Every woman should have access to the most trusted and reliable health information, including affordable health care. This means ensuring that women and girls know their legal rights when it comes to health care and coverage. By protecting the rights of women with health concerns and providing the necessary resources to help them make choices about their health, CWLC hopes to empower women and girls to make the best decisions to maintain and improve their health at all stages of their lives.
Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice
Fighting for reproductive health, rights, and justice by ensuring women have access to the health care opportunities they need in order to lead healthy and productive lives is a vital part of CWLC’s mission. CWLC believes that women deserve the right to make choices about their bodies and it is vital to ensure abortions are safe, affordable, and legal for all women, regardless of their income levels or residence.
Just consider these trends:
- More than 40% of all women obtaining abortions are from families with incomes below the poverty level.
- Six in ten women having abortions already have a child.
- 74% of women obtaining abortions cited that having a child would interfere with their education, work, or ability to care for other dependents.
CWLC is an advocate for improving women’s access to safe and affordable family planning options. We work to ensure public policies address the reproductive health needs of the state’s majority of women of reproductive age (with a focus on women of color and immigrant women) and we collaborate with various community-based organizations to advocate for reproductive justice.
Reproductive Justice Project
The goal of the Reproductive Justice Project (RJP) is to obtain reproductive justice for low-income and under-served women, particularly women of color, immigrant women, and adolescent girls in California through policy advocacy, community education, and coalition building.
Reproductive Justice Coalition of Los Angeles
CWLC is a member the Reproductive Justice Coalition of Los Angeles (RJCLA). The coalition includes a diverse group of over 20 grassroots, statewide, and national organizations. The Coalition’s main objective is to provide capacity-building opportunities for community-based organizations that focus on people of color and have expressed an interest in working on issues concerning reproductive health, education, and justice.
Reproductive Justice Collaborative: The Alliance
CWLC is a partner in The Alliance, a regional collaborative of women’s rights and gender equality centers across the country. The Alliance was formed to strengthen our collective capacity to advance women’s rights, reproductive justice, and LGBTQ equality by advancing policy at the state level. The collaborative currently works in 11 of the 50 states, using the law to promote justice for women, LGBTQ persons, and families. We are committed to advancing policy in the short-term, testing new approaches with potential for longer-term impact, and working at the intersection of women’s and LGBTQ rights.
Aging, Women, and Poverty
Aging in California is a women’s issue because women represent 40% more of the over-65 population than men. CWLC seeks to increase outreach, education, training, and technical assistance on the interrelated health and work issues that disproportionately impoverish older working women in California. In conjunction with the California Commission on Aging and the California Commission on the Status on Women and Girls, CWLC has prioritized and will remain committed to the issues of aging and poverty in California. Together we will continue to act on these matters and address the challenges women and families face, as well as build a strategy of awareness and action throughout California.