History
ACCESS received our first Healthline call in September 1993. With a few phones, a handful of volunteers, and binders of referrals, we began challenging the barriers to reproductive health care, whether that meant providing people with basic information about their menstrual cycle or offering rides so pregnant people could get to their abortion appointments. Since then, ACCESS has grown into an organization that serves 48 counties in northern and central California, is multicultural, multigenerational and bilingual, and serves as a leader in state advocacy efforts.
A new project was invited to join the Coalition for the Medical Rights of Women. This project was Access, which continued for over a decade as the only active project of the Coalition. Through a toll-free hotline, volunteer network and abortion fund, Access works to ensure access to the full range of reproductive health services, including abortion, for every Californian.
In March, Dr. David Gunn becomes the first known doctor killed because he performs abortions. By the end of 1994, four more people have been murdered and at least ten seriously injured in violent attacks against abortion clinics and providers.The Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act is signed into law in May, making it a federal crime to intimidate, injure or interfere with someone trying to provide or obtain reproductive health services.
The month of October is declared Abortion Access Action Month in memory of Rosie Jimenez, the first known death from an illegal abortion after the Hyde Amendment cut off public funding for abortions.
The California Supreme Court rules that a 1987 law requiring pregnant people under 18 to obtain parental consent or judicial bypass for an abortion violates the California Constitution’s right to privacy.
Call volume on the hotline doubles after ACCESS receives foundation funding and is able to hire part-time hotline staff.
California Governor Pete Wilson vetoes AB 160, which would have required contraceptive coverage in insurance plans.
Michelle Lee receives national attention after obtaining an abortion with help from ACCESS and other organizations. Even though she needed a heart transplant, the hospital had refused to perform an abortion, stating that her chance of dying from the pregnancy was ‘not greater than 50%.’
An initiative to amend the state constitution to require parental consent for abortion fails to gather enough signatures to get on the ballot. ACCESS and the CARAL Pro-Choice Education Fund released a joint study entitled Holes in the Safety Net; The Lack of Abortion Access in California Hospitals.
ACCESS joins the California Coalition for Reproductive Freedom and takes a lead role in organizing the Bay Area work of the Campaign for Access and Reproductive Equity, a national effort to unite reproductive rights and social justice groups.
Medi-Cal begins to cover medical abortion and allows pregnant people to apply for Emergency Medi-Cal without proof of pregnancy.
Several abortion providers stop accepting Medi-Cal for second-trimester abortions, citing low reimbursement rates and billing difficulties.
Our Latina Outreach Program launches, including a dedicated Spanish hotline number and a series of bilingual/bicultural community workshops.
ACCESS celebrates its 10th anniversary!
ACCESS plays a leading role in defeating Proposition 4, the third parental notification ballot initiative in four years. Together with reproductive justice allies, we called on Californians to Protect the Health and Safety of our Daughters and Sisters through voter education, get-out-the-vote activities, and media outreach.
ACCESS releases Barriers to Entry: Ensuring Equitable and Timely Access to Medi-Cal for Pregnant Women and Reproductive Justice Advocacy from the Ground Up, outlining policy recommendations and priorities for the next three years.
ACCESS undergoes a Strategic Clarity process and changes our name to ACCESS Women’s Health Justice
Samara Azam joins as ACCESS’ Executive Director
ACCESS celebrates its 20th anniversary.
- ACCESS plays a key role as a bill cosponsor in getting AB 154 “The Early Access to Abortion Bill” signed into law, enabling advanced-practice clinicians to provide abortion care.
- Black Lives Matter was founded in response to the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer. It was founded by three Black Women, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi.
In collaboration with Black Women for Wellness and California Latinas for Reproductive Justice, ACCESS publishes the first-ever “California Legislative Record on Reproductive Justice” for 2013 & 2014.
- ACCESS publishes “Reproductive Justice in Action: More than Just Talk” with stories of the barriers ACCESS callers face getting the care they need.
- The Volunteer Network for housing and transportation assistance grows to over 200 people across California.
- ACCESS serves the 24,000th caller.
- As a co-sponsor of SB 23, ACCESS, along with allied organizations, helps repeal California’s Welfare Family Cap through the budget bill to improve support for low-income people choosing to continue their pregnancies.
- ACCESS helps launch a sister organization, Access Reproductive Care Southeast to serve callers in the Southeastern United States.
- ACCESS celebrates its 25th anniversary
- Fourth (?) Executive Director, Samara Azam, leaves ACCESS
- ACCESS staff decides to attempt a “flattened” leadership structure without an Executive Director.
ACCESS commits to a national search for a new Executive Director and hires an Interim Director, Tiffany Pryor, formerly with Illinois Coalition for Adolescent Health.
- ACCESS hires a new Executive Director, Jessica Pinckney.
- After years of discussion and engaging in a process with expert consultants, ACCESS changing its name to ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE and launches a new website
- ACCESS begins a strategic planning process, the first since 2010.