Abortion Rights are Under Attack: Support Abortion Funds

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Abortion funds are grassroots organizations that are locally rooted and predominately volunteer-powered. They aid in removing financial and logistical barriers that people face when trying to access abortion care, while simultaneously advocating against the political and cultural barriers that make their work necessary. Abortion funds pay for abortions, pay for and organize transportation to appointments, arrange childcare and housing, and some even provide emotional support through doula access. Yamani Hernandez, Executive Director of the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF), talks to us about the importance of abortion networks during a time where abortion access across the U.S. is facing a blatant attack.

The existence of Roe v. Wade has never ensured a promise to abortion access. Decades of anti-abortion strategy, the current administration and Supreme Court, and the resurgence of anti-science misinformation about abortion care has culminated in states passing unconstitutional abortion bans at a fast pace. These abortion bans are strategically passed so that they eventually reach the Supreme Court in an effort to totally overturn Roe v. Wade.

Anti-abortion lawmakers and activists are using extreme, emotional language in order to aid in the passage of these bans, including terms like “post-birth abortion,” and “heartbeat bans.” These terms are meant to be inflammatory and confuse and manipulate the general public in order for fantastical legislation to be passed. These bans are also deceiving and scaring people into thinking that abortion is currently illegal in their state, and that is not the case. Abortion is still legal in all 50 states.

The people that will be disproportionately impacted by these restrictive laws are people of color, people with lower incomes, people who live in rural areas, and people who are members of the LGBTQ+ community. Abortion funds are set up to have extensive knowledge of the intersectional ways these communities will be impacted by lack of access to abortion, and are therefore best able to guide individuals when their access is impeded. Individuals and sub-groups, like the Auntie Network, who attempt to take on the responsibility of getting those who require an abortion into the hands of a provider can often times obstruct access. That infrastructure already exists with abortion funds.

Many have called for boycotting states like Georgia and Alabama in response to the recent abortion bans that have been passed, but this discounts the ways in which people living in Alabama and Georgia, including those seeking abortion care, are impacted by a boycott. By attempting to punish state legislators, boycotts would take away job opportunities for local communities.

Abortion funds are critical during this time of extreme restrictions to abortion care. They exist on the front lines of access, and do constant on-the-ground, local work in ensuring access to care for people around the U.S.

links from this episode

Yamani Hernandez on Twitter
National Network of Abortion Funds
NNAF on Facebook
NNAF on Twitter
The Auntie Network is Creative, but Local Funds Have Been Helping People Get Abortions For Decades

Transcript

Jennie Wetter: Welcome to rePROs Fight Back a podcast on all things repro. I'm your host Jenny Wetter. In each episode, I'll be taking you to the front lines of the escalating fight over our sexual and reproductive health and rights at home and abroad. Each episode, I will be speaking with leaders who are fighting to protect our reproductive health and rights to ensure that no one's reproductive health depends on where they live. It's time for repros to fight back.

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Jennie Wetter: Hi everyone, and welcome to rePROs Fight Back. I'm your host, Jennie Wetter. Quick bit of housekeeping before we start today's episode. Uh, recently I went to Vancouver to a conference on maternal and reproductive health called Women Deliver. And while I was there, I had the opportunity to record a series of four interviews. So over the summer we're going to do something a little different. We're gonna end up airing the show weekly. I'm going to continue recording new episodes to keep us updated on the news and things that are currently happening on our normal every other week schedule. But on the off weeks when I don't normally have an episode, we're gonna air some of this bonus content from women deliver. So keep an ear out for that, that'll be starting next week. Um, and with that I'm going to treat you to today's interview with Yamani Hernandez. Thank you.

Jennie Wetter: Hi, Yumani.

Yamani: Hi. So glad to be here.

Jennie Wetter: Thank you for being here. I'm really grateful. So there has been kind of a wild amount of restrictions happening in the states for awhile, but particularly in the last couple of weeks. Um, maybe we want to start talking a little bit about what, what we're seeing right now.

Yamani: Um, well at with abortion funds, we have known for a long time that Roe has never been a promise to abortion access and so have been navigating barriers for a really long time. Um, we're in a unique position, um, with the president that we have and a supreme court that we have that that has put more emphasis on a lot of lies and misinformation about abortion. And what we're seeing is the results of, of decades of anti-choice strategy coming to fruition. Where, where we are seeing, um, outright bans on abortion that are unconstitutional, um, and at a pace that is hard to keep up with. And, um, I think part of that is to tire us out and um, to us to also to really start to push towards constitutional change and, and trying to physically overturn Roe.

Jennie Wetter: I think you've made a really great point that I think often gets lost in the coverage. And so often we, the focus is on Roe being overturned and that's going to be the final, uh, point of where people are going to lose access. But I mean, as you pointed out, Roe is not really the reality for a lot of people on the ground already.

Yamani: Yeah, we'd like to say Roe is the floor, not the ceiling. It's the bare minimum of what what we need. Um, and so we of course don't want to see it overturned. Um, but also the, the full promise of, of um, having legal abortion, um, has not been realized with, um, things like the Hyde Amendment, which prohibit public funding for abortion and make it impossible for many people to access care based on how much money they make or where they live and, and what insurance they have. And then other barriers that aren't addressed by things like the Hyde Amendment, um, in the fact that 90% of counties don't have an abortion provider. And so for far too long, abortion patients have been traveling across state lines to get to care even with Roe.

Jennie Wetter: And it's great to see you right now that Hyde is becoming a part of the larger conversation. It was great to see during the, um, a couple of weeks ago where, um, Biden said that he didn't support repealing Hyde and it was quickly shut down that that was the minimum that people are asking for from their presidential candidates.

Yamani: Yes. Um, we are so excited to see that. We saw that in the 2016 election that Hyde for the first time became a part of the Democratic Party platform. And now, um, as we're headed towards this election, we can see that, um, pretty much all the Democratic candidates are, it's a, it's a basic standard, um, of understanding that abortion has to be legal and accessible for all. And we also know that we didn't get here by accident. So, um, it's been actually the leadership of women of Color, um, like the coalition, um, All Above All that have really been pushing over the last five plus years to, to get this to be into the, into the mainstream and the political lexicon of, of, of law makers and legislators. And you know, abortion funds were pioneers in that work as well. And um, for 20 years, um, pioneered on, on the Hyde amendment as there at the, as the main and only policy issue they worked on. Um, so we're super excited to be helping power that campaign, All Above All campaign and for the leadership of the folks who have made it possible to get to this moment.

Jennie Wetter: Yeah. And I think also worth a shout out is this year for the first time the Each Woman Act, which would, among other things, repeal Hyde was introduced in the Senate for the first time. So for all of the hard work, that's amazing.

Yamani: Yeah, it's, it's amazing. And um, All Above All has, has been, um, instrumental and that at the federal level and also a lot of state, um, some of the state progressive state changes that we've seen as well. Um, I've been, uh, a lot of work from All Above All campaign and so, um, we are super excited to see, it's not a tit for tat, but you know, for every really horrible thing that has happened in the last few weeks and months. We also have seen some really bright spots, um, like Maine and Illinois. And so, um, we're trying to hold on to what's possible at the state level and hoping that it, you know, it rolls up and becomes a title wave towards, um, the federal level as well.

Jennie Wetter: Yeah. When New York's change came that just felt so needed because it just was kind of this unrelenting slog of a terribleness for so long. So to see like a great new policy was, um, a breath of fresh air.

Yamani: Absolutely.

Jennie Wetter: So unfortunately, to go back to some of the things we're seeing in the states, so you know, the um, anti choice people are using really emotional, evocative language to try and push basically total bans on abortion. Um, do we want to talk about a little bit of what that would mean for some of the states that are already have a lot of restrictions in place.

Yamani: Yeah. Um, I mean we hear from our members and in the south in particular, but also in the Midwest, I think sometimes the Midwest gets left out of the conversation. Um, but yeah, we hear from um, members in the south. Welcome, welcome to the reality that we have been fighting for a long time, um, and, and also like thank you for kind of waking up to, to what's been happening. So these bans on abortion, these are not the first times that they have been tried, right? It's just they're, you know, they've been beaten before. And so like you said, um, there's, there's a cultural moment that's happening right now where, where the general public is being, um, significantly manipulated or trying to manipulate it because we know that 77% or whatever it is, seven out of 10, um, Americans want there to be safe and legal abortion even if they would never have one. Um, but then you hear this rhetoric that is just outright lies, you know, talking about nonsensical things like post birth abortions and yeah, murder and all of these words that are really inflammatory and confuse the public about what abortion is. Um, I think your average person doesn't always even know what an abortion is. Um, and or that it happens that a lot of them happen before 10 weeks and with pills and you know, so if you listened to this rhetoric, you can be really confused and also polarized and manipulated in a way that, that results in, in some of these fantastical things be becoming a reality for some people. Um, and I think it's heartening to see that, you know, as, as swiftly as like an abortion ban and Alabama might have have come to pass. There's also been a swift backlash to that as well.

Yamani: And, um, I've been really encouraged by the ways that people have really showed up and flooded in donations and requests to volunteer and asked for other ways that they can support, um, on the ground and um, to making sure that abortion stays legal. Um, and that for the cases that where it may not, that people can still get to care by traveling. Um, and then we also know that traveling will not be possible for every person. And so that is why we have to, you know, kind of always keep this two pronged approach that abortion funds always do, which is, you know, we tried to take care of the people that we have now, um, while also trying to fight for the political and cultural change that we, that we need because we know that we can't take care for everybody at once.

Jennie Wetter: I'm really glad that, um, there is, this seems to be a little pause in all of the bans passing in those states because for a while with everything happening, I was doing rage donating and having to give to the abortion funds and Alabama and Georgia and Missouri and um, which was great but I needed, I needed a cooling off month. And I think so, you know, I think another thing that these bans are doing is they're getting so much publicity, which is good, but it's also scaring people away and thinking that abortion is not legal in their state and that they can't go get care. And I think that's also another important myth to talk about is that right now abortion is still legal. You can still get care in all 50 states.

Yamani: Yes. Um, yeah, I've heard a lot of abortion funds changing their outgoing messages to have that as a first, first line when he answered the phone. You know, abortion is legal in all 50 states. Abortion is still illegal, et cetera. Yeah. Um, it's, uh, I mean even before this, people have been confused because there's just a lot of misinformation online. There's, in some states there's 300 crisis pregnancy centers or fake clinics to one abortion provider. So in a state where you have 300 organizations and fake clinics, trying to, um, actively deceive people from being able to get the abortions that they want and need. Um, it's, it's, you know, it's been a struggle actually, or people don't understand that there's nothing wrong with it, with an abortion. Um, that it is legal. That is your human right, not just your constitutional right, but a human right. Um, for you to decide if, when and how you make your family.

Jennie Wetter: Absolutely. And beside the bans, there've been, you know, real targeted efforts trying to close clinics with things that sound, I think to a lot of people on their face, fairly innocuous but are actually really designed to just close clinics. You know, saying that a doc, uh, an abortion provider needs admitting privileges at a local hospital. And I think when you talk to people who aren't like steeped in this stuff, it seems like, well, yeah, that seems perfectly logical, but it can, but it's really detrimental and can force clinics to close. Yeah.

Yamani: Um, and that's why for us, political education is really important. Um, people have asked, you know, what our individual membership is and what we do with it. And for us it's more than just an email list. Um, but, um, a place where we are doing, you know, trying to do deeper education with individuals to help, um, help them understand this issue and, and the complexities about it. Um, we've got a political education stick series that's going to be getting started that is tackling, um, with our individual members and our fund members. Some of the nuances about abortion access that, you know, kind of get at some of those things that you think would be innocuous, but then when you really look at them and you're like, oh, this is completely racist. Or you know, like yeah, there's some really problematic things about the way this is message or you know, on, these are ways that I can, um, adjust, um, the way I think and talk about this issue.

Yamani: And um, we think that is really important because sometimes people just want to jump in and you know, like take action quote unquote and um, whether that's volunteering and you know, you saw this, uh, what was it called? The aunty network where people were saying, I have a cow, I have a couch and come to me and I can support you. And it's for us, we feel like it's really not that simple. Like you need to have some baseline knowledge about these, about the issue, about abortion, about the procedure, about the, the climates, um, in which people are having abortions and the things that they might be dealing with, the intersecting oppressions that they might be dealing with as they're navigating abortion care. Um, in order to support someone going through it.

Jennie Wetter: And I think that's, uh, leads to like the really important point, which is who's going to be the most impact? You know, I'm a white woman living in Washington D C I'm going to be fine, but the people that are going to be impacted aren't people who look like me.

Yamani: I mean, we, most of the people that have abortions are people of color that are impacted by racism and economic injustices in this country. And, um, that impact their decision making around whether they start to parent at all or whether they expand their families. So, yeah, I mean, we have some data from our, the national, the Tiller Fund that we operate, um, have operated and 50% of those callers are African American. And so we are pretty clear on, you know, who our core constituencies are and who our work is for and about.

Jennie Wetter: It's just so important to make sure that everybody who wants to be able to access abortion care or decides they want a parent has the resources they need. And right now that just doesn't exist. So, you know, you talked about the creation of the Aunty network. Uh, and I think it's brings us to the perfect point. I'm saying a lot of that already infrastructure already exists with abortion funds. Um, so you want to talk a little bit about what abortion funds are?

Yamani: Sure. Um, so abortion funds are grassroots organizations that are locally based and rooted. Um, predominantly volunteer led run and powered that basically help remove the financial and logistical barriers to access to abortion access while also fighting against the political and cultural barriers that make their work necessary. So abortion funds help raise and, um, pay for abortions. They help pay for and provide rides, childcare and um, housing. Some of them have, um, doulas, abortion doulas, um, or partnerships with abortion doulas and are looking at emotional supports for people who are having abortions. So, and abortion funds have been around longer than the national network of abortion funds, which is 26 years old and 22 abortion funds started the National Network of Abortion Funds in 1993 and now we have, um, 76 abortion funds residing in 41 states.

Jennie Wetter: Wow. That's great.

Yamani: Yeah. Um, and, and, and so out of those 76, 29 have, um, paid staff and the rest are volunteer led and run. And the average budget size of a, um, abortion fund, we just got our 2018 data back is $175,000, so very small, um, with the average abortion funding budget of just under $40,000. So, um, these are very small organizations. Um, and we are really looking to build strong leaders and stable organizations with abortion funds. And, um, that's where we come in as a national organization. We really support abortion funds on pretty much every aspect of their work, whether it's the technical aspects like operational things like helping with getting their boards together or um, finance, finance or legal supports. Um, and other operational things to, um, leadership development to, um, network building, like convening abortion funds and region and helping support them, you know, organizing and advocating and coordinating their work across states to movement building and grassroots fund raising where, um, we host the national abortion access bowl-a-thon, which is where abortion funds raise about half of their annual budgets.

Jennie Wetter: And there are a lot of fun.

Yamani: Yeah, it's also a lot of fun and we believe that abortion access does not have to be something that is not fun. Um, abortion, um, the bowl-a-thon and, and all and all of our events are really aimed at being funky and fun and irreverent and, um, instilling hope and joy. And we really believe that our joy and our hope, are part of, um, ways that we resist. Um, we, you know, Mariame Kaba a prison abolitionist and expert on transforming harm. Told us at our last summit, um, this quote from Audrey Lord, that despair is the tool of our enemies. You know, if they, if it's up to them, we will be sad and sullen and dehydrated and you know, completely not taking care of ourselves, um, until we wither away and we aren't willing to do that. Um, and so we find ways that we build our technical strength but that we also build community and alignment in our values and our wisdom and um, the ways that we take care of each other.

Jennie Wetter: Yeah. I also really like, so, you know, I support my local abortion fund, but I also like through the national networks website, when you give a donation, you can select the abortion funds you want it to go to. So I was able to tie my monthly, um, donations to one of the abortion funds back home, which is Wisconsin. So it's nice to be able to, one for people, you can go out and support your local one or you can find a state where you think might need help and go out and support them as well.

Yamani: Yeah. We, we really tried to, um, not make it an either or thing, but, um, operate from a place of abundance and, um, and encourage people to do both. I mean they do different things, right? You know, like if people want to directly fund abortion, then we always direct people straight to their local abortion funds and, um, we recognize the power that we have as a national organization but are also trying to really dismantle what it means to be a national organization. Um, because we really are rooted in the local power of our members. And you know, our, our board is predominantly member based. Our staff is um, a third, um, directly from our membership. Our staff is, um, 75% people of color. Um, gender expansive. It's mostly religious. You know, we're really trying to make sure that we are doing this work in a way that, that represents, um, people most impacted in that it's not, you know, a bunch of elderly white women that are sitting in a room deciding what's going to happen at the national level for, um, communities of color in the south and the Midwest. And, and all over the country.

Jennie Wetter: That's really important. And it's so important to reflect your values. Um, let's see. Anything else you want to talk about about abortion funds?

Yamani: I'm always just, I am in love with this network. I, yeah, every day I'm an, I'm inspired by the work that they do and you know, I really try to, you know, sometimes there's a narrative around like, you know, a single charismatic leader and I feel like our network is really leader full. Um, and we are like, you know, we cross pollinate with each other and learn a lot from each other. Both, you know, nationally, locally, you know, if anything, I want to just lift up that, that piece about being a network and the fact that even though we're a national organization and we can't really get around that, um, we are always really trying to dismantle what that, what that means and how we can share power with our members and what that means for operations and, and the ways that we do our work.

Jennie Wetter: I think that one of the things that I got really excited about in the bleakness of the wave of abortion bans recently was one of the first responses I saw to the Alabama one was funding an abortion fund, which I think was one of the first times I've saw that as the immediate response, which was wonderful.

Yamani: Yeah, it was, it was definitely, it was a shift in the, in the tide. Um, and I think, you know, Hillary Clinton directed people to abortion to donate to abortion funds. Both Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders sent out appeals on behalf of, um, abortion funds. And it was really exciting to see like an and is exciting to see a national conversation happening about abortion funds. And you know, a lot of, several of our members have been invited to tables that they haven't been invited to before. And I'm, I'm thrilled about that because, you know, we have long said that is the people on the ground that are the best architects of solutions and the people who are most impacted by this that are, are the best, um, decision makers around what needs to happen next. I think we have, you know, been doing things a certain way for a long time and have had a lot of missing voices. And so I'm thrilled to, you know, see our members being, um, lifted up and gone to as experts on this issue.

Jennie Wetter: Um, is one of the things that we saw a lot of, um, bigger name people doing in response is saying that we need to boycott, uh, Alabama or Georgia. Do you maybe want to take away tackle why that's maybe not the best idea?

Yamani: In terms of people advocating for boycotting Alabama and Georgia, um, it discounts how the people most impacted in, um, Alabama and Georgia are impacted, but by a boycott like that, if you're trying to punish the legislators, um, who have made poor decision making, you know, challenge them in a political way. Um, but taking away a job opportunities for local people who already are struggling to get by is not, it's not helping the people that you're trying to help. Um, it's a, it's PR stunt that, you know, gets a lot of traction in the news. But, uh, I think it's always important to kind of go back to, to the states and ask what they need. And all I've heard from Alabama, Georgia is please don't boycott, um, like don't like the people that we work with our say that is not helpful. So trust that people who are most impacted and that that is the best decision making.

Jennie Wetter: Thank you. I wanted to make sure to lift that up cause that's the same thing I've been hearing as well. Okay. So I always like to end the podcast with an action. So what can listeners do to support abortion access?

Yamani: Sometimes people think it's sounds frivolous to ask people to donate. In our cases, abortion funds are only able to support almost a fifth of the people that, um, a little over the fifth of a fifth of the people who call for help. So, um, donations actually make a huge addition. Uh, donations make a huge difference if, um, people want to make sure that direct access to care is um, made possible paying for an abortion. Paying for the associated costs of getting an abortion we say is a revolutionary and political act, especially when the government refuses to. So, um, we always encourage people to donate. You can donate to your local fund or donate at the national level and we are building a large fund that re grants to the local fund. Um, then again we could become a member of abortion funds and anchor to your local fund. Um, abortion funds.org/member is the way to do that. Um, it's on a sliding scale from zero to $25. You get a cool tee shirt that says everyone loves someone who's had an abortion and other merchant with that same message.

Jennie Wetter: Yeah, there's some pretty great swag to check out this site that you should all get

Yamani: Bust abortion stigma by talking about abortion. Participate in our campaigns like the heart to heart campaign, which is a cultural change campaign where you basically talk to people in your lives about abortion. Um, if we can't talk to our family members about abortion is it's a little bit harder to make this mass change that we're trying to make. So say abortion, say the word, talk about abortion funds. Get connected to your abortion funds, donates your abortion funds and stay involved politically as well. Let your local and um, national, um, lawmakers know where you stand on this issue and um, that is all, those are all ways to support us in this work.

Jennie Wetter: Wonderful. Well you want to thank you so much for doing this.

Yamani: Thank you for having me.

Jennie Wetter: For more information including show notes from this episode and previous episodes, please visit our website reprosfightback.com. You can also find us on Facebook and Twitter at repros fight. If you'd like our show, please help others find it by sharing it with your friends and subscribing, rating and reviewing us on iTunes. Thanks for listening.

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