Advocacy Toolkit
This toolkit prepares you to effectively voice your advocacy, ranging from reaching out your legislator’s office over Twitter or writing a letter to meeting your Senators or Representative or attending a townhall meeting.
Each year, your Representatives and Senators make decisions that profoundly affect a wide range of issues affecting hematology, including funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), government activities in sickle cell, safe and affordable patient access to prescription drugs and therapies, as well as issues impacting physician reimbursement.
ASH can't do it alone.
Policymakers want to hear from constituents like you.
ASH is the leader in representing the interests of scientists and clinicians working in the field of hematology in Washington, both on Capitol Hill and within federal agencies. To unite and advocate together, we encourage you to join the ASH Grassroots Network where we share the Society’s advocacy updates and opportunities to represent hematology interests in meetings and visits with congressional leaders.
Contacting Congress
Call your legislator's Washington office using the phone numbers provided in the and directories. You'll connect with a staff member responsible for recording constituents' requests. Keep your calls concise, focused, and courteous, as legislators rely on their staff to handle constituent communications.
Caller: Good morning/afternoon. My name is _____ and I’m a constituent who lives in (town, state). Can you please let Senator/Representative (last name) know that sustained funding for the National Institutes of Health keeps the pipeline to new cures open for the future? I strongly urge the Senator/Representative to continue to support funding for the NIH while the appropriations process continues through Congress. Thank you.
Sending an email is still one of the most effective ways to contact your Members of Congress; and doing so has never been easier thanks to the ASH Advocacy Center.
Step 1. Choose a campaign from the ASH Advocacy Center.
Step 2. Enter your contact information.
Step 3. (Optional) Personalize your message.
Step 4. Send email!
You can find your legislators’ Twitter handles by checking C-Span’s list of and . Don’t know who your representative is? .
When reaching out to your elected officials over Twitter, be sure to add the hematology hashtag and tell them to #Fight4Hematology or #ConquerSCD.
Editorial and Video
If you are interested in writing an article for your local newspaper, the ASH Communications and Government Affairs teams can help. ASH staff can work with you to help write and personalize your article and help guide you through the process of submitting the article to your local news outlets. Contact ASH Government Relations Specialist Natalie Bates at [email protected] for more information.
The ASH Advocacy 101 webinar provides valuable insight for ASH members who want to learn how to get involved in the Society’s advocacy efforts but don’t know where to start. Attendees can learn about the importance of advocating on behalf of hematology and the ASH resources available to be an effective and successful advocate.
Policy Specific Tools
ASH actively engages in policy-focused advocacy, focusing on research, training, and quality of care efforts in a variety of hematology policy areas.
- ASH's Policy Statement on the Right to Maternal Health Care
- Talking Points for Maternal Health Care in Hematology
- ASH Endorses Statement Statement in Opposition to Legislative Interference in the Patient-Clinician Relationship
- ASH Joins Amicus Brief in the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine ET AL V. FDA ET AL Case
- ASH Policy Statement on Access to Hematology Care in an Age of Innovation
- ASH Supports the Women's Health Protection Act
ASH outlined crucial talking points for engaging with the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In this document, we provide you with comprehensive guidance on how to effectively communicate your perspectives and advocate for the vital cause of biomedical research funding.
Hematology Research Videos: ASH has created several videos to show the progress being made in several of the priority areas of hematology research identified in the ASH Agenda for Hematology Research. These videos are important to share with your legislators to illustrate the need for sustained funding for NIH and we encourage you to share the links in your communication with them.