Advocate
On November 3, 2020, a Louisiana voters approved Constitutional Amendment 1 which adds language to our state's constitution stating: “to protect human life, a right to abortion and the funding of abortion shall not be found in the Louisiana Constitution.”
Find out more about Amendment 1 here
Become part of Lift's statewide network of advocates! Join our Email List! And Find Your Legislators!
As part of a targeted strategy to engage key stakeholders, Lift is building relationships with college students, faith-leaders, established women’s advocacy organizations, emerging leaders, health educators, healthcare advocates, and healthcare providers in Louisiana.
Advocacy Resources:
Lift’s outreach strategy combines community awareness with civic engagement and mobilization. To further these aims, Lift provides a variety of advocacy resources to increase people’s ability to speak up for themselves.
- Legislative Tracking Software: Lift has invested in state legislative tracking software that enables effective and efficient tracking of all legislation related to Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) policies, as well as legislation related to the policy priorities of coalition partners (such as equal pay, minimum wage, and violence against women prevention). Lift provides partners and advocates with regular updates on this legislation through its newsletter and blog posts.
- Lawmaker Profiles: Lift develops lawmaker profiles showing how members of the Louisiana House and Senate are voting on SRH issues, including sex education and abortion.
- Advocacy Toolkit: Lift has an Advocacy Toolkit, which provides practical guidance on advocacy strategies and is available for download on Lift’s website.
- Advocacy Trainings: Lift Louisiana conducts advocacy trainings, forums, and webinars about SRH issues.
Women on Wednesdays
Women on Wednesdays is a program that educates the public about issues and mobilize them to pressure the lawmakers to prioritize policies that will address reproductive health and economic security for families during this crisis and beyond. We invite lawmakers to join us to talk about what they are doing to adress these issues. Each session will include trainings on how to influence the legislative process. During COVID-19, these sessions are being held virtually.
Check out Women on Wednesdays on Web Recordings
Civic Engagement of Medical Providers:
Lift has identified the need to engage more medical providers (e.g., doctors and nurses) in advocacy efforts, and the need to develop their skills at providing expert testimony on reproductive health policy proposals to inform lawmakers’ decisions. If you are a medical professional and are interested in improving the health outcomes for Louisiana's women, please contact us for more information on how to get involved.
Power of the Provider (PoP)
In 2016, Lift Louisiana joined with Reproductive Education + Advocacy Louisiana [REAL], Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC), Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, Institute for Women and Ethnic Studies (IWES) and Physicians for Reproductive Health to organize an event that would bring medical professionals together to celebrate their unique and powerful voice for impacting reproductive health policy. The first Power of the Provider (PoP) Event was held in November 2016 to educate and empower local medical providers and connect them with community-based reproductive health advocacy organizations.
The PoP collaborating organizations have committed to working together to provide future opportunities to:
- engage medical experts in reproductive health policy issues;
- increase medical care providers’ knowledge about reproductive health issues impacting adolescents and adults;
- increase advocacy capacity among medical providers; and
- offer medical providers trainings related to advocacy, policy, and comprehensive sex education.
Past PoP Events:
- Lift Louisiana partnered with the Center for Reproductive Rights to host Medical Experts in the Courts, an online seminar providing information about the unique and critical role medical providers play in legal challenges to abortion restrictions: from drafting or signing amicus briefs to providing expert testimony.
- In March 2017 in Shreveport, Lift and its PoP partners led a training for medical providers and advocates on adolescent reproductive health policy and best practices in providing comprehensive care to young people.
- In April 2017, Lift and PoP partners held a workshop for medical professionals that included a briefing on 2017 Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) policy proposals and a training on writing letters to the editor.
- In November 2017, the PoP partners organized The Provider Roundtable, an intimate, facilitated discussion where physicians and staff from the three remaining abortion clinics in Louisiana shared with their colleagues in other areas of medical practice, their experiences in caring for patients in a highly regulated and hostile environment.
- Power of the Provider: Faith + Purpose Reception, featured Reverend Darcy Roake, from Community Church Unitarian Universalist, and Special Guest Speaker, Dr. Willie Parker.
- Power of the Provider: Teaching Beyond the Classroom, featuring the first-hand advocacy experiences of physicians and medical students. We know that engaging health professional students in advocacy training and experience at this early stage of their career gives them the best chance of developing the language of advocacy and reproductive health to support meaningful change throughout their career and improve health and health systems, both in Louisiana and across the U.S.
- Medical Student Advocacy Training, a two-day training for medical students across Louisiana with sessions on communications, reproductive justice, and legislative advocacy on Louisiana.
Explore the links below to discover steps you can take personally to support policies that will improve health and overall wellbeing for Louisiana’s women, their families, and their communities.
