For the past 18 months, Planned Parenthood’s top legislative priority has been passage of a national health care reform bill that safeguards reproductive healthcare. That’s meant a full schedule of visibility events, town hall meetings, rallies, media interviews, letter-writing parties, evening phone banks and multiple trips to Capitol Hill with busloads of volunteers.
Yet, through it all PPHS Public Policy staff achieved other legislative objectives at the state and federal levels. Most notably, was passage of North Carolina’s Healthy Youth Act in 2009. This landmark legislation has restored comprehensive sexuality education to public school systems across the state.
Passage of the Healthy Youth Act was recognized by the Planned Parenthood Federation of America as the most outstanding public policy achievement of the past year. At its National Convention, PPFA honored our affiliate and Planned Parenthood of Central North Carolina (PPCNC) with the 2010 Affiliate Excellence Award for Public Policy.
PPFA President Cecile Richards presents Melissa Reed (left) and
Paige Johnson of PPCNC (right)with the 2010 Affiliate Excellence Award
for Public Policy during the PPFA National Conference.
In juggling multiple projects, most end up on the back burner,” says CEO Walt Klausmeier. “But with a four-state public policy program, everything’s on the front burner all the time.”
How does the Public Policy department accomplish so much with a staff of five plus two contract lobbyists? Melissa Reed, Vice President for Public Policy, explains it this way: “We recruit and train smart people who are passionate about our mission. We develop strategic plans in collaboration with other organizations. And we work with the Development staff to generate enough private funding to succeed.”
