January 27th, 2012

Canada's abortion fund: helping women to access care

On January 28, 1988, the Supreme Court of Canada decriminalized abortion in the case of R. v. Morgentaler.

The Court found the country’s restrictive abortion law unconstitutional because it infringed on a woman’s right to “life, liberty, and security of the person” under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which was adopted in 1982.

Unlike the United States and most countries, Canada has no operative legislation on abortion.

How did Canada get here?

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Categories: abortion restrictions, Funds, unfair laws, TakeAction

November 18th, 2011

D.C. leaders to Rep. Issa: "Thanks, but no thanks."

In an act of principled solidarity, D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, and City Council Chair Kwame R. Browne rejected a proposal from Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) this week that would have given the city autonomy over its own budget — with a catch: the District would be permanently forbidden from spending its own taxpayer funds on abortion.

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Categories: DC Abortion Fund, Funds, unfair laws

October 3rd, 2011

Remembering Rosie Jiménez, honoring her life through our work

On October 3, 1977, Rosaura Jiménez died in Texas of an illegal abortion, becoming the first known woman to die because of the Hyde Amendment, which eliminated federal Medicaid funding for abortion.

Congress first adopted the Hyde Amendment on September 30, 1976, but it did not go into effect until August 4, 1977. Within just two months, it had driven a woman to take desperate steps that resulted in her death.

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Categories: abortion restrictions, Hyde Amendment, unfair laws, Medicaid, 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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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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.

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

August 23rd, 2011

Another setback...and how you can help

"I know what impact this decision will have on Austin women." ~ Shailey Gupta-Brietzke, Board Member of Texas' Lilith Fund

Cross-posted from Hay Ladies

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

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.

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