Sexual and Reproductive Access (SARA)
The SARA team works with the Womxn Project to expand sexual and reproductive health services in Rhode Island through assessing state parental involvement laws and creating research-backed policymaking and advocacy recommendations.
Overall Purpose
In Rhode Island, parental consent and notification is needed by a clinic before a minor can obtain an abortion, even in extreme cases such as sexual assault and when the minor's life is at risk. For minors without access to their parents or legal guardians, and those who have unstable housing situations or are victims of incest, this makes obtaining an abortion a difficult process to navigate. In collaboration with the Womxn Project, the goal of the SARA (Sexual and Reproductive Access) team is to ideate policy and advocacy solutions that would allow minors to obtain an abortion without parental involvement or legal exemption to the state requirement through judicial bypass.
Short-Term Goals
We are working on a research report that would analyze state parental involvement and judicial bypass laws to use in creating a policy memo that can be used by the Womxn Project for their policymaking and advocacy efforts. We have also received a grant with the Swearer Center that would allow us to conduct interviews with those affected by Rhode Island's parental involvement requirement to use as community-based, qualitative research for our report.