Public Voice and Action

The Our Bodies Ourselves Public Voice and Action program uses the high quality information resources we develop, often in collaboration with others, to advocate for public policies that enhance reproductive health and justice for women and girls. 

The credibility and reputation of Our Bodies, Ourselves has been central to establishing our organization as a key voice in policy, advocacy, and educational efforts related to women's health. Each year we identify a select number of policy initiatives and offer sustained, in-depth engagement and leadership. We are lucky to have a large circle of OBOS colleagues who work closely with us to substantially expand our impact.

Our books, website, blogs, newsletters, media outreach, public speaking, and use of social media all provide direct avenues for educating the public and for engaging more activists committed to sexual and reproductive health. Our domestic and international partnerships continue to grow as we seek greater reproductive justice and improved policies on both local and global levels.

Over the years, we have focused on a range of issues, including sexuality and body image, access to contraception and abortion, expanding access to midwifery care, the damaging effects of direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs, assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs), breast implant safety, and conflicts of interest in education, research and clinical practice.

For more information, see our Summer 2012 Advocacy Update and our Summer 2011 Advocacy Update. 

Organizations we have collaborated with include:

• Black Women's Health Imperative
• Breast Cancer Action
• Center for Genetics and Society
• Center for Medical Consumers
• Childbirth Connection
• Committee on Women, Population and the Environment
• Consortium for Industrial Collaboration in Contraceptive Research
• Contraceptive Research and Development Program
• Council for Responsible Genetics
• Department of Public Health Bureau of Family and Child Health
• Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
• ECRI
• Family Health International
• Francophone Africa Network for Research in Reproductive Health
• International Reproductive Rights Research Action Group
• Massachusetts Friends of Midwives
• Massachusetts Tobacco Control Oversight Council
• National Advocates for Pregnant Women
• National Black Women's Health Project
• National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
• National Partnership for Women & Families
• National Women's Health Network
• NIH Office of Research on Women's Health
• Project on Women and Disability
• Reproductive Health Matters (journal)
• Reproductive Rights Network of Boston/The Abortion Access Project
• Sistersong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective
• Society for Menstrual Cycle Research
• USAID Population and Nutrition Division
• Women's Global Network for Reproductive Rights
• Working Group on Reproductive Health
• World Health Organization

"Thank you a million times for helping make women's lives so much healthier and happier."

Pat McFadden
Southern African Political Economy Series, Zimbabwe