In the year since Roe v. Wade was struck down, forced birth misogynist Republican legislators and jurists continue to advance their attack on women's reproductive health, many organizations providing financial support to abortion providers and clients are concerned that those right-wing legislators will target them next. Groups that help pay for everything from travel and housing to the procedure itself are seeing more and more restrictions placed on doctors and medical facilities to adhere to far-right policies on abortion:
"Abortion funds have been around for decades — long before the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization — because their work is vital. The groups help pay for costs associated with an abortion, assisting people with fewer resources access essential health care that wealthier people can obtain with relative ease. Some funds will help pay for the abortion procedure, while many others focus on the practical expenses that quickly add up, such as travel and accommodation.
But organizers have been forced to contend with the possibility that conservative lawmakers may try to criminalize every single aspect of abortion care, including efforts to provide financial aid.
'There’s a good chance they’ll come after people like us,' Chasity Wilson, executive director of the Louisiana Abortion Fund, said on a conference call." (our emphasis)
Places like Texas, where a "bounty" can be had for reporting on someone getting an abortion, to Florida, where fascistic Gov. Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis has signed a 6 week ban on abortion, are worth monitoring for such an attack on financial supporters. This after poll after poll shows that the public believes abortion should be legal, especially in the cases of rape, incest or the life of the mother, and that the Dobbs decision was wrong (61%).
Even after many pro-choice organizations experience a rise in contributions after the Dobbs decision, funding has slowed and threatens the work of those organizations who are fighting on multiple state fronts:
"Chelsea Williams-Diggs, interim executive director of the New York Abortion Access Fund, said the group was now providing about $1,000 per person on average. NYAAF is the only fund in all of New York state, putting immense pressure on Williams-Diggs, the only paid staffer. Eighty-five percent of their funding comes from donations — an unsustainable model that Williams-Diggs says puts the organization on track to run out of money by October.
'We are in a national crisis and abortion funds across the country are all feeling it,' Williams-Diggs told HuffPost. 'It feels often like our broader movement — philanthropy, government — are not understanding the magnitude of this crisis. They’re not understanding just how bad things have gotten and, honestly, how bad things are going to continue to get.'” (our emphasis)
To help insure reproductive choice funding assistance isn't choked off by the Christofascist right, consider contributing to organizations like Planned Parenthood, your local provider, or the National Association of Abortion Funds.
