Our fund is going broke and we need your help to replenish it. This April, the New York Abortion Access Fund raised over $20,000 during the first-ever National Abortion Access Bowlathon. We have already given out ALL of that money to help women pay for abortions they needed but could not afford. To contribute, please click on the Network for Good link on the right.

NYAAF is pledging money at a faster rate than ever before. Why? Two reasons:

First, over the past year our visibility as a fund has increased thanks to your help in promoting our services, word-of-mouth referrals from women we have helped, an increase in the number of partner clinics who call us when they have a patient in need, and a ramped up online presence via Facebook, Twitter and our website.

Second, a recent wave of extremely expensive cases has nearly wiped us out. More and more women are contacting us for help in paying for extremely costly later-term procedures. These women come to us with heartbreaking stories of the obstacles they have faced in both preventing an unplanned pregnancy in the first place and then obtaining an abortion right away.

Why are these women waiting so long to get abortions? At NYAAF, we are often asked this question. The women we help give a range of answers. Some do not realize they are pregnant right away. Some young women say they were afraid to tell their parents or didn’t know where to go for help.

But the most common reason we hear is MONEY. The women we serve often come to us from other states with more restrictive abortion policies. By the time they reach New York, they have already spent considerable time and energy fundraising for their trip and procedure by saving up, borrowing from friends and family and asking for advances on paychecks. In the meantime, the longer a women spends raising the funds to pay for her procedure, the more expensive that procedure becomes.

Please help us help women obtain earlier, less expensive abortions. When our fund is flush, NYAAF is able to pledge 100% of the money a woman needs to confirm an appointment so that she can stop fundraising and obtain an abortion right away. When we are broke, as we are now, we are forced to make smaller pledges. We try to make up the balance by referring women to all known sources of funding, helping them to negotiate payment plans with clinics and look into paying for the procedure with a credit card. This kind of negotiating is not only costly for the woman, but also time consuming for our all-volunteer board thus limiting the number of women we can help.

By donating today, you can help break down the barriers preventing women from obtaining timely, cost-effective abortions and, in turn, help us to be able to serve a greater number of women. All contributions are tax deductible and 100% of your donation will go DIRECTLY toward paying for a women’s abortion. We are a tiny, tightly budgeted 501c3. All operating costs are covered out of pocket by the NYAAF board.

At current rates, we will run out of money by the end of the month. Please help us stay afloat.

Sincerely,

The board of the New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF)

Nyaaf.org
Causes.org/nyaaf
Twitter.com/nyaaf

It has been a tough year for the New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF). The nationwide economic downturn and upsurge in unemployed and uninsured Americans have lead to a rise in demand for our services. More and more we are getting calls not just from clinics, but directly from women asking for help to pay for an abortion.

This increase in the numbers and types of requests we receive means we are reaching a wider population of women and families than ever before. It also requires more time and effort. Our all-volunteer board is stretched thin responding to requests for funding, referring women to clinics that can serve them and negotiating with those clinics to provide the most timely and affordable services possible.

The women NYAAF serves are ones who might otherwise slip through the cracks, including those who make just a little too much to qualify for public assistance, who do not qualify due to immigration status, who live in states that do not help cover the cost of abortion, or who face emergency situations that do not leave them enough time to apply for government help.

The emergencies, of course, are the most expensive. Last month, we helped a fifteen-year-old rape victim pay for a procedure that required hospital treatment. Arranging for her care took more than ten phone calls, countless emails and hours of negotiation. We contacted every known source of abortion funding for which this young woman qualified and every time heard the same message: we are out of money, please call back later. In the end, the doctor involved in the case waived the usual fee and NYAAF agreed to pay the remaining hospital costs: $4000. We were able to make that pledge and save that young woman?s life because we had the funds on hand and a mechanism in place to get them quickly to where they needed to go. But that pledge nearly drained our remaining 2009 budget, and in order to meet the demand for our assistance in 2010, we need your help.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to NYAAF to help us face the challenges of the coming year. The obstacles are only increasing: We lost a hero this year, Dr. George Tiller, whose murder in August has left us with few places to turn when a woman comes to us in need of a later-term procedure. On top of this, the ongoing healthcare debate in Congress may carry with it new restrictions on abortion funding, thus increasing the need for our fund. NYAAF is an all-volunteer organization, which means that 100% of your tax-deductible contribution goes directly to women in need. Even small amounts can make a huge difference in the lives of the women we help. Give online now at www.nyaaf.org or send a check to:

New York Abortion Access Fund
FDR Station, Box 7569
New York, NY 10150

Thank you for helping to ensure access to abortion services for all women!

Sincerely,

Lauren Alexander
On behalf of the New York Abortion Access Fund

Thanks

NYAAF Board

Thank you!

Abortion Funding and Social Justice: A Perspective from Mexico

Please join The Center for Reproductive Rights, the Guttmacher Institute, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, New York Abortion Access Fund and Ipas for a special event with Eugenia López Uribe, a Mexican activist and coordinator of the MARIA Abortion Fund for Social Justice.

Ms. López is on a speaking tour of the U.S. from Mexico, where she advocates for sexual and reproductive health and rights of women and young people.

In her work with the MARIA fund, she helps Mexican women access safe, legal abortion and defends the right to abortion in Mexico.  Ms. López will talk about the liberalization of the abortion law in Mexico City and the critical role of funding for women to exercise their right to abortion.

Tuesday, November 10 at 6:30 pm

The Center for Reproductive Rights

120 Wall Street, 14th Floor, New York

Please RSVP by November 9^th by contacting Yasmine at yasmine@latinainstitute.org or 212-422-2553.

Dear everyone,

Myra sent this Op-Ed – saying that it is a good look at what is missing in the HealthCare reform bill. So I thought I would make it accessible.

“Missing from Health Care Reform Bill: Reproductive Health”

by Sulvia Law

The Nation

Thanks

Heather