October 2nd, 2012

March for Choice in Dublin draws thousands

Friday, September 28, 2012 was the Global Day of Action for Safe and Legal Abortion and the following day the largest demonstration for abortion rights in 20 years took place in Dublin, Ireland, where Mara Clarke of the UK's only abortion fund, the Abortion Support Network, spoke to thousands of activists on the need for universal access to safe abortion.

An excerpt from Ms. Clarke's speech:

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, Abortion Support Network, economic justice, Funds, International Funds, unfair laws

September 30th, 2012

36 years of the Hyde Amendment: a call to action

On September 30, 1976, the House of Representatives passed the Hyde Amendment, banning federal Medicaid funding of abortion. And every year since, the Hyde Amendment has been included in the federal budget. For 36 years, this ban has burdened the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. For 36 years, the Hyde Amendment has singled out abortion coverage, targeting low-income women, young women, women serving in the military, Native American women, rural women, and women of color.

Read More

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

September 28th, 2012

Global Day of Action for Safe and Legal Abortion

September 28 is the Global Day of Action for Safe and Legal Abortion. Today, we celebrate the work that our international funds are doing to minimize the dangers of unsafe abortion in countries where abortion is a crime, and the work that grassroots abortion funds do here at home.

Read More

Categories: Abortion Access Network of Arizona, abortion restrictions, International Funds, TakeAction, unfair laws

August 23rd, 2012

The myth of the "rape exception," continued

Six-term Representative Todd Akin (R-MO) is in hot water for his recent comments regarding "legitimate rape," setting off a flurry of public arguments about not only the definition of rape but the circumstances under which a woman can get an abortion using her Medicaid insurance coverage.

Some background:

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, Hyde Amendment, unfair laws

July 11th, 2012

Requests from Ireland double for the third consecutive year

For the third consecutive year, the international abortion fund Abortion Support Network (ASN) in England will see requests for abortion funding from Irish women double.

As ASN director Mara Clarke (pictured at left) tells The Guardian, "The continued economic crisis is making it even more of a struggle for women and families to keep their heads above water and Ireland's severe abortion restrictions make it even harder for women in financial distress."

Read More

Categories: Abortion Support Network, economic justice, Funds, International Funds, unfair laws

June 25th, 2012

Remembering the origins of the Hyde Amendment

The last week of June is a bad one in the history of women’s rights.

Two events bookend this dismal week.

First, on June 24, 1976, Representative Henry Hyde introduced the devastating amendment that bears his name. (Congress adopted the Hyde Amendment later that year, cutting off federal Medicaid funding for abortion.)

Then, on June 30, 1980, the Supreme Court upheld the Hyde Amendment in a decision called Harris v. McRae.

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, economic justice, Hyde Amendment, TakeAction, unfair laws

June 20th, 2012

Take action: support immigrant women's health care!

We stand in solidarity with the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health and a broad coalition of reproductive health and immigrants' rights groups in opposing the punitive Aderholt Amendment to the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill.

The Aderholt Amendment duplicates and builds on the Hyde Amendment by banning federal funding of abortion for women in immigration detention centers, effectively taking away any option to end a pregnancy -- despite high rates of sexual assault and abuse in detention facilities. A cruel measure, this provision singles out and targets immigrant women at their most vulnerable. The House of Representatives passed this bill earlier this month but the Senate Appropriations Committee still has not passed it.

Speak out against this unfair and unnecessary restriction! Click here to contact the Senate Appropriations Committee and urge them to support a DHS Appropriations bill with NO added restrictions on women's health care!

Read More

Categories: abortion restrictions, immigrants' rights, TakeAction, unfair laws

June 1st, 2012

From abortion rights to social justice

Read More

Categories: economic justice, Funds, unfair laws

March 22nd, 2012

Guess who's bowling for abortion access?

None other than renowned author Katha Pollitt, who explains why she's breaking out the rental shoes and lays out six reasons why donors should be giving to their local abortion funds and to the National Network of Abortion Funds in the April 9, 2012 edition of The Nation:

Read More

Categories: Bowl-a-Thon , DC Abortion Fund, Lilith Fund, New York Abortion Access Fund, unfair laws

March 13th, 2012

What's at stake: speaking out in Virginia

Ramey Noël Connelly, a volunteer with the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project, spoke last month at the Rally for Reproductive Rights at the Virginia State Capitol about Virginia's notorious ultrasound bill.

Read More

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