January 24th, 2012

We can do more to clear barriers to abortion care

Ana Rodriguez, Executive Director of ACCESS Women's Health Justice in California, explains how barriers stand in the way of making the choices guaranteed 39 years ago by Roe v. Wade for the women she hears from every day:

Read More

Categories: economic justice, Funds

January 13th, 2012

Trust Women Week

Read More

Categories: economic justice, health care reform, Hyde Amendment, TakeAction

October 12th, 2011

URGENT: House to vote on bill to ban abortion in insurance plans! CALL TODAY!

UPDATE: H.R. 358 passed on a 251-172 vote on Thursday, October 13, 2011. Thank you so much for all your phone calls and support. We will keep you updated on how to ensure that this bill does not pass the Senate!

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, economic justice, health care reform, TakeAction

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.

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, economic justice, Funds, Hyde Amendment, immigrants' rights, unfair laws, Medicaid, TakeAction

September 16th, 2011

Good News! Senate Committee passes budget without ban on DC abortion funding

Thank you to all who took action this week and called your Senators! The Senate Appropriations Committee met on Thursday, September 15th and passed the District of Columbia spending bill without any additional riders or bans on spending local funds on abortion.

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, DC Abortion Fund, economic justice, Funds, unfair laws

September 13th, 2011

TAKE ACTION: Senate Committee meeting THIS WEEK!

This April, the House of Representatives balanced the budget on the backs of low-income women in a last-minute backroom deal that abruptly stripped the District of Columbia's ability to use local funds to pay for abortions for poor women. This outrageous new abortion ban overruled the authority of DC's own elected officials, denying Medicaid-eligible women vital reproductive health care and gambling with their lives.

Now the Senate Appropriations Committee is preparing to extend this dangerous ban in the 2012 appropriations bill.

Don't let it happen again!

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, economic justice, Funds, health care reform, unfair laws, TakeAction

September 12th, 2011

Put a bird on it!

On Saturday, September 24th, the Repeal Hyde Art Project will be displayed at the 2011 Choice USA Membership conference in Washington, D.C.

Send in your entry by September 22 to be part of this grassroots community art project!

Read More

Categories: economic justice, health care reform, Hyde Amendment, unfair laws, Medicaid, TakeAction

September 7th, 2011

Do Idaho's abortion laws discriminate against the poor?

Jennie Linn McCormack is a mother of three living on less than $250 a month in southeastern Idaho, hundreds of miles from the nearest abortion provider. Arrested for terminating a pregnancy with pills she bought online last year, now she's fighting back: she has filed a lawsuit saying that Idaho's 1972 law against self-induced abortion discriminates against low-income women who are left with no other options.

Read More

Categories: abortion providers, abortion restrictions, economic justice, unfair laws

August 24th, 2011

No end in sight for disparities in unintended pregnancy

According to a new study by the Guttmacher Institute, unintended pregnancy rates have fallen overall in the United States – but they have risen dramatically among poor women, showing the need for better health care policies.

Between 1994 and 2006, the rate of unintended pregnancy among women with incomes below the federal poverty line increased by 50%.

By contrast, wealthier women – those with incomes at or above 200% of the poverty line – experienced a 29% decrease in unintended pregnancy.

Putting these two trends together, it is no wonder that poor women have higher rates of abortion and unplanned births than women who are better off financially.

Read More

Categories: economic justice, Hyde Amendment

August 11th, 2011

What ending MAP means for Texas women

For many, not even low income women, the thought of coming up with $500 next week is daunting.

The following is a cross-post from Hay Ladies, written by board member Shailey Gupta-Brietzke from Texas' Lilith Fund, which serves women in Austin and throughout Texas.

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, economic justice, Funds, Hyde Amendment, Lilith Fund, unfair laws, Medicaid