Late birthday gift?
For the next few weeks, NNAF is running their second annual Bowl-a-Thon fundraiser. NNAF — the National Network of Abortion Funds — works with regional groups to provide private funding for abortions. Basically, you fork over money and that money is used to pay for a woman’s abortion (either in part or in full).
For full disclosure, NNAF has been trying to get rid of the Hyde Amendment (which bars federal funding of abortion). I’ve been pretty clear about where I stand on family planning funding. As I’ve stated about a gazillion times, we’ve gotta fix shit before screwing over the poor even more or else yanking funding/putting up more barriers will just result in a Dickensian wet dream. And, well, despite the fact that Scrooged is my all-time favorite Christmas movie, I’m just not really hep on that shit panning out IRL.
Anyway, I’m a little disappointed in myself because I completely forgot to blog about it. The Philly Bowl-a-Thon is coming up on Thursday evening (April 28th). My friend Kim is currently trying to raise money for the Women’s Medical Fund (Phila, PA); as of this posting, she has exceeded her goal by $10, but Women’s Medical Fund is still short by just under $500. If you have $5 or $10 to throw in, why not consider it?
Just in case you want to help out a less fortunate funding org/clinic, the Bowl-a-thon main page has a list of current fundraising totals (ranked from highest to lowest). Currently, there are six organizations who have not yet raised $1000: HOTDISH Militia (Duluth, MN); Agnes Reynolds Jackson Fund (Toledo, OH); Emma Goldman Clinic (Iowa City, IA); Cedar River Clinics (Renton/Seattle suburbs, WA); Women Health Specialists - Women in Need Fund (Redding/Chico, CA); and Vermont Access to Reproductive Freedom (Burlington, VT). In order to donate to any of those clinics, just click the links to specific members/teams and it should take you right to a donation page.
As NNAF states on the Bowl-a-thon site, legal abortion is meaningless if you have no means to pay for it (or, for that matter, no clinic accessibility or no doctors to perform them). Having the ability to pay for an abortion or the costs associated with it (such as a pregnancy test, time off of work for appointments, or childcare costs) directly impact a woman’s ability to terminate a pregnancy early on. Given the kerfuffle made over…..the dreaded “PBA,” making sure women are able to make a free choice early on in their pregnancies should be rather important, dontcha think?
Before I get the peanut gallery whining about how absorption is merger, the reality is this: y’all aren’t doing enough. Shoving less than accurate signs in my face, screaming “ZOMG! BABBY KILLAZ!” and pelting me with ketchup covered Barbie heads doesn’t actually help women. When Genocide Awareness Project came to my university, one of the things that stood out was how much money they pissed away on their displays and the rental space. All I could think was “gee gosh, how ‘pro-life.’ I wonder how much of that money could have been used to help women give birth and parent their babies?”
But what do I know, right?
