusing the voices of community members with lived experience as a critical source of expertise, alongside other sources of evidence like technical expertise and academic literature, all of which enable CECA to devise appropriate and workable solutions.

As conveners, subject matter experts, and committed partners, CECA plays a unique role in fostering innovative, equity-informed sexual and reproductive health (SRH) research. In addition to CECA’s contributions to research design, implementation, and translation, we know that the conduct of research is just as significant as its content. With our partners, we have identified equity informed principles as key to centering reproductive justice, human rights and SRHE in contraceptive access research.

While seeking to measure and control unintended pregnancy has guided much public policy, research, and clinical practice, shifting toward more just and accurate frameworks and redressing past harms is a core element of CECA’s commitment to sexual and reproductive health equity.

CECA is pleased to announce the publication of a timely special issue in the American Journal of Public Health focused on how contraceptive access policy is shaped, how policy is translated into practice, and how a focus on equity, justice, and autonomy has reshaped the field’s approach to contraceptive access efforts.

In collaboration with our partners, CECA sent a letter to the newly formed Task Force detailing how it can expand contraceptive access in keeping with principles of sexual and reproductive health equity (SRHE) and why it is necessary to examine the full range of sexual and reproductive health care services.

CECA’s technical expert panels (TEPs), ongoing evidence analyses, and stakeholder conversations have helped us to define and reframe our own goals through a sexual and reproductive health and wellbeing (SRHW) and sexual and reproductive health equity (SRHE) lens and to further develop what steps the field, including the federal government, can take.

In collaboration with Senator Patty Murray and the Congressional Pro-Choice Caucus, CECA conducted a briefing for the Senate and House of Representatives on December 8th to share information and identify Congressional strategies for promoting sexual and reproductive health equity.

CECA led a collaborative process to create a Priority Roadmap for Policy-Ready Contraceptive Research (“the Roadmap”). The Roadmap includes actionable recommendations and equity-informed research principles that position public and private funders to invest strategically in policy-ready research, researchers to carry out impactful research projects, and policymakers and advocates to use evidence effectively.

We have big news! Last week, seven U.S. Senators supported the proposal for the creation of an Office of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Wellbeing (OSRHW) within the White House.

CECA virtually convened 26 thought leaders to discuss early learnings and outstanding questions on how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected contraceptive access.

CECA virtually convened 23 professionals to discuss how to expand contraceptive access through transforming, updating, and recommending new clinical and programmatic guidelines. Strategies were developed with a focus on sexual and reproductive health equity and on ensuring that guidelines remain relevant to an evolving health care landscape.

CECA virtually convened 30 technical experts to examine how performance measures can be implemented to expand access to contraception equitably in communities across the country. While the meeting was broad ranging, this blog post focuses on those aspects of the discussion that were most informed by application of a sexual and reproductive health lens.

CECA virtually convened 27 thought leaders to explore (1) how federal processes to expand contraceptive access would be different if a sexual and reproductive health equity lens was applied, and (2) how CECA can help make this integration actionable.

CECA convened 27 experts with diverse experiences to identify major funding-related challenges to contraceptive access and opportunities for improvement. Discussion focused on innovative strategies, integrating evidence into funding policy, and the importance of considering solutions that cut across settings and sources of coverage.