My rant on getting a woman funds for her abortion has brought up the issue of why it is such a struggle to raise money for poor women's abortions. This has long been a hot button for me, and I can remember long long ago, like maybe 15 years ago, arguing with Patricia Ireland of NOW (who bless her heart was at least talking to a provider...) about how the pro choice movement should tithe a certain percent of their fundraising to women who cannot afford an abortion. My point was that groups like NARAL and Planned Parenthood were, at the time, fundraising off the misery of the clinics who were under siege by the anti's. The LEAST they could do is give some back to women in need. Her point was that her group and others didn't fundraise for other organizations.
Getting funding from one of the--now== many funds requires that the clinic reduce their fee. (I think it is a requirement--maybe a moral one if not an actual one) Until there were funds, clinics would bear the burden of "charity cases." I know everyone thinks that abortion clinics make money hand over fist, but let me put it to you this way: my mother's illegal abortion in the 50's cost more than I currently charge. Medical inflation is skyrocketing and we are not immune to that, plus we have very high malpractice insurance and security costs, both because of the targeted harassment of the anti's. Abortion fees are artificially low.
We finally started our own fund, accepting donations, but also adding $5 to the fee for the fund. It cleared our psychic energy for more important things, and by passed those horrible clinic discussions where staff were trying to raise money for a particular patient. (This really happens, not in my clinic but I have heard of many clinics where it does.)
Last week one of my co-workers, reading about the millions being raised and spent to defeat Judge Alito for Supreme Court, said to me, "Think how many abortions that could fund...illegal or not." We smiled at our own wishful thinking and answered the next call from a desperate woman.
Why is funding abortion SUCH a tough sell? I think there is a somewhat legitimate position that says, "We want to organize, and fundraise, to change the system to do what it should do, not just help individual women." But to paraphrase Sonia Johnson, it's been about 20 years since the Hyde Amendment banned federal funding for abortion--I think we have given policy change enough time. It's not going to happen. In fact, a rather large grant was given a few years back to lobby for the repeal of the Hyde Amendment. How many abortions would that have paid for? Probably a better use of money.
But I think the bigger issue for most people is that they can't wrap their brain around the idea that an unintended pregnancy can happen to THEM. And as long as everyone keeps quiet about it, we can all think that these bad things happen to women who were careless, or promiscuous, or irresponsible. That somehow they brought it on themselves. And as long as people are defended against the very real possibility (37%) that they might need an abortion, then we can't make any headway at all. Funding someone else's abortion is where we have to confront the pitiful lack of health care access, sexism, anti choice politics, and the messiness of individual lives. Too many barriers between you and your checkbook.
Well, that's the short answer. But, you could all prove me wrong by donating to your local abortion fund this season. (go to www.nnaf.org)
--bon
Poor, drug addicted, women with unplanned or "accidental" pregnancies do not deserve financial help to have abortions. They should have known better than to have sex for these reasons:
1. There is the chance of getting pregnant.
2. Having children while you are destitute and/or addicted to drugs, and therefore unable to support children, is a stupid thing.
Elaine has it exactly wrong -- I have thought about it, and I really don't want my tax dollars funding abortion. Neither do I want to fund women who can't afford children (who "somehow" have children anyway). Instead I want my tax money to fund sex and morality education (i.e. "don't let guys put their dicks inside you when you're drunk" education).
Posted by: Markus | Monday, December 19, 2005 at 07:32 AM
I will never understand the mentality that "I don't want my tax dollars to go towards funding abortion" because if these people really thought about it wouldn't they prefer a couple of hundred tax payer dollars to to fund an abortion rather than the thousands upon thousands of tax payer dollars it would cost to help raise a baby born to a woman who can not afford to support herself let alone her and the baby?
Posted by: elaine | Thursday, December 15, 2005 at 11:34 AM
People are squeamish. They're willing to let the people who are comfortable with abortion deal with abortion, but they don't want to get so close to it as to cough up the cash.
Posted by: Christina | Monday, November 28, 2005 at 07:26 PM
When I was 21, on welfare, doing too many drugs, and found myself pregnant with triplets after I was told that my getting pregnant was unlikely due to a polycystic condition, I was able to get the help I needed, because where I live in Canada, I had good, free access to services. At 32, gainfully employed and off the drugs, I cannot imagine what would have happened had receiving help been financially prohibitive. Funding abortions is a tough sell, and that is why sites like this are so important.
Posted by: schmutzie | Saturday, November 26, 2005 at 05:55 AM