About
Together, we are transforming healthcare.
Provide envisions an equitable sexual and reproductive health system that cares for the whole person with dignity and respect. We work in partnership with health and social service providers to reduce barriers to care at the intersection of abortion and other stigmatized healthcare by providing training and support, centering marginalized communities where there is demand and decreased access.
Our Work
Provide provides free professional training and other technical assistance for healthcare and social service providers to give medically accurate, informed, and non-judgmental information and referrals for abortion care. We see potential for every person to play a role in ensuring accessible abortion care. We focus on five of the most critical systems of care for people of reproductive age: substance use, domestic and sexual violence, HIV, primary care, and family planning. By centering client autonomy and addressing pregnancy within the context of whole-person care, we help providers proactively and compassionately respond to their community’s needs around abortion.
Why We're Needed
Health and social service professionals are key connectors for people experiencing unintended pregnancy and/or seeking abortion care. Unfortunately, information about abortion is too often left out of providers’ education and training, in part due to abortion stigma. When trusted providers lack the knowledge and skills to help a patient access abortion, it creates an unnecessary rupture in that person’s care and may lead to additional hardship, especially for those already navigating barriers to care.
Provide steps in to fill these gaps by offering free trainings and other technical assistance around pregnancy options counseling and abortion referrals. With more than 30 years of experience, we help equip and empower direct care professionals to eliminate bias and center client autonomy in making pregnancy referrals.
Our Results
Our robust evaluation program ensures that providers leave our trainings with measurable increases in skills and confidence around discussing abortion, which we know contributes to increased patient satisfaction.
Provide’s History
Founded in 1992 as the Abortion Access Project, Provide is a national nonprofit organization with a rich legacy of training and advocacy. While we have pivoted our strategies over time, we remain committed to the mission of our founders: to increase abortion access for all pregnant people.
In 2013, we launched our Referrals Initiative, which developed into our flagship training program, delivered in-person to thousands of front-line providers across the U.S. Southeast. In 2016, we began offering customized technical assistance to help organizations institutionalize quality pregnancy counseling and abortion referrals.
In 2020, we began offering our flagship training online, eligible for CEUs for nurses, social workers, and addiction professionals. We have since expanded our virtual programming to include webinars and asynchronous learning that incorporate stigma, self-managed abortion, and criminalization. We currently offer a mix of both virtual and in-person programming to meet the diverse needs of providers across communities.
