President's Message

Dear friends,

As this hot summer draws to a close, we have some stellar news to share with you— and everyone in Kansas who supports reproductive justice.

For years, to preserve the financial health of the Kansas Abortion Fund, we instituted some requirements for people looking to receive funding from us. Specifically, that they must be Kansas residents, and that they must meet a specific income level — usually as a percentage of the Federal Poverty Level. Earlier this year, we announced that we had raised that limit to encompass more people.

However, as we have learned and grown as an organization, we took a page from fellow abortion funds’ books and unanimously agreed to the following changes to our eligibility:

• people who receive support must be Kansas residents;
• up to $500 is available for each resident having their abortion in Kansas;
• $5,000 is available for each Kansas resident required to travel out-of-state; and, most importantly
• there are NO income requirements!

Bottom line: if you are a Kansas resident and need money to help pay for your abortion, the Kansas Abortion Fund will help you. We know that even though Kansans have the RIGHT to abortion in our state constitution, ACCESS to abortion remains challenging.

Our values align with removing barriers to safe and legal abortion. People deserve the right to individual bodily autonomy and the right to make their own health care choices to secure the future.

We are thrilled to make this important announcement while recognizing these changes could not happen without your steadfast and generous giving to our common cause!

Thank you so much,

Sandy Brown

Planning for KAF’s Future

On Saturday, June 3, the board of directors of the Kansas Abortion Fund met in Kansas

City with Thought Partners, LLC for a strategic planning session to determine how the fund can best serve Kansans — both now and for years to come.

It’s an understatement to say that a lot has changed for KAF and the reproductive rights movement in the last few years. Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and the Vote No victory on August 2 last year, KAF has gone from a relatively unknown organization to one that was sought after by national and even international news outlets. We saw donations and public interest surge to new heights. And we supported more patients with more money than ever before — something that we don’t expect to change anytime soon.

That’s why we gathered together: To prepare this organization to succeed for the long-term.

This included revisiting our mission statement and creating new values and vision statements, tweaking our board structure and duties, and discussing

the ways in which KAF can advance our work and become closer with communities across Kansas.

To that end, the KAF board left our strategic planning meeting with the shared agreement to the following changes and resolutions:

• To eliminate all income requirements for Kansans seeking abortion care
• To contribute larger dollar amounts to Kansans in need of abortion care
• To spread the word of KAF’s mission through community outreach and engagement
• To deepen our our partnerships with health care providers and reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations
• To continue growing our network of supporters across Kansas
• To speak up, speak out, and destigmatize abortion, however we can

We’re also pleased to share our revised mission statement, as well as out new values and vision statements:

Mission Statement:

Our mission is to provide funding and a voice for all Kansans in need of abortion care.

Values Statement:

We are a passionate, volunteer-led organization united by the shared values of bodily autonomy, equitable access to healthcare, financial independence, and intersectional

justice.

We believe in a future in which all Kansans have equal access

to abortion care.

Vision Statement:

We are a volunteer board of directors who raise money and awareness in order to destigmatize abortion and to distribute funds directly to clinics that provide abortion care for Kansans.

We know that the abortion access crisis isn’t going anywhere. It’s been over a year since Roe was overturned and the need for support has only increased. And while donations

have tapered off from the early days of the post-Roe world, our work to support Kansans access health care and decide what’s best for their bodies and futures continues.

Abortion Access Landscape in Kansas & Beyond

In our Spring newsletter, we shared a number of false and disingenuous laws passed by the Kansas state legislature meant to stigmatize abortion and tighten restrictions on our states’ providers. Those new restrictions — as well as a number of older ones — are now being challenged by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of Planned Parenthood of the Great Plains.

If successful, the lawsuit could at least temporarily pause, if not permanently roll back, four restrictions:

• A requirement that abortion providers give patients state-mandated counseling designed to dissuade them from getting an abortion, including the disproven claim that abortion increases the risk of developing breast cancer;
• a mandatory 24-hour waiting period after receiving that information;
• a mandatory 30-minute waiting period between meeting with an abortion provider and beginning the procedure;
• and a new law requiring doctors to tell patients that medication abortion may be reversible.

These lawsuits have become increasingly important as more and more people travel to Kansas to access abortion care. In June, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s annual report showed that 12,318 abortions were performed by providers. Of those, 8,475 were for out-of-state patients — doubling the number of out-ofstate patients coming to Kansas compared to 2021.

From KAF’s standpoint, we have supported an increasing number of Kansans who have had to travel to Illinois or Colorado for their abortions as appointments have become more difficult to access in their home state. It’s your generous support that has empowered us to raise our funding level and ensure that Kansans can get their abortions, even across state lines.

We are grateful for our state’s constitutional protections for abortions, and that people from other states have been able to access the health care that they need here. We should all live in communities where the full spectrum of health care — including abortion — is available and accessible for all.

In the wider region, there have been concrete steps to restore abortion access. Advocates in Arkansas, Missouri, and Nebraska have submitted ballot language to their states’ Secretary of State office or launched committees to put abortion on the ballot in 2024.

Meanwhile, in Texas, an injunction temporarily loosened the state’s abortion restrictions, allowing exceptions for patients with serious pregnancy complications. While the injunction was quickly blocked by the state’s appeal to the Texas Supreme Court, their success is a potential roadmap for others in states with total abortion bans.

Other Ways to Donate to the Kansas Abortion Fund:

Dillons Community Rewards Dollars: KAF XP838