Today, we are proud to announce that NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina is now a fully independent, community-based organization: Pro-Choice North Carolina! While our name may be changing, we are still doing the same important work and programs focused on achieving reproductive freedom and abortion access for all North Carolinians.

In June 2021, we were informed that NARAL Pro-Choice America's board of directors voted to sever their affiliation with its remaining eleven state-based organizations, including NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina. This decision compelled us to reevaluate our strengths and reimagine our organization's potential. We have always focused our advocacy and programs on increasing reproductive freedom for everyone in our state and often took on fights overlooked by national organizations, such as:

• Holding the line on abortion access in our state, and preventing the enactment of more anti-abortion restrictions;
• Calling for accountability of anti-abortion fake clinics in our communities, including working with local advocates and allied elected officials and policymakers to call out the deceptive practices of these fake clinics;
• Organizing local governments to demand an end to the federal Hyde Amendment;
• Getting out the pro-choice vote in local, state, and federal elections;
• Developing young leaders on campuses around North Carolina to advocate for sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice for their peers;
• Working with state and local partner organizations to help them better incorporate issues of reproductive rights, health, and justice into their advocacy platforms;
• Integrating advocacy to advance voting rights, racial justice, and economic justice—specific to North Carolinians—into our programs; and
• Organizing against anti-abortion and anti-choice activities in local communities.

Following conversations with community partners and careful consideration by our staff and Board members, today's announcement of our new name and identity is an exciting, important, and positive next step for our organization!

Despite its enormity, this change is timely and necessary to ensure we are more responsive to the unique needs of our communities and continue to add a North Carolina-specific lens to the broader national movement during these challenging times. I am hopeful about our future and the way forward.

A quiet revolution is happening within many reproductive movement organizations, including our own.

Our organization's new "face" is just the beginning. We will continue fighting for reproductive equity for all North Carolinians. We will remain steadfast in our commitment to defend and expand abortion access for people across all intersections and identities. We will build a bolder, stronger Pro-Choice North Carolina that better reflects our values and centers the people who still face barriers to reproductive health care, including abortion.

While we look back gratefully on our decades within the NARAL network, we are excited about what this change will bring, and the bonds we have with other state-level partners around the country, including the other former NARAL state affiliates, remain strong. In fact, with this transition to a fully independent organization, we feel even more committed to building a vibrant, creative network of state-based organizations that harnesses our collective power to make the needed changes in all of our states. We're excited and honored to be doing this work with our partners—and with all of you—at this critical time for reproductive rights!

We are the future of this movement. While things may be fraught in the Supreme Court and state legislatures, we are resilient and our commitment to the people of North Carolina has never been stronger. We won't stop fighting until reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy exist for ALL people!

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