Snack 74: How to Advocate for Access to Care

The Whole Pineapple

With laws and regulations changing so fast and all over the place, it can feel overwhelming and futile to try to do anything at all. But it’s important that we don’t give up and let decisions be made for us.

What can people who aren’t professional lobbyists do to make our voices heard?

According to Sean Tipton, you can do exactly that – you can make your voice heard. Register to vote and then vote. Talk to candidates for political offices, especially when they’re in an election season, as they’re most likely to listen at that time. You have a right to be heard, so get in there and get talking.

Have anecdotes to share (with permission, of course): if you can tell a relevant story, that is often much more effective than straight data. Faces, stories — those are the ways to get folks to listen. Showing how your policy position will solve problems is also effective. Most of us don’t like being presented with problems, so come at policy makers with solutions.

Be sure to check out the Resolve website (resolve.org) for tools to help you get started. Please share resources, including this episode, with anyone who is looking to help preserve medical fertility assistance and reproductive rights in general. Sean’s organization, ASRM (American Society for Reproductive Medicine), is also a great resource: asrm.org.

And of course, please rate, review, and share this podcast to help others be informed about All Things Fertility, including advocacy. thewholepineapple.com.