After 12 years of service, Third Wave Foundation’s Emergency Abortion Fund will close effective September 1, 2011. Through the Emergency Abortion Fund, we have granted more than $200,000 to over 2,000 people. In order to make best use of our resources and expertise, Third Wave will no longer operate our own abortion fund, but will continue to fund organizations working to ensure reproductive freedom, including access to safe and affordable abortion.
In the Spring of 2011, Third Wave released “What It Really Takes,” a report from the Emergency Abortion Fund. Through demographic data and stories offered by callers to the Emergency Abortion Fund, we created a more comprehensive snapshot of what young people in the United States experience as they try to get an abortion. In addition to the cost of an abortion, young people faced many barriers: unemployment, homelessness, and violence from families and partners. Third Wave published this report so that abortion funds and other reproductive health, rights and justice activists and organizations will have access to what we have learned. We continue to work with our allied organizations in reproductive justice in order to put our learning into action.
“We need to have a multi-pronged approach to ensuring reproductive freedom,” says Rye Young, manager of the Emergency Abortion Fund, “one that recognizes the urgency of providing direct service, while we also empower those who are most impacted by reproductive oppression to advocate for change. Funding, service and activism can go hand-and-hand.”
The Emergency Abortion Fund was one of Third Wave Foundation’s first grantmaking programs, responding to a critical need in the lives of young people across the United States. We thank our many abortion fund interns, who served as front-line support for thousands of callers. We also wish to thank the countless individuals whose gifts allowed us to operate the Emergency Abortion Fund, along with support from The Dyson Foundation and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund.
If you need funding for an abortion, the National Network of Abortion Funds maintains an online database of national and local funds, at fundabortionnow.org. You can also call the National Abortion Federation hotline at 800-722-9100.
FUND CONTACT:
Rye Young / 212.228.8311 x 12 / rye@thirdwavefoundation.org
MEDIA CONTACT:
Melissa Gira Grant / 212.228.8311 x 20 / melissa@thirdwavefoundation.org