Issue Brief

Black Women and the Care Agenda

Black women are family caregivers – and they need flexibility and economic supports to make the best decisions for themselves and their families

Small Businesses Support a National Paid Family and Medical Leave Program

A new national scientific opinion poll found that 79% of small business owners support the creation of a national paid family and medical leave program that would guarantee employees wage replacement for up to 12 weeks, funded by 0.5% employer and employee contributions each.

Disabled Women and the Wage Gap

Disabled women workers overall are only paid 50 cents for every dollar a nondisabled man makes, due to a long legacy of ableism and discrimination.

Data Privacy & Reproductive Freedom

In order to ensure pregnant people can exercise full autonomy over their bodies and lives on their own terms and without fear of criminalization, data privacy protections are urgently needed.

With Abortion on the Ballot in November, 16.5 Million Women Could be Impacted

In the November 2024 election, abortion access will be on the ballot in 10 states. Our analysis shows that more than 16.5 million women of reproductive age – 21.9 percent of all women of reproductive age in the U.S. – could be impacted by changes to reproductive rights laws in their state.

Advancing Reproductive Health Privacy, Mitigating Criminalization

The new HIPAA rule prohibits regulated entities from using or disclosing protected health information (PHI) for the purposes of conducting a criminal, civil, or administrative investigation into or imposing liability on anyone for the mere act of seeking, obtaining, providing, or facilitating lawful reproductive health care.

Democracy & Abortion Access: Restrictive Voting Laws Across States Threaten Freedoms

Our research finds that the states with the most restrictive abortion access policies are also the states with the greatest barriers to voting. This brief explores the intersection of state abortion policy and restrictive voting policies, showing how structured inequities are cemented into how our democracy functions to disadvantage women and people of color.

State Abortion Bans Harm More Than Three Million Disabled Women

The Dobbs decision has only compounded the longstanding barriers to abortion care that disabled people face, including provider discrimination and lack of training or experience with disabled patients, guardians dictating decisions about their reproductive care, denials of care and assistance among religiously-affiliated service providers and intermediate care facilities, transportation difficulties, inaccessibility in health care facilities, and layers of economic obstacles to affording the costs of care.

Democracy & Abortion Access

In a political landscape that moves the question of abortion access to the states, NPWF demonstrates the connection between the representation of women and women of color in state legislatures and better policy outcomes for those seeking abortions.

Black Women’s Maternal Health

The reproductive health of Black women has long been compromised by interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism. In addition to contending with social and economic drivers of poor health that undermine Black Americans, they have experienced discriminatory health care practices and abuse from slavery to the present.

What Real Paid Leave is – and What It Isn’t

For a truly just, equitable program that works for the people who need it the most and is feasible and affordable for small businesses, any paid leave program must be the following five things.