Last month, just two days after the inauguration of our 46th president and first female vice president, the nation marked another milestone — the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding access to safe abortion as a woman’s constitutional right.

But even under a Democratic administration and Congress, the confluence of these events should serve as a reminder to the philanthropic world of the growing vulnerability of abortion rights in this country.

In the last four years, former President Donald Trump appointed three anti-abortion justices to the Supreme Court, building a conservative majority that puts the security of a woman’s right to choose at serious risk. At the same time, attacks on women’s health are increasing, due in large part to the rise of disinformation on the internet and the decline in local news. When there aren’t enough reporters in statehouses where laws restricting abortion are created, people have less access to accurate information about what’s happening in their state and what is needed to fight back.

“We have seen a dramatic drop in public outcry because people aren’t learning about bad legislation and other threats to reproductive rights until it’s too late to change course,” says Lizz Winstead, the founder of Abortion Access Front, which uses satire and pop culture to deliver daily news and updates about reproductive rights.

Groups like Winstead’s are working in the trenches to fight back, but they need more philanthropic support. While funding the local statehouse reporter remains critical, grant makers in the media arena should also take a close look at scrappy nonprofits like Winstead’s, which deploy less-traditional communications tools to promote a science-based counternarrative about abortion and women’s health.

Read the full article about protecting reproductive rights by Nina Sachdev at Media Impact Funders.