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The 21st plank of the National Action Plan was titled "Reproductive Freedom." In this plank, the women of the National Women's Conference stated their full support of women's reproductive freedom and encouraged all levels of government to comply with the Supreme Court's decisions to guarantee it. The plank also included the support of abortion and pregnancy-related care being available to all women as well as encouraging organizations to hold the government responsible for maintaining these principles. The delegates also called for the requirement of consent for all sterilization procedures, abiding by Department of Health, Education and Welfare's April 1974 regulations. Repeatedly holding all levels of government responsible, they also insisted on developing sex education programs and programs for teenage parents in all schools.

Delegates' articulation of women's reproductive freedom encompassed a variety of reproductive rights and family planning issues confronting women around the time of the conference in 1977. The goal for the Reproductive Freedom Plank was to ensure that every woman, regardless of race, class, age, education, ethnicity, location or marital status had the fundamental right to access the available means to control her reproduction. Before the legalization of abortion, women, and often disproportionately poor women and women of color, we not able to obtain safe abortions and often resorted to self-procedures. These illegal abortion procedures frequently resulted in complications and sometimes death. In 1972, an estimated 88 abortion-related deaths were reported and about 63 were associated with illegal abortions.

One of the most important pieces of legislation that affected the reproductive freedom movement was Roe v. Wade where the Supreme Court held that the constitutional right to privacy includes a women's right to terminate her pregnancy and affirmed the right for a woman to choose abortion. Between the passing of the law in 1973 and the year of the conference, 1977, the number of safe and legal abortions steadily increased from 744,600 to 1,270,000; however, in 1977 approximately 560,000 women were not able to obtain the abortion services they needed. Women still faced many obstacles obtaining abortion services. In 1976, approximately 458,00 women who were able to obtain the services had to travel outside their counties to do so and 118,000 had to travel to different states.

Though one of the goals of the plank was to ensure the availability of safe and legal abortions, it encompassed a wide variety of concepts that the delegates also recognized as necessary for reproductive freedom. The plank also emphasized the opposition to involuntary sterilization and upheld that spousal consent should not be a requirement for sterilization procedures. Sterilization abuse was an issue that gained attention in the 1970's and activists called on the women's movement to incorporate the concept into their fight.

The 21st plank also presented the need for confidential family-planning services and sex education programs in schools. The plank read "Federal, State, and local governing bodies should take whatever steps necessary to remove existing barriers to family planning services for all teenagers who request them."

Ultimately, the delegates called for the freedom of all women and girls to be able to be informed about and control their own reproduction.

Today, many of these challenges are still being addressed and women are still fighting to obtain the reproductive freedom they called for in 1977. Many of these challenged have centered around abortion debates and many of these conversations have involved the organization, Planned Parenthood. The debates have become a focal point of the political and legal sphere with congress members deliberating the government funding allocated to the healthcare provider, Planned Parenthood. Supporters of reproductive freedom and Planned Parenthood argue that defunding the organization that provides a variety of healthcare services to women, men, and young people, including safe and legal abortions, would detrimentally affect preventative and reproductive care.