abortion restrictions
February 7th, 2012
Falling between the cracks
Falling Between the Cracks: Why Abortion Funds Exist and How You Can Help Them Help Women, by Eesha Pandit and Steph Herold, was originally published in RH Reality Check on February 6, 2012
Melissa is 26 years old. She has a husband serving in the U.S. military overseas and a young daughter with numerous special health care needs. When they learned that she was pregnant, Melissa and her husband considered their limited resources and decided to seek an abortion. The ban on federal funding for abortion meant that this basic medical service was not covered. Melissa managed to raise half of the cost of her procedure by delaying payment of non-essential bills. The New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF) pledged the other half.
Erika is a 19-year-old college student with an infant. When she became pregnant, her boyfriend had recently been laid off, leaving their family uninsured. She called NYAAF for help when her family refused to offer assistance. She’d saved $100 dollars from her student loan check. NYAAF pledged the remaining $250 and Erika received the abortion care she needed.
Since 2001, the NYAAF has helped 764 women from 25 states, including Melissa and Erika 1, gain access to safe abortion care. In fact, the need for abortion funding is so great that over 100 grassroots abortion funds exist across the country, all members of the National Network of Abortion Funds. NYAAF, a member of the Network, is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to low-income women in New York state who can’t afford to pay for an abortion. This year, we’re celebrating a decade of ensuring accessible, funded abortion care in New York State.
Categories: abortion restrictions, Funds, New York Abortion Access Fund
September 26th, 2011
The Hyde Amendment at 35: lessons for activists
Marlene Gerber Fried, founding president of the National Network of Abortion Funds, looks back at 35 years of the Hyde Amendment. What have we learned? Where do we go from here? (Cross-posted at RH Reality Check.)
The Hyde Amendment turns 35 this month. This provision, prohibiting federal Medicaid coverage of abortion in almost all circumstances, was the beginning of the anti-abortion movement’s post-Roe, all-out effort to ban abortion. It was a gateway bill, opening the door to the flood of restrictions which today constrict a woman’s ability to obtain an abortion, forcing women to “choose” between paying for other basic necessities and having an abortion, and, in too many cases, making abortion impossible. It became the precedent for all other denials of abortion funding, and reinforces our discriminatory, two-tier health care system in which people without financial resources cannot get the care they need.
Categories: abortion restrictions, economic justice, Funds, Hyde Amendment, immigrants' rights, unfair laws, Medicaid, TakeAction
After I reached the abortion fund, I slept for the first time in weeks.
Now my husband and I can plan for how to take care of our family.
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RT @TrustWomen: For the first time, Ireland is considering loosening the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in Europe. http://t.co/IJlNQhg
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National Network of Abortion Funds Voted Among Leading Reproductive Justice Orgs