Bridging the gap: How SiX supports U.S. state legislators in transforming research into policy

The right to contraception has been protected under the U.S. Constitution since the U.S. Supreme Court decisions in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) and Eisenstadt v. Baird (1972). However, even with these constitutional protections in place, there have been increased direct attacks from conservative state legislators on contraception using state legislation. But state legislators supportive of reproductive health, rights, and justice continue to push forward on proactive progressive legislation and policies that safeguard contraception. The State Innovation Exchange's (SiX) Reproductive Rights team launched the Reproductive Freedom Leadership Council (RFLC) in 2018 to support state legislators who champion progressive policies focused on reproductive health, rights, and justice with, among other resources, the tracking and translation of scientific research on family planning and sexual, reproductive, and maternal health, and connecting them with the researchers who produce those data. In this commentary, we provide an overview of how state legislators champion progressive contraceptive policies in their states and offer observations on the role of research from state legislators within the RFLC network. Our objective for this commentary is to share best practices and guidance from legislators themselves about how researchers can make their research more accessible to legislators as they push back against conservative attacks on bodily autonomy.