Giving Compass' Take:
- Here are three crucial ways funders can support and invest in organizers working to provide inclusive and affirming reproductive care for all communities.
- Using a reproductive justice approach will be critical for funders who want to protect reproductive rights. How might donors pivot funding strategies to use this lens?
- See more about reproductive justice from Borealis Philanthropy.
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As funders, we are indebted to the organizers who have worked tirelessly to secure and offer inclusive and affirming reproductive care and who continue in their work to build a future that serves us all. Here are three things that philanthropy can do today:
- Trust LGBTQ and BIPOC leaders to develop inclusive and community-specific strategies and solutions. Philanthropy must trust the wisdom of communities with lived experience of injustice to lead the way in creating change.
- Give unrestricted dollars and long-term grants so organizations and leaders can determine the best use of funds and implement strategies they (not you) set, and then trust them to do the work.
- Provide rapid response funding, which is particularly critical in this moment, as the uncertainty of abortion legislation leaves reproductive justice advocates overwhelmed and under-protected. The ELLC Fund has created a reproductive justice rapid response fund to support LGBTQ+, Black, Indigenous and POC (BIPOC) reproductive justice organizations to prepare and adapt in the face of the potential fall of Roe. Projects may include, but are not limited to, activities defending abortion access.
- Shift the narrative around abortion — toward Reproductive Justice.
- Fund Reproductive Justice organizing to secure the bodily autonomy for all people, including access to abortion, gender-affirming healthcare and safety for trans people, and beyond.
- Use gender-inclusive language when discussing abortion and reproductive health care— for example, saying “pregnant people” is more accurate, inclusive, and straightforward.
- Name abortion. Instead of vague conversations about “women’s rights”, “health” and “choice”, it’s time to openly discuss how all people who can get pregnant need access to safe and compassionate abortion care.
- Resource LGBTQ and people of color-led organizations on the frontlines of the Reproductive Justice movement — in this critical moment and for long-term power building. While progressives talk intersectional, the right acts intersectional. Anti-trans and antiabortion organizers receive support from the same set of funders who resource these movements at the state and local level. Progressive funders can course correct:
- Fund power-building organizing at the community level — not only to win policy changes, but to implement and defend these changes, and to shift narrative and culture.
- Fund LGBTQ and people of color-led Reproductive Justice organizations that are building power across communities and issues.
While the fall of Roe v. Wade will make abortion illegal in more than two dozen states, history has proven that legality will not keep us from seeking abortions or other ways of acting out autonomy over our bodies. We know, too, that striking down Roe will have continued and devastating consequences, including increased surveillance, incarceration, suicide, and deepened and enshrined economic injustice. As is always the case, LGBTQ, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), low-income, disabled, rural, and migrant communities will bear the brunt of this extremist decision.