Our Mission
CORE conducts research and shares evidence that focuses on Wisconsinites’ access to abortion and contraception. We aim to inform policies and programs so that all Wisconsinites may live with reproductive autonomy – the right and power to make decisions about their reproductive health and access desired services without barriers, interference, or coercion.
Our Vision
We envision an equitable and just world where people and communities have everything they need to exercise their reproductive autonomy and support their reproductive wellbeing. We envision a Wisconsin with policies, programs, and structures that enable people to access abortion and contraception, maximize their sexual and reproductive health, and govern their own reproductive lives.
What We Do
We conduct, translate, and disseminate high-quality, rigorous, interdisciplinary research primarily focused on abortion and contraception. “Translate” means putting research findings into a form that meets users’ needs. “Disseminate” means getting the findings into the hands of users for whom the findings are most useful.
We engage with diverse stakeholders who work to expand reproductive health, rights, autonomy, equity, and justice for Wisconsinites and others. We aim to understand local landscapes, identify and address research and engagement needs, and share resources.
We seek to continually expand our capacity to include individuals and communities most impacted by reproductive inequities in our research and dissemination.
We share timely and relevant data to help stakeholders serve their communities, clients, and constituents.
We serve as a source of trustworthy evidence about abortion and contraception in the state of Wisconsin.
CORE Community and Stakeholder Connections
CORE engages a network of organizations, partners, and local leaders who work to expand reproductive health, rights, autonomy, equity, and justice. Through these connections, we work to identify needs and priorities of stakeholders and communities and attempt to leverage CORE’s resources to support such efforts. We strive for our work to be responsive to our network’s needs, especially those experiencing reproductive oppression and/or serving oppressed populations. CORE’s collaborations increase the relevance of our research, translation, and dissemination for those most affected by reproductive health inequities and policies in Wisconsin and beyond.
CORE collaborates with community-based organizations, advocacy organizations, public health departments, healthcare support organizations and providers, professional associations, and legal and policy experts. Many serve individual Wisconsin residents and families across the state who access reproductive health services and information. CORE staff also serve on state and local coalitions and committees in support of reproductive health, rights, autonomy, equity, and justice.
CORE Framework and Values
A reproductive equity framework informs CORE’s research, translation, dissemination, and community engagement.
Reproductive equity is a framework that recognizes that systems of social and economic power and oppression curtail people’s access to full reproductive autonomy and wellbeing. For example, people with the capacity to get pregnant face inequitable access to educational and professional opportunities when they cannot control the terms of reproduction and childrearing. People who experience systemic racism and/or who live on low incomes face structural barriers to accessing abortion and contraceptive care. The same is true for people facing social oppressions such as homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, and ableism.
This framing focuses on strategies needed to produce equity in reproductive health, rights, autonomy, and justice. While equality may treat everyone the same, an equity frame recognizes that people may need different things to exercise reproductive autonomy, especially given the historical context of power imbalances and centuries-long traditions of valuing the sexual activity and reproduction of some social groups over others. The axes of inequity that CORE focuses on include, but are not limited to, gender, race, ethnicity, place of residence, immigration status, nativity, sexual orientation, and disability.
CORE Hubs
CORE is organized around five intersecting Hubs that provide the infrastructure needed to achieve CORE’s research and dissemination goals.
- Research
- Engagement
- Translation
- Training
- Leadership