Our Healthline is operated by trained staff who can provide information, referrals, and procedural and practical support around abortion care, birth control, health insurance and more. We also can help organize funding, transportation, lodging, childcare, meal funds, doula, emotional support care, and much more!
ACCESS is dedicated to ensuring that every woman has the information, resources and support she needs to make the reproductive and sexual health decisions that are right for her. Every day we work directly with women who have faced discrimination at the county welfare office or judgment about having an abortion, women who fear unplanned pregnancy but lack even basic knowledge of how their bodies work, and women who must travel hundreds of miles to a strange city just to find a healthcare provider that accepts their insurance. For many women, ACCESS is their only source of truly unbiased and honest information and support for their reproductive health needs.
ACCESS exists to make reproductive health and choice a concrete reality -- not just a theoretical right -- for ALL women. We use a combination of direct services, community education and policy advocacy to promote real reproductive options and access to quality health care for low-income and uninsured women, young women, immigrant women and women in rural or isolated areas. No other organization in California provides the same range of support to women who are seeking or considering an abortion.
Our work is grounded in the following values:
-ACCESS is founded on the belief that women's control over our reproduction and bodies is crucial to our self-determination, and that access to health care is a basic human right.
-ACCESS's approach to work with clients is based on a feminist model of empowerment and self-determination for all women. We believe women are the best and only judges of the appropriate course of action for their own lives and respect the validity of each woman's decision-making process.
-ACCESS is respectful of all options considered by callers and provides full information and support under all circumstances, regardless of our personal feelings or biases.
-ACCESS is committed to being a peer-based organization. We strive to build a board, staff and volunteer team that reflects the diverse mix of rural and urban, multicultural, young, and low-income women we serve. We encourage callers to become volunteers and resource people within their communities.
-ACCESS sees reproductive health care as affecting and involving both men and women. We provide counseling and services to callers regardless of sex and encourage men to join ACCESS as members and volunteers.
-ACCESS values collaboration and coalition building to advance our reproductive freedom agenda. We seek to reduce competition among groups and build alliances with other pro-choice, reproductive rights, and social justice organizations.
-ACCESS believes that reproductive health and access to health care can best be achieved by working in cooperation with providers. However, while respecting the business considerations inherent in running a health practice, we maintain that they should not interfere with the health care needs and dignity of individual women.
-ACCESS is committed to effecting policy changes in the health care and social services systems that serve to broadly improve women's health, safety, and economic autonomy.
Our ultimate goal is to become obsolete, by creating a world that provides every woman with the information, resources and support she needs to make the reproductive decisions that are right for her.
All these numbers are FREE and work ANYWHERE in the United States. You can call them from a pay phone or your home phone without cost - and the number won't show up on your phone bill!
- Backline, 1-888-493-0092
Backline offers a safe and confidential space for women and their loved ones to talk openly about pregnancy, abortion, adoption, and parenting. Call toll free from anywhere in the U.S. The hotline is answered Monday-Thursday from 5pm to 10pm and Friday-Sunday from 10am to 3pm (Pacific Time).
- National Abortion Federation Hotline, 1-800-772-9100
The NAF Hotline is answered Monday-Friday 8am-10pm and Saturday-Sunday 9am-5pm (EST). NAF provides callers from the United States and Canada with non-biased, factual information about abortion in both English and Spanish. The NAF Hotline receives over 2500 calls a month from women, their partners, families, and friends. It is the only national toll-free source of information about abortion.
- Emergency Contraception Hotline, 1-800-584-9911
If your condom broke, you didn't use birth control, or you were sexually assaulted, you still have 72 hours to prevent pregnancy! Find out how & where by contacting the EC hotline.
- National Sexual Assault Hotline, 1-800-656-HOPE
The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) is the nation's largest anti-sexual assault organization. RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline and carries out programs to prevent sexual assault, help victims and ensure that rapists are brought to justice.
Misc Attachment | English - Take Control Guide.pdf | 05-10-2017 |
Misc Attachment | Spanish - Take Control Guide.pdf | 05-10-2017 |
Misc Attachment | English - Take Control Guide.pdf | 05-10-2017 |