Before Roe v. Wade, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many women needed abortion care that they could not afford. Before Roe, the abortion care they needed was also illegal in most states. Legal abortion clinics in a handful of states were hard to get to. Illegal abortion providers charged a small fortune for their services with no guarantee of safety. 

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, small groups of people began coming together, mostly in secret, to help the women in their communities get what they needed. One of these groups, the Jane Collective of Chicago, trained activists to provide abortion care to women. 

Most of the other groups helped women locate abortion providers or travel to states where abortion was legal. These first, pre-Roe funds included the Hersey Abortion Assistance Fund of Pro-Choice Resources in Minnesota, the Choice Fund of Fountain Street Church in Michigan, and the Women's Medical Fund in Wisconsin, all three of which are still helping the women of their communities forty years later.

After the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade recognized women's right to get abortions in legal, safe clinics, even more abortion funds began to pop up around the country to help women pay for these procedures. For about 20 years, these abortion funds worked in their communities, largely isolated from the work of their sister abortion funds. In 1992, however, a few activists from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Iowa began reaching out to the abortion funds around the nation. Twenty-eight abortion funds were located. 

In 1993, 50 abortion fund activists from 24 abortion funds in 14 different states came together at a founding conference for the National Network of Abortion Funds. 

The abortion funds decided that the National Network of Abortion Funds would create opportunities for the funds to share their work, to learn from each other, and to support each other across the country. The National Network of Abortion Funds would also work at the national level to fight against unjust policies, like the Hyde Amendment, that interfered with low-income women’s ability to access abortion care.

Since that time, the National Network of Abortion Funds has grown to include more than 100 abortion funds in over 40 states, Mexico, Canada, and the United Kingdom. It also includes one international Internet-based abortion fund that helps women who live in countries where access to abortion care is severely limited or illegal. 

In addition to continuing the daily work of raising money to help women pay for abortion, abortion funds now frequently work to improve the laws in their states, elevate the voices of women who cannot afford to pay for abortion care, and challenge the stigma that surrounds abortion and abortion funding. 

The National Network of Abortion Funds is a recognized leader of national efforts to repeal the Hyde Amendment. We speak to legislators, the White House, the national media, and the public about the particular barriers to abortion for low-income women, immigrant women, Native and indigenous women, minors, women in prison, and rural and urban women. 

Together, we work for a better world – where all women have the power and resources necessary to make healthy decisions about their bodies and families.

We know that women’s lives, futures, and dreams matter.