Bradley Galvin | The Madison Federalist
UW-Madison’s Collaborative for Reproductive Equity (CORE) blurs the line between research and pro-abortion activism. According to its website, it envisions “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.”
According to university spokesman John Lucas, CORE “conducts analyses and provides evidence based information on reproductive health topics. CORE does not serve in a policy advocacy capacity but provides expertise to assess the impact of policies and laws that affect access to reproductive health care.”
“CORE’s mission reflects the mission of the university, which includes a commitment to research, teaching and service and the ideals of a pluralistic society.”
The Madison Federalist asked if CORE receives funding from any taxpayer or tuition-supported sources. Lucas said, “CORE is largely supported by private funds and partners with a number of organizations with interests in health care access.”
He continued, “The university follows all applicable state and federal laws, which includes compliance with Supreme Court decisions.”
Research is not the only goal of CORE. Its mission also includes “engagement,” “translation,” “training,” and “leadership.”
Some recent publications listed on CORE’s website include, “Abortion decisions as humanizing acts: The application of ambivalent sexism and objectification to women-centered anti-abortion rhetoric,” “Dirty work and intimacy: Creating an abortion worker,” and “Abortion policy context in adolescence and men’s future educational achievement.”
The Collaborative for Reproductive Equity periodically releases “CORE Briefs,” which often include radical policy proposals.
In “Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy in Wisconsin: Opportunity to Expand Access by Enabling Family Planning Providers to Bill Medicaid,” CORE presents “research” that suggests Wisconsin’s Medicaid should cover “gender-affirming hormone therapy” for “transgender, nonbinary, two-spirit, gender nonconforming, and other gender diverse people.” It says this “would be of minimal cost to the state of Wisconsin.”
In “The harms of gestational duration abortion bans,” CORE suggests that “research consistently shows that abortion bans at any point in pregnancy harm pregnant people in need of care.” While advocating for all abortion restrictions to be lifted, this brief (along with most others) consistently uses the phrase “pregnant people” instead of “women.”
In the few cases where “women” is used, an asterisk directs the reader to a footnote that warns: “People who identify as women are not the only ones who experience pregnancy; trans and gender-nonbinary individuals can also become pregnant. Here we use the term ‘women’ instead of the more inclusive terms ‘person’ or ‘pregnant person’ because the source uses that phrasing. We have retained this language for accuracy but do not endorse the word choice.”
CORE has also released a brief – accompanied by an infographic – critical of crisis pregnancy centers because they do not offer abortions. CORE acknowledges that CPCs “offer no-cost support to people experiencing unplanned pregnancies” and sometimes provide “limited medical services.” However, CORE also claims that crisis pregnancy centers “go against the standards of medical ethics, patient-centered care, and evidence-based medicine.”
CORE’s website says it “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.”
“Reproductive equity” is defined as “a framework that recognizes that systems of social and economic power and oppression curtail people’s access to full reproductive autonomy and wellbeing.”
The website says, “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.”
One of CORE’s current research projects is called, “The Progressive Legislative Agenda: What Type of Policies Do Legislators Introduce and Why?” According to CORE, “Democrats have been systematically underperforming Republican legislators in the introduction of abortion-related legislation,” so the project will “examine whether this low rate of pro-abortion legislation is unique to the issue of reproductive rights and abortion or part of a larger trend in the progressive agenda in Wisconsin.”
Another project is called “Abortion as a Part of Reproductive Health and Justice Efforts in Wisconsin: Landscape and Leader Power Mapping.” It will “create a virtual community database of reproductive health and justice networks and other community-facing resources.” CORE’s website says the results of this project will allow it to “build our network” and “identify new coalitions and partnerships.”
Previous events hosted by CORE include “Roe Was Never Enough: Wisconsin’s Pre-Dobbs Restrictions and Their Harms” and “The Traumatic Repercussions of Obstetric Racism.”
Originally published on February 5, 2025 by The Madison Federalist.
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