Americans for Affordable Birth Control is a left-of-center organization that supports the Obamacare contraception mandate. The mandate requires that birth control be included in employer-provided health insurance plans at no cost to the beneficiary.

It is a left-of-center project of the New Venture Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based left-of-center pass-through funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors, a consulting firm that controls a multi-billion-dollar “dark money” network. ¹ Americans for Affordable Birth Control Action Fund is the group’s advocacy arm, and a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, the entity in the Arabella Advisors network that handles lobbying and electoral projects.

The organization is most notable for an advertisement on Hulu, social media, and mobile billboards in New York City about a satirical Department of Reproductive Control that criticized Trump administration policies on birth control and abortion. ² The organization also ran Facebook ads targeting Republican lawmakers over their opposition to the Obamacare birth control mandate. ³

Overview

Americans for Affordable Birth Control is a left-of-center organization that supports the Obamacare birth control mandate and opposed Trump administration proposals to restrict the promotion of abortion by Title X grant recipients. ⁴

The organization is a project of the New Venture Fund, a Washington, D.C.-based left-of-center pass-through funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit managed by Arabella Advisors. Americans for Affordable Birth Control has been characterized as a “pop up” organization, which gives the impression that it is a stand-alone organization instead of small digitally based outfit controlled by a larger entity. These “pop up” organizations can last as long as is needed to engage an issue in a news cycle. ⁵

It appears that Americans for Affordable Birth Control is a replacement for the Women’s Equality Center’s project Keep Birth Control Copay Free. All three organizations are a part of the New Venture Fund and share the same leader, Amy Runyon-Harms. ⁶

As of July 2021, it appears that Americans for Affordable Birth Control is inactive. There is no currently active website and a Twitter account related to the “Department of Reproductive Control” campaign has not posted since 2018. ⁷

Funding

There is no publicly available information about Americans for Affordable Birth Control’s funding since it is a part of the New Venture Fund. According to its 2019 tax return, the New Venture Fund spent $420.8 million. ⁸

Leadership

The leader of Americans for Affordable Birth Control is Amy Runyon-Harms, a long time social-liberal activist. Before joining the New Venture Fund, she was director of programs for the Gill Foundation, an organization that advocates on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues. Before that, she was the executive director of ProgressNow Colorado. Before that, she the director of political outreach for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains and legislative director for the Gill Action Fund. ⁹

Before joining Americans for Affordable Birth Control, Runyon-Harms headed Keep Birth Control Copay Free, which was another New Venture Fund project. The campaign was most famous for getting women to “invoice” then-President Donald Trump for the cost of their birth control, using the invoices as public comments on the proposed rule ending the Obamacare birth control mandate. The campaign was supported by Planned Parenthood, Center for American Progress, Generation Progress, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and the National Women’s Law Center. ¹⁰

Department of Reproductive Control

The most famous advertisement put out by Americans for Affordable Birth Control was an ad campaign featuring the satirical government agency called the “Department of Reproductive Control.” The ad claimed that doctors were being forced to talk about abstinence-only sex education and were forbidden to talk about abortion. The ads were run on Hulu, which featured the feminist show The Handmaid’s Tale, social media, and mobile billboards in New York City. The goal of the ads was to push viewers to submit comments opposing Title X rule changes that would’ve restricted the promotion of abortion by grant recipients. ¹¹

The ad’s claims that the proposed rules would ban the mention of abortion were ruled false by a fact checker. ¹²

Facebook Advertising

The organization also ran ads against Republican U.S. Representatives who voted against the Obamacare contraception mandate and other pro-abortion legislation. The bulk of the advertising was on Facebook. ¹³

In July 2018, Americans for Affordable Birth Control was the eighth-largest political advertiser on Facebook. Its ads generated 22.6 million impressions. ¹⁴

1.             Ludwig, Hayden. Big Money In Dark Shadows. Capital Research Center. 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money.pdf.
2.     Rinkunas, Susan. “This Video Captures The Dystopian Future Of Reproductive Rights.” Vice. 2018. https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmknjw/department-of-reproductive-control-title-x.
3. “Admin: Facebook Political Ad Collector.” 2021. Propublica. Accessed July 25. https://projects.propublica.org/facebook-ads/admin/ads/23842867409930700.
4. Rinkunas, Susan. “This Video Captures The Dystopian Future Of Reproductive Rights.” Vice. 2018. https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmknjw/department-of-reproductive-control-title-x.
5.           Ludwig, Hayden. Big Money In Dark Shadows. Capital Research Center. 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money.pdf.
6. Ludwig, Hayden. Big Money In Dark Shadows. Capital Research Center. 2019. https://capitalresearch.org/app/uploads/CRC_Arabella-Advisors-Dark-Money.pdf.
7. “Department Of Reproductive Control.” Twitter. 2021. Accessed July 25, 2021. https://twitter.com/DeptReproCntrl.
8. New Venture Fund, Return of an Organization Exempt from Income Tax (Form 990), 2019.
9. “Amy Runyon-Harms Leaving Progressnow Colorado.”  Denver Post. 2016. https://www.denverpost.com/2016/01/15/amy-runyon-harms-leaving-progressnow-colorado/amp/.
10.            Gonzalez-Ramirez, Andrea. “The Trump Admin Thinks Birth Control Comes Cheap — Show Them Your Receipts.” Refinery29. 2017. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2017/10/177759/birth-control-invoice-trump-campaign.
11. Rinkunas, Susan. “This Video Captures The Dystopian Future Of Reproductive Rights.” Vice. 2018. https://www.vice.com/en/article/zmknjw/department-of-reproductive-control-title-x.
12. Larsen, Emily. “FACT CHECK: Kamala Harris Says The Title X ‘Gag Rule’ Would Ban Clinics From Mentioning Abortion.” May 31, 2018. Check Your Fact. https://checkyourfact.com/2018/05/31/fact-check-title-x-gag-rule-abortion/.
13. “Admin: Facebook Political Ad Collector.” Propublica. 2021. Accessed July 25, 2021. https://projects.propublica.org/facebook-ads/admin/ads/23842867409930700.
14. Lima, Christiano. “Trump Slams FCC Ahead Of House Hearing”. Politico. July 25, 2018. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/morning-tech/2018/07/25/trump-slams-fcc-ahead-of-house-hearing-296343.