It is Only a Choice if you have the Funds to Choose It

According to Feministing a very important organization the New York Abortion Fund or NYAAF is going broke. NYAAF helps low income women pay for abortions and in these trying times both the need for financial assistance and abortion services are one the rise. Feministing gives a couple links, including a fundraising campaign on Facebook where you can help out. I'm sending in $20 (not very much, but every little bit helps). #1 reason cited for the need for abortions is financial considerations. Now, I'd love to live in a country where we have universal health care so no woman needs to worry about the cost of prenatal care and delivery, I'd love to live in a country where day care is subsized, heck, I'd love to live in a country where we get paid Maternity/Paternity leave. But, I don't. I live in the USA--where social safety net has been maligned by the powers of greed and corporate evil-doing since Roosevelt (no, since Hamilton). Despite this general humane wish list for the support of sound family policies, I am also unapologetically, without question PRO CHOICE and since this blog is very much about bodies, what is more body integrity oriented than the right to decide when and when not to continue a pregnancy to term? Bush wasn't able to completely get rid of Roe v Wade (though there are now so many hops and lack of access in rural America, the Republican Right did manage to essentially take away millions of women's ability to choose). For many, the right to choose is primarily about the rights of middle-class/upper-class women's right to choose and the rights of poor women to have to deal with accidental pregancies with forced birth policies or taking the measures into their own hands (like using pesticides or ulcer meds to try to self-abort). For many poor women, getting the money for an abortion takes time, and by the time they have it, its the 2nd trimester and its a much more expensive procedure. NYAAF helps women get safe abortions earlier and not only women from New York. We need more abortion funds like NYAAF and unfortunately, its going to have to be private foundations like NYAAF because the Right Wing will destroy any efforts at a universal healthcare system if abortion services is part of the package. Hopefully, with universal healthcare, our abortion rates will go down because more women will have access to contraception and the ability to plan their families (like in Europe, where abortion is significantly less likely to be necessary than here...ironic huh? Oh, wait, just common sense).

So, if you have $5 ro $100 to spare, help a sister out.

Peace