Photo by Rachel Sadon.

State legislatures across the country enacted 57 new abortion restrictions in 2015, but D.C. passed legislation that did the opposite, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Of the 514 provisions considered at state houses nationwide that involved abortion, 396 of them restricted access.

D.C. managed to pass two pieces of legislation that Guttmacher considered “important advances…on sexual and reproductive health and rights issues” in its yearly round-up of state policy.

D.C.’s Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act prevents employers from discriminating based on reproductive health decisions, including having an abortion or using birth control. Despite efforts from Congress to block the legislation from taking hold—which has only successfully happened three times—the bill survived.

D.C. also required health plans to let a woman get a year’s worth of prescription contraceptives at once, rather than having to get a new prescription every few weeks or months. The provision does not set in until 2017.

While Maryland did not legislate regarding abortion, the state made it easier to address some sexually transmitted illnesses by letting doctors provide treatment to the partner of a patient with an STI diagnosis without having to examine the partner.

Virginia did not adopt any new abortion restrictions this year, though clinics continued to close as a result of so-called targeted regulation of abortion providers laws—better known as TRAP laws—which create rules that make it difficult for clinics to stay open.