October News: Major Victory in IL, Advocacy Training in Atlanta

Meet Our Advocates: Dr. Jenny Abrams

For our ongoing Meet Our Advocates series, we interviewed Dr. Jenny Abrams, a family physician with experience working in Latin America. She spoke about combating abortion stigma and shame, finding the links between social justice struggles, the role of allies, and more.

Victory in Illinois

Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed into law House Bill 40, the first bill in decades that lifts restrictions on insurance coverage of abortion for women enrolled in Medicaid and State Employee Health Insurance.

HB 40 protects the legal right to abortion in Illinois and ensures that right is a reality for low-income Illinoisans. This visionary legislation would not have been possible without the leadership of our partner organization All* Above All, and the tireless work of the ACLU of Illinois, the Chicago Abortion Fund, and the Illinois Caucus for Adolescent Health. We applaud the state of Illinois, the bold patients and health care providers who shared their stories, and the elected officials who worked to correct this unacceptable inequity. This is an important victory for Illinois and for the movement to strike down the bans that deny coverage for abortion care.

Staff Spotlight: Keidra Chaney

We are thrilled to announce that Keidra Chaney has joined the Physicians staff as Digital Content and Strategies Associate. She has worked in social media and digital strategy for non-profits for more than 12 years, including at DePaul University and Lipman Hearne.

Keidra’s most recent position was as a strategist with The Citizen Engagement Lab’s Cultural Pulse Project, connecting non-profits and organizers with online communities to organize for social change through storytelling. For the past few years, Keidra has also developed and taught webinars and on-site workshops on social media strategy, web analytics, and digital strategy for non-profits in Chicago, including The Springboard Foundation and the Axelson Center for Non-Profit Management. Keidra started her career in independent progressive journalism, including working as an editor for Clamor, an award-winning (and now defunct) non-profit, independent politics and culture magazine based in Ohio. She recently became a member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) with the intention of becoming a Certified Professional in Accessibility.

In her spare time she plays bass guitar, goes to a lot of concerts, and blogs about obscure music.

Storytelling as Advocacy

Members of the Physicians Policy and Voice staff attended the North American Forum on Family Planning in Atlanta this month, and spoke to more than 100 health care providers and advocates at a training on advocacy storytelling. The workshop focused on incorporating storytelling into conversations with legislators, social media, and letters to the editor.

The attendees later participated in a workshop activity, writing postcards to their state and/or federal lawmakers. Staff collected more than 60 postcards to send to legislators from the event. If you are interested in learning about advocacy from Physicians’ staff, please contact Jenny Blasdell, Vice President of Public Policy and Strategic Partnerships: jennifer@prh.org.

Nominate an Abortion Provider Who Inspires You

For more than a decade, Physicians has honored the compassionate, bold, and brave abortion providers who live and work among us. Learn more about the William K. Rashbaum, MD, Award and the George Tiller, MD, Award. Nomination forms are due November 6.