Julie Jenkins, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC

Julie A. Jenkins, DNP, APRN, WHNP-BC, is the Clinicians in Abortion Care Strategist & Training Program Manager at the National Abortion Federation. She is a sexual and reproductive health nurse practitioner with more than 15 years of clinical experience across multiple organizations. Julie was previously the lead plaintiff in federal ACLU litigation challenging Maine’s physician-only abortion law, an effort that ultimately succeeded through state legislation. Julie completed her doctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University in 2022, focusing on executive leadership. She was the Reproductive Health Access Project's national Advanced Practice Clinicians Cluster Leader from the cluster’s inception in 2020 until she became CIAC liaison to the cluster in late 2022. Julie was an early adopter of telehealth medication abortion, providing telehealth abortion care for multiple organizations, and now provides telehealth abortion training to organizations interested in implementing this care. In 2022 she and two other abortion providers co-founded the Abortion Freedom Fund— a national abortion fund supporting accessible, affordable, evidence-based telehealth abortion care for all.

Julie is an experienced educator, speaker, and trainer. She has taught in nursing programs at UCSF, University of Maine, and MGH institute of Health Professions, and is currently a member of the nursing faculty at Yale. She speaks nationally on the role of advanced practice clinicians in abortion care and on abortion provision, from in-clinic services to self-managed abortion. She provides training on abortion care and options counseling and consults on projects for various national organizations. In the past she worked as a Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner/Forensic Nurse Examiner (SAFE/FNE) performing sexual assault and domestic violence exams. Previous employers include Maine Family Planning (where she provided gender-affirming care) and the Mabel Wadsworth Center, as well as Women’s Community Clinic, Berkeley High School Health Center (a school-based teen clinic), and Women's Health Specialists in California.

A longtime political activist and sexual and reproductive health advocate, she looks to Reproductive Justice experts to guide her work. She is board certified in Women’s Health and, in addition to her doctorate, holds a Master of Science in Nursing from California State University, Long Beach and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Southern Maine, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Human Development and a Certificate in Women’s Studies from the University of Maine at Orono.

Julie was the 2019 recipient of the Clinicians in Abortion Care Leadership Award from the National Abortion Federation and also received the 2023 NP Advocate State Award for Excellence of Maine from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners for her work on the ACLU case. She has been interviewed regarding the case and subsequent legislation by numerous local and national media outlets, including Mother Jones, the CBC, and Al Jazeera. She has had recent media appearances in Elle and Politico as an expert on the role of advanced practice clinicians in abortion care. Julie recently wrote about her own experience as an abortion provider struggling with infertility for Ms magazine and is passionate about protecting the rights of individuals to choose when, if, and how to parent.