Happy Birthday Roe! Looking for another way to commemorate the day? Donate to your local abortion fund. The Hyde Amendment is 30 years old, which means for 30 years poor women seeking abortions have had to scrape together whatever funds they can out of the money they would otherwise use for housing, food, children’s necessities, etc. . . . while all other procedures are paid for by Medicaid. Do what you can to end this policy and help make the promise of Roe a reality for poor women too.
– David S. Cohen
Thanks, David. And to give further context to this appeal, consider this: Pro-Choice Resources, which administers the only abortion assistance fund in the tri-state area of Minnesota, South Dakota, and North Dakota (where, incidentally, lawmakers are this very week considering legislation along the lines of last year’s infamous attempt at a ban just to its south, and which, like both that neighbor and Mississippi, shares the distinction of being one of three states with but a single clinic), can afford to open its funding line only twice a week. Dedicated staff answer the funding phone line from 5:00-7:00 Wednesday evenings, and again briefly at noon on Tuesdays until the week’s funds are depleted.
It never takes long.
Far more women call the line in need of funding than Pro-Choice Resources (PCR) has the funds to help, and those who do get through receive just a portion of the fees they desperately need. Every year on January 22nd, PCR opens the line all day long to callers from around the country. Today staff fielded calls from a clinic requesting assistance on behalf of a homeless woman facing a $1600 procedure, from a 15-year old rape victim, and from countless working women barely scraping by who need help quickly before the cost of their abortions soar higher.
Every donation helps, and of course repealing the Hyde amendment will help far more still.