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TAs president of the Ohio Abortion Fund, he looked at his year-end finances last month and felt depressed. The foundation paid $1.5 million to support nearly 4,400 abortion patients in 2023 (up from 1,175 the year before), but that pace was not sustainable. She feared that if the fund didn’t pause for a few weeks, it would run out of money and have to close permanently.
The nonprofit organization made the “very difficult decision” to stop taking calls on Dec. 19 and suspend operations until Feb. 1, said Talen Holliman, the organization’s program manager. It is one of the few abortion funds that was forced to temporarily suspend operations because demand outstripped donations.Both Utah Abortion Fund and Indigenous women stand up Last summer, it went on hiatus for a month after going over budget, and more companies are reevaluating their funding policies and tightening their wallets.
STAT spoke with officials from five abortion funds and found that despite rising costs of access to abortion following the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade, He said donations have been decreasing over the past year. Bree Wallace, director of admissions for the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund in Florida, said “every abortion fund” has seen a decline in funding. “I think we’re all hitting numbers lower than we’d like.”
As part of the National Abortion Fund Network, 100 abortion funds work together across the country. Immediately after the court’s Dobbs decision, donations skyrocketed, and in the following year, he was able to donate nearly $37 million to 102,855 people. This represents an 88% increase in spending compared to the previous year. These networks can help fund both medical and surgical abortions, which are often not covered by insurance, and can also cover travel costs to states where abortion is legal and available. Masu.
All Options Hoosier Abortion Fund of Indiana, Tampa Bay Abortion Fund and Ohio Abortion Fund all said their donations at least tripled in the wake of the decision, and the Illinois-based Midwest Access Coalition announced that it will be able to support twice as many people in 2022. The year before that.
“We received a lot of ‘outrage donations’ after Mr. Roe fell,” Wallace said. “At the time, it was national news and glitter.” The foundation said most of its donations came from grassroots donors and individuals shocked by the decision. Jess Marchbank, director of the All Options Hoosier Abortion Fund, previously said many “centrist liberals” don’t seem to realize that access to abortion is under threat. “They came out of complacency,” she added.
The flood of capital has changed the number of funds under management. The Indiana fund previously had to turn away about half of those who applied for assistance, but Marchbank said it has decided to “open the floodgates” and provide assistance to anyone who applies. The fund is now often helping 100 people a week, up from 100 people a month previously.
Meanwhile, new state restrictions on abortion have forced patients to travel further to terminate pregnancies, increasing costs for those seeking help. The Midwest Access Coalition has expanded to help patients across the country. A third of patients last year were from Texas, and three of the five places patients most frequently traveled to were Minnesota, Kansas and Washington, D.C., according to Alison Dries, director of strategic partnerships. It is said that it was.
Previously, appointments could be booked within 24 hours, but now it takes two to three weeks, Drais said. This means more complicated steps may be required and costs may increase. Before Roe’s ouster, the foundation was spending an average of $350 per patient. Now it’s over $1,000.
A legal challenge and a voter-approved constitutional amendment have made abortion legal in Ohio until the 20th week of pregnancy, but it is currently prohibited in neighboring states such as West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana. It is the closest place for state residents to access abortion. As a result, Ohio’s abortion fund is also struggling to cover rising travel costs. “It may seem impossible,” Holliman said.
After a flood of donations in late 2022, the pace began to slow. “We got a lot of attention,” said Emma of the Oklahoma Law Foundation. Emma declined to give her last name for fear of being prosecuted for her work. “Unfortunately, that’s old news now.”
As a result, many funds are now being forced to scale back their ambitions. Wallace said the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund has previously been able to help people from all over Florida, but will now scale back to only help people from or coming to Tampa. In Ohio, abortion funds are still considering new limits, but Holliman said even when abortion funds reopen in February, they won’t be able to help all applicants to the same extent as before. Stated.
In Indiana, the All Option Hoosier Abortion Fund announced last August that it would only allow people nine weeks pregnant or older, although it does make exceptions for people with other significant disabilities, such as minors and those who are pregnant. The decision was made to provide funding. Consequences of rape. For others in early pregnancy, the fund redirects them to other funds and ways to receive care.
Marchbank said it “never feels good” to turn people away, but said the fund decided it needed to prioritize people who don’t have time. “We don’t want to be in a situation where we run out of money and can’t help anyone,” she added.
Funds often work in tandem, and when one resource is limited, it inevitably affects the other funds as well. The Midwest Access Coalition of Illinois said it has been flooded with requests from Ohio since the state’s abortion fund ceased operations. “When one of us goes down, it has a ripple effect on all of us,” Drais said.
In addition to legal uncertainty, declining donations and rising costs, some funds said they are also battling fraudsters. Eliminating people seeking free travel is “one of the biggest hurdles,” said Emma of the Oklahoma Law Foundation. Drais said many scammers appear to be simply looking for a free trip, but he suspects others are anti-abortion activists trying to drain the fund.
Although Ohio’s abortion fund remains closed, Holliman said she’s still talking to patients about just referring them to other hospitals. She says it’s “terrible” to tell those in need that funds aren’t available, but it’s even worse that the organization still doesn’t know how it will be able to operate next month. That’s what it means. “This area of uncertainty, not knowing exactly what it will look like when we actually reopen, is an added layer.”With endowments unlikely to return to previous levels, the fund has been able to reduce costs. At the same time as aiming to reduce this amount, preparations are also underway for an annual “fund” to increase grassroots donations.
Drais said there will be more changes ahead, with a presidential election and two Supreme Court decisions coming up. One will consider whether the Food and Drug Administration properly approved the abortion drug mifepristone, and the other will concern whether Idaho’s abortion law violates federal emergency room standards of care. be. Both could have implications for access to abortion and could increase donor uncertainty about where and how abortion funds operate.
“It’s alarming to hear that so many people are running out of money even though it’s only the beginning of the new year,” Drais said. “We’re concerned about how the whole movement is going to be sustainable, because it’s not sustainable.”
This article is part of our ongoing coverage of reproductive health care. commonwealth fund.
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