In early 2022 in anticipation of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade (via the decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization), Resource Generation leaders launched a cross-chapter member-led campaign called “Fund Abortion Now!” We knew this ruling would only exacerbate existing inequalities in abortion across the United States. The fall of Roe would mean that in at least 22 states, abortion would be automatically banned or nearly banned. In fact, as you’re reading this now, it’s likely this has already happened.

The hope of this campaign has been to provide a space for collective political education, organizing, and fundraising in order to ensure that our RG community — and individual donors and class privileged folks more broadly— engage effectively in this moment. We understand that issues like this can be deeply scary for our constituents, but it is essential that we maintain perspective on the real impacts, centering our response around the frontline organizations who are doing and have been doing this work, rather than attempting to “recreate the wheel.” It’s important to remember that the fall of Roe will disproportionately impact poor people, young people, people in rural areas and in the South and Midwest, and people of color. We also know that, for many people, the legal right to abortion has never equaled meaningful access to abortion, and this is simply an escalation of long-standing inequities.

Though chronically underfunded, abortion funds have been a critical part of the abortion access landscape for decades, ensuring sure that people can actually get the abortions they want and need. As abortion access continues to be threatened, these abortion funds will need more resources than ever to facilitate abortion access as well as plan long-term for how to best organize against new restrictions. The Fund Abortion Now! campaign has partnered with a leader in this area, the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF). NNAF is a nationwide network comprised of local abortion funds. Our goal is to fundraise $1 million over the next 3 years from RG members and their networks to support NNAF as well their local affiliates. Since we launched the campaign in March 2022, we have $473,000 pledged over the next 3 years plus $124,000 mobilized this year towards NNAF and their affiliates. Though we’re off to a great start, now more than ever, it is time to show up with our privilege, funds, resources, and hearts to support abortion access.

Read the full article about post-Roe abortion planning at Resource Generation.