About the RFLC

SiX’s Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council (SiX’s RFLC) is a network of state legislators committed to advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice policy.

Lawmakers turn to the RFLC for the legislative tools, research, communication resources, and connections they need to be empowered and effective leaders who improve people’s lives.

What We Do

The State Innovation Exchange (SiX) launched the Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council (RFLC) in early 2018. The RFLC is the only nationwide network of state legislators who champion reproductive health, rights, and justice. SiX’s Reproductive Rights team equips state legislators with research, technical assistance, strategy support, and connections as they fight to protect bodily autonomy and reproductive rights in state houses across the U.S.

Amidst the vast challenges brought about by Dobbs and the many ongoing attempts at restricting reproductive freedom, the SiX Reproductive Rights team has continued to support and organize state legislators to champion reproductive, maternal, and gender-affirming care in vastly different state political environments.

Our Impact

Our Vision

Everyone should be able to access affordable reproductive, maternal, and gender-affirming care and be free to decide what is best for themselves and their families, no matter where they live.

 

We know that state legislators in every state share this vision. We also know that the overwhelming majority of state legislators are understaffed and underpaid.

 

The SiX Reproductive Rights team is a trusted resource, providing year-round guidance, hands-on assistance, and the tools state legislators need to succeed as change-makers, along with skills-building to be empowered, effective, and tenacious leaders.

Our Values

We proudly champion our progressive values and assert that reproductive freedom is a central and necessary component of an inclusive progressive agenda.

 

We decry how a person’s ability to get contraception, abortion services, prenatal and pregnancy care, fertility treatment, gender-affirming care and other reproductive health services has for too long been diminished or blocked based on income, race, immigration status, age, sexuality, gender, or where they live.

 

We decry the crisis of maternal death in this country and the disproportionate impact on Black and Indigenous birthing communities.

 

We value families and acknowledge the demanding work of raising children. As such, we affirm that parents should have the resources necessary for families to thrive, including raising children in healthy communities free from violence.

 

We stand with and work for all people seeking health, dignity, and freedom, for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Our Solution

The SiX RFLC is a cross-state network of justice-focused state lawmakers equipped to fight against legislation that limits our reproductive freedoms and advance proactive measures that protect and expand access to reproductive health, rights, and justice.

Our Commitment

We are committed to not only improving reproductive, maternal, and gender-affirming health access but also to connecting the dots to other issues such as democracy, and racial, environmental, and economic justice.

 

SiX’s RFLC goes beyond the statehouse, encouraging and supporting lawmakers as they collaborate with their communities, co-create legislation with their constituents, and connect with organizations.

 

We invest in the long arc of justice to achieve lasting, long-term change.

SiX Repro Team

Jennifer Driver, MPH

Senior Director, Reproductive Rights

Jennifer Driver has nearly 15 years in the field and is currently the Senior Director, Reproductive Rights at State Innovation Exchange. Previously she served as Vice President of Policy and Strategic Partnerships at SIECUS, focusing on federal and state policy. Her career includes work with Welcoming America, Power to Decide, and the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential. Jennifer serves as an advisory board member for Resound Research for Reproductive Health (formerly Texas Policy Evaluation Project) and The Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice at UC Berkeley School of Law (CRRJ).

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Laura Hernandez

Senior Associate of Policy, Reproductive Rights

As Senior Associate of Policy, Laura provides strategic support to state legislators in the RFLC network on reproductive rights and justice. Previously, she served as Director of Policy for Planned Parenthood in Florida, where she successfully led efforts to defeat numerous anti-reproductive health bills and co-led the state’s reproductive freedom coalition. Her passion for reproductive justice is driven by her community organizing background and her lived experiences as a Latina immigrant and first-generation college graduate. Laura holds dual degrees from FIU in Political Science & Gender studies with certificates in Public Policy & Latin American and Caribbean studies. Laura has been recognized in her community as a “Miami Girl” leader for her impact on shaping the future of Miami and has been serving on the board for one of Florida’s abortion funds since 2022.

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Sydney Jemmott, MD, MPH

Director of Policy, Reproductive Rights

N. Sydney Jemmott, MD, MPH, (she/her) is a public health professional and internal medicine physician who provides a medical perspective, within the reproductive justice framework, to shape and influence public policy, culture, and patient outcomes. She has had a successful career dedicated to international public health and research, and comes to SiX after consulting on medical public policy and advocacy in Georgia.

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Fran Linkin, MPH

Director of Research, Reproductive Rights

Fran’s eighteen year career in reproductive rights and health spans the fields of public health, policy, and advocacy. Since 2019, Fran has worked to create unique spaces and opportunities for the state legislators in SiX's Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council to connect with public health/social science/clinical researchers and health care providers across the country to inform evidence based state policy making on reproductive and maternal health.

Contact me for: Scientific research, connections to researchers and providers

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Melissa Madera, PhD, MPH

Senior Associate of Research and Education, Reproductive Rights

Dr. Madera– a queer, first generation Afro-Dominican American originally from Washington Heights, New York– is a multifaceted figure in the movements for abortion access. She is the founder of The Abortion Diary (the only audio archive of abortion stories), which she was inspired to create by her own abortion experience as a teenager, and a bilingual interdisciplinary researcher, historian, educator, and advocate. Prior to joining SiX, Melissa worked as a researcher on Project SANA (Self-managed Abortion Needs Assessment), the Director of Research and Partnerships at Choix telehealth clinic, and as a special projects consultant at Plan C Pills. She is also a Society of Family Planning 2019 Changemakers in Family Planning Awardee.

Contact me for: Scientific research, connections to researchers and providers

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Rosann Mariappuram, JD

Senior Policy Counsel, Reproductive Rights

Rosann Mariappuram, J.D. M.A. (she/her) is a lawyer and advocate who has been part of the movements for reproductive health, rights and justice for over a decade. She is the former executive director of Jane’s Due Process, a nonprofit that fights for young people’s bodily autonomy and helps anyone under 18 in Texas confidentially access abortion and birth control. Prior to Jane’s Due Process, Rosann worked at Legal Voice, Surge Reproductive Justice, and the Reproductive Health Access Project. She has served on the boards of Equality Texas, NARAL Pro-Choice Texas, and the Lilith Fund for Reproductive Equity. Rosann earned her J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law, her M.A. in international relations from the City College of New York and her B.A. from New York University. Rosann is originally from Ohio and is the proud daughter of immigrant parents.

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Suhan Rosario

Senior Program Assistant, Reproductive Rights

Suhan Rosario comes from the Florida House of Representatives, where she served as District Aide for a State Representative in Orlando. She attended UCF where she received her Bachelor's in Political Science and minor in Latin American Studies. There, she participated in the Legislative Scholars Program, interning for two State Representatives during the 2019 Legislative Session. She was previously the Orlando Regional Organizer at the Florida Student Power Network in 2020, where she held phone and text banks, managed interns, held/participated in statewide as well as regional events, and communicated frequently with community partners. She also served as the Environmental Justice & Policy Organizer at Mi Familia Vota where she helped encourage Latino civic engagement and knowledge in the area of environmental justice, and assisted with policy research and strategy around the 2023 legislative session's anti-immigrant laws.

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