Funding Equitable Abortion Access in Battleground States

(Photo by iStock/JPLDesigns)

Many Americans knew the loss of abortion rights was coming, but that didn’t make it any less traumatic when it happened.

Today, in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health,  half the country has strict abortion restrictions in effect or queued up to take effect over the coming months, making it difficult, if not impossible, for people to access abortion care. Fourteen states have banned abortion entirely. In response, organizations like the National Network of Abortion Funds are doing heroic work to maintain access—but they certainly aren’t able to maintain the continuum of care we need.

Ensuring that everyone can access resources and care to live healthy, self-determined lives should be a core pillar of philanthropic work. Yet too often, we end up throwing money at a fractured and incomplete system of care, which won’t make the thing we’re trying to solve any more solved. The best way for philanthropy to show up going forward is to make trust-based, long-term investments into the systems of care that have long excluded marginalized communities and to ensure that those most impacted by reproductive oppression are the ones making the decisions. Without either of those elements, we won’t succeed.

As a funder helping to lead efforts to preserve and expand access to abortion care in a battleground state, we have a monumental responsibility to model a path forward. In short, if our aim is to rebuild universal abortion access, it’s essential that we all commit to being led by those most impacted.

Invest in the Agency and Power of Those Most Impacted by Reproductive Oppression

People affected by poverty, people of color, immigrants, folks who are two-spirit and LGBTQ+, and people who live in tribal and rural communities have struggled to access abortion care long before this Supreme Court decision came down. While philanthropy has provided significant funding for policy, advocacy, and litigation, data shows that philanthropists have room to grow our investments to support equitable access to abortion care.

These kinds of investments are critical right now; because, when they are led by communities most impacted, they can be playbooks for further public investment to close gaps in services our government should be providing. More importantly, investments designed by impacted communities are the most effective because they know best the impact disparities in health care have on their lives and can create solutions that will best address their needs.

Barriers to Abortion Persist All Throughout Our Nation

Barriers to health care coverage and the failure of insurance providers to pay for abortion even when required by law is a product of our nation’s history of sexism, racism, and discrimination. Abortion deserts, too, persist even in states where access is legally protected. The added costs of traveling hundreds of miles away from home, securing a safe place to stay, and covering child care, mean services are unaffordable and out of reach to millions of Americans who aren’t in states with post-Dobbs bans.

A right is not a right if you can’t access it.

No one should ever have to choose between paying rent and accessing health care. As we continue our work, we must build a future that meets the needs of all the communities we serve. We know the best path forward is built on a more just and equitable health care system that can support us all—a system that values our dignity, our autonomy, and our freedom to determine our own futures.

Long-term Investments Are Needed in States Where Abortion Is Legal and Protected

As the abortion landscape becomes even more fragmented and polarized, it’s up to states with strong protections in place to be responsive and scale up access to services that people deserve. They are officially the frontlines of abortion care. Abortion providers are already seeing an increase in demand from patients traveling from restrictive states—further proof that overturning Roe will not end abortions, it will simply shift where they are happening.

But our health care systems were never designed to meet the needs of those most impacted by health inequities (otherwise there wouldn’t be inequities), let alone support half the people in our nation who are being denied the care they need.

Long-term investments are needed in states where abortion is legal and protected—investments in health care infrastructure and workforce; in community-led research; in community-based advocacy and education; and in continued support for abortion funds and other patient needs—to both address urgent needs and to reimagine and redesign reproductive health care systems. How we get there is inextricably linked to our ability to achieve this vision.

New Pathways for Care Rooted in Justice, Equity, and Liberation

Oregon was the first state in the nation to secure a significant investment from state legislators. In March, lawmakers allocated $15 million to invest in our state’s health care infrastructure.

As a community-grounded, nonprofit funder, Seeding Justice was selected to administer the state funds through a participatory grantmaking process. As a leader in participatory grantmaking in the region for nearly 50 years, we are honored to continue building this work—following the success of programs like Oregon Worker Relief, which has now distributed more than $150 million in state funds to support undocumented Oregonians. Oregon Worker Relief used a similar process, beginning with communities most impacted making decisions and designing the grantmaking process.

For decades, Seeding Justice has worked in community with a wide range of organizations that have been working to expand equitable access to reproductive health services in Oregon. Not only will these relationships provide a strong foundation for change, our hope is that they will also serve, as Oregon Worker Relief has, as a powerful model that leverages investments in ways that collectively builds power in impacted communities and creates systems rooted in justice, equity, and liberation.

But we’re under no delusions that $15 million dollars will get the job done. For nearly 50 years, our belief and practice at Seeding Justice is that we trust communities to understand their own needs best. We must shift decision-making power to those closest to reproductive oppression. Foundations, nonprofits, the private sector, and government at all levels must trust and partner with communities to ensure that we solve the complex problems of reproductive health access by centering historically and currently marginalized communities. And we prove it by how we invest.

Philanthropy can’t shy away from the defining issues of our time. We must commit to work in and with communities to advance reproductive justice and freedom, and to invest in a future that honors the needs of all people.

Read more stories by Se-ah-dom Edmo.