Bowling for 'Bortion

Sorry about the late post today. This abortioneer has had a long couple of weeks.

While looking around on facebook the other day, I saw that NNAF is launching its annual bowl-a-thon. If you haven't heard of this, in the next month or so funds across the country will be "bowling for abortion access." If you go to the bowl-a-thon website, you can see more details including which funds have signed up so far. You can start a team, register with the site, and start raising money. Then you get to go bowling with lots of other fun pro-choicers. I don't know about you, but this abortioneer cannot wait to strap on a pair of awesome rental shoes and throw some balls (hopefully strikes) to raise money for my local abortion fund.

Events like this are so important for small abortion funds. These funds do their best to help the poorest women have the same access to reproductive health care that many of us do. With the economy still struggling, and many women pinching pennies just to put food on the table and pay their bills, it's nice to be able to help.

It's NEVER Too Late to DONATE!

Hi guys,

I'm running myself ragged and of course running late once again. Maybe you're getting tired of hearing us say it, but we need you to donate to our virtual bowling team through the National Network of Abortion Funds bowl-a-thon. NNAF has already reached their overall goal, but we have only reached a fraction of our goal and would like to keep going. We can never raise enough, after all -- every dollar we are able to contribute is a step in making reproductive choices possible.

Personally -- I cannot tell a lie -- I tend to be pretty tight-fisted with my money. I donate small amounts to a very select set of causes and organizations. If you have had a friend or organization help pay for your abortion, regular contraceptive method or EC, then you know every single dollar is a step closer. If you're someone who has a savings stash for just in case you need EC or an abortion, then consider donating a small portion of it or maybe even all of it. I did after reading Daughter of Wands' post on April 15th.

Whatever it takes and whatever amount, PLEASE support our bowling team or another. The bowl-a-thon campaign officially ends May 6, but if you need to donate later, the National Network of Abortion Funds and local funds are always accepting donations! 

Love,
Sparky

Tax time

Sorry, I know you've seen this one before. It's just so apt. 

Did you file your taxes on time? I did, but just barely, because unlike the last couple of years, life was just way too crazy in January, February, and March to even think about anything beyond the coming week.

So I was doing the April-Fifteenth hustle and feeling anxious to hear how much I'd be getting back, because my bank balance has been dropping steadily over the weeks, much to this over-scheduled, under-employed wage-worker/student's dismay. And I thought of my funding clients -- the women who were struggling to make one paycheck stretch to the next, couldn't quite scrape together the full cost of their abortion care, and turned to local or national funds in hopes of pleading for the difference.

A couple springs ago, I was fully immersed in funding cases and found myself really impressed at all my clients who were so on top of their shit that they had already filed their tax returns. At some point it dawned on me that they HAD to be on top of their shit -- and they HAD to get an H&R Block "refund anticipation loan" or something similar, and give the preparers a cut of the return -- so that they could count on their tax return to help pay for their abortion services.

To so many of my clients, the idea of having savings for health emergencies is a nice dream. As shitty as it is to be faced with an unwanted pregnancy at any time, the spring clients could at least say, "Thank God this didn't happen in December," when obligations like traveling home and finding your kids a gift and keeping the gas account open would have made it even harder to raise the needed money for themselves. At least, since it was happening in February, they could get to work on a refund advance right away. Even if the tax people do turn it into a 15%-interest loan.

I can't tell you how sick I got of hearing, during this health-insurance reform circus, the petty selfishness of "Why should my tax dollars pay for abortions?" Even as people say that shit, thousands and millions of women out there are diligently filing their taxes each spring, hoping their measly take-home was measly enough to warrant a refund check to serve as non-existent health savings account, because "we" can't be bothered to provide a basic, extremely-common health service with "OUR MONEY."

This is all a very long, roundabout way of saying: Please fucking donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds Bowl-a-Thon. Even if it's just twenty, ten, or five dollars. Then email it to at least three people who might care. Can you do that? Please? It's the least we can do, living in this country full of very pious people who'd rather save their dollars to be dipped in the blood-bath of foreign wars and police abuse than see one cent of public "support" for the fact that women may choose not to be pregnant.

Money Makes The Difference

Money is about survival. Money determines the choices we make in life, which choices are available to us, which option we decide, and how the choice is carried out. In anyplace, USA, money is a huge factor in any choice big or small.

We often tell stories of rescheduled appointments, missed appointments, and pregnancies unwillingly carried to term. Of course, that story often ends here with us: we support women who can find a way to handle most of the factors in choosing to have an abortion or not, and the saga can end there. She is then just another women who did, or did not have her abortion. I have helped a friend pay for her abortion, and another friend's birth control, and emergency contraception for another. However, my social network only reaches so far, so it's still important for me to support funds that reach out to women I'll never know.

We can all be abortioneers: supportive sisters and people who help facilitate sexual and reproductive health and care. There are lots of abortion access funds, often 501(c)3, that accept donations. These funds often make the difference for women who need it most. They are able to offer the last $75, $100, or even $150 for a woman who might otherwise have to postpone or cancel her appointment. But they literally exist through support from people like us -- not from the government, and very rarely from official grants.

It is incredibly important that each of us support both local and national funds so they can offer financial support to women who direly need it. To raise money in a public and fun-type fashion, the National Network of Abortion Funds is holding a bowl-a-thon! The nice part is, for those of us who aren't all in one place or anywhere near a bowling alley, there is the Blogger Bowl-a-thon: We write, you donate, and we stop pestering you when the goal is reached.



The Abortioneers have a team, and our goal is to raise at least $1000 of the entire goal of $125,000. This is only a small fraction of the entire goal but I'm confident we can raise $1000 plus some. The National Network of Abortion Funds is a network of many of the local grassroots organizations that help women pay for abortions in their prospective areas.

Please go and support local funds all over the country by making a donation, even if you have to wait til payday! Every dollar counts, literally! Additionally, if there is a bowl-a-thon team playing at your neighborhood lanes, you can support them too and help NNAF meet their total goal.