Extremist judges will not stop endangering the lives of pregnant people or people who may become pregnant—overturning Roe v. Wade, attacking medication abortion, threatening the future of IVF, and this week at SCOTUS, emergency abortion care.
Our lawyers are waging strategic fights that make clear what is at stake for people who can become pregnant and seek to bolster our fundamental rights to control our lives, futures, and destinies.
Make a donation to the National Women’s Law Center to power the fight for accessible health care and a better future for all. Every donation is 100% tax-deductible.
Exactly one year ago, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
After the twelve months of chaos that followed, total or near-total abortion bans are in effect in fourteen states as of June 2023. Amid this devastation, it was community members—from abortion providers to family, friends, and supporters—who did everything in their power to safeguard this essential health care, even when their freedom, safety, and lives were at risk.
Today and every day, we owe these selfless individuals an immense debt of gratitude. This post is our small, and still insufficient, way of saying thank you.
A $100,000 fine.
A revocation of their medical license.
Years in prison.
These are just a few of the legal consequences facing abortion providers in states where abortion is banned. This is not to mention the 11 murders, 42 bombings, 200 arsons, 531 assaults, and 492 clinic invasions perpetrated against patients, providers, and volunteers since 1977—violence that has only increased since the fall of Roe.
And yet, providers are still working—not despite fear, but alongside it. In the past year, they have moved mountains to get people care: moving into new states, expanding capacity, including working long days and weekends in their current locations and expanding telehealth options.
As one provider told us herself: “There are people who will go to the ends of the earth to make sure that we take care of as many people as we can.” And the data back this up.
#WeCount’s April 2022 through March 2023 report, which documents the state of abortion access since Dobbs, found that: “Abortion-providing facilities have increased efforts to see patients quickly, particularly in states with gestational bans. Many in states where abortion is permitted have expanded their capacity and new clinics have opened in surge states, including in New Mexico, Illinois, and Kansas.”
We are so grateful for these end-of-the-earth efforts.
In a perfect world, abortion funds wouldn’t even need to exist. Our policies and budgets would ensure affordable and available abortion care. But we’re not in that perfect world yet, and so abortion funds and all the people who work and volunteer for them are a critical lifeline for people seeking abortion care.
From funding the procedure to helping cover costs of travel (including any bus, plane, ride sharing, hotel, and child care needs), abortion funds are a bedrock of abortion access today.
Donate to your local fund here.
In every state where abortion rights were on the ballot in the 2022 midterms, voters affirmed them!
Those victories were not a spontaneous occurrence—but the results of intensive labor from dedicated campaign workers, and the outpouring of support from voters (like you!) saying what the majority of Americans believe:
Not just that abortion should be legal.
But that legal abortion is core to people’s freedom to make their own decisions about their lives, bodies, and futures.
In March 2023, a Texas man brought a wrongful-death lawsuit against his ex-wife’s friends who allegedly helped support her when she decided to terminate her pregnancy, demanding damages in the amount of at least $1 million. It seems that these days, anti-abortion extremists aren’t just attacking our bodies, lives, and futures—but dictating how we get to care for our friends.
Yet despite the potential legal consequences, people are still showing up for one another. Sisters driving one another to clinics. Partners rubbing their loved ones’ backs. Friends staying on FaceTime for hours.
All of these compassionate acts prove something that the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) has been screaming from the proverbial rooftop for years:
Abortion is community care.
That would be… you!
Every donation you’ve made to an abortion fund… every time you’ve fought abortion stigma even when it made the conversation awkward… every time you’ve driven a friend to their abortion, waiting with open arms, the perfect movie marathon, and their favorite snacks for the couch-time afterwards…
You have helped protect abortion in this country.
As we mark one year without the federal constitutional right to abortion, we want to express our awe and gratitude for each of you, and all you have done to care and comfort one another through the chaos.
It should never have been like this.
We deserve better.
And our communities are showing us that better future.
To help support people like you, on June 22, 2023, NWLC launched the groundbreaking Abortion Access Legal Defense Fund, designed to help cover some of the legal expenses incurred by individuals and entities who are facing legal consequences because they sought abortion or helped someone obtain an abortion or information about abortion care and who face a substantial financial hardship.
Learn more here: Abortion Access Legal Defense Fund
