Pro-Choice Oregon, one of the state’s leading reproductive rights advocacy organizations, publicly announced Tuesday that the 50-year-old non-profit was dissolving. The decision arrives as abortion rights are and as Oregon tries to to meet the demand of people seeking care from out of state. Anna Howe, Pro-Choice Oregon’s board president, said board members voted unanimously in January to dissolve the organization after a year of “planning and evaluation. ” “While we are saddened to bring an end to Pro-Choice Oregon’s 50-year legacy of reproductive rights advocacy, we know that in stepping back, we are making room for new voices, new leaders, and new tactics that will carry this movement forward,” Howe said in an email Tuesday to The Oregonian/OregonLive. Pro-Choice Oregon sent an email to supporters announcing the decision on Sunday. The email, which was reviewed by The Oregonian/OregonLive, said there was “no one reason” for the decision, but mentioned the organization’s 2021 decision to remain independent from its former national umbrella organization, NARAL Pro-Choice America. The organization re-branded several months later as Pro-Choice Oregon. Christel Allen, who served as the organization’s political director and then executive director between June 2020 and October 2022, said she was notified last week about Pro-Choice Oregon’s decision to dissolve. She left the role to work as a consultant for , the organization tasked with distributing $15 million in state funding to help pay for abortion care. Allen, who was the first woman of color to serve as Pro-Choice Oregon’s executive director, said she left the organization – which was founded and historically led by white women – while it was making efforts to “bring in new voices. ” While the board was increasingly diverse, most members had never directly experienced barriers or delays to reproductive care or abortion, she said. “We needed to get beyond our circles and our own experiences and bring in new voices to hear feedback on what folks in Oregon who are directly having these experiences want to say to us,” Allen said. “When community members are telling you their needs aren’t being met by the current structures and organizations, then what is needed? What could be in this space with new leadership, and what could we do to serve that?” Ariane Le Chevallier, who was a Pro-Choice Oregon board member between 2017 and 2021 and left after her term expired, said she suspected financial struggles and internal strife around racial equity issues factored into the organization’s decision to dissolve. While remaining independent from NARAL Pro-Choice America granted Pro-Choice Oregon more autonomy, it potentially cut the state non-profit off from financial support and brand recognition the national organization could provide, Le Chevallier said. Pro-Choice Oregon’s 2020 tax filings showed the organization collected about $471,000 in 2021 - almost $260,000 less than it had the year before. The organization’s revenue after expenses in 2020 was just $22,354, according to the filing. The organization’s assets nearly halved within a year, with the filing showing $462,980 in 2019 and $247,267 in 2020. Allen said donations to the organization had actually increased in the past two years as people worried over the future of abortion access nationwide. But her departure spelled “the beginning of the end,” Le Chevallier said. Le Chevallier, 45, who runs a Portland communications consulting firm, said the disappearance of Pro-Choice Oregon leaves a “huge gap” in advocacy efforts in Oregon. Cassie Purdy, political director of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon, said Tuesday that she was saddened by Pro-Choice Oregon’s dissolution but remained hopeful about the future of reproductive rights in the state. Her group is in flux after An Do, the former executive director, left to serve as Gov. Tina Kotek’s director of public affairs and communications. “The movement for reproductive rights and reproductive justice has never been defined by a non-profit’s status – it’s made up of people who care deeply about making sure we live in a world where people have control over their own bodies and own lives,” Purdy said. “This movement isn’t going anywhere and there are people and communities all across our state who are ready to pick up the mantle. ” -- Catalina Gaitán, , @catalingaitan_.