President’s Message
Dear Friends,
In 1996, our fund was founded when a handful of friends in Kansas started a phone tree to help provide financial and logistical assistance to people in the community in need of abortion services.
In 2001 we joined the National Network of Abortion Funds, a cooperative alliance of over 80 grassroot organizations supporting a pregnant person’s ability to choose safe reproductive care, and to navigate the physical, emotional and economic challenges associated with getting an abortion. Over the years of our partnership with NNAF we collectively answered the call to “Fund Abortion, Build Power!” while fighting for cultural and political change, and pushing for progress at local, state, and national levels.
Through NNAF, we recently received a $10,000 Collective Power Fund Grant, awarded to our organization in part because the state of Kansas provides no Medicaid funding for abortion.
We also participated in the annual NNAF network-wide, collaborative Fund-A-Thon, which remains an important, consistent resource for us.
I urge all of you to learn more about NNAF, particularly their policy platform and culture change strategies. Surviving extreme restrictions and ensuring that our laws shift requires a strong network of abortion funds and fundamental changes in our culture; NNAF is at the forefront of both. We’re grateful to be in partnership with them as we face both a state constitutional amendment vote and a Supreme Court ruling that could overturn Roe in 2022.
@AbortionFunds on Twitter
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Gratitude
“I wanted to express how grateful I am and how much this helps me. I have been very stressed and upset and had no idea how I was going to pay. I can definitely come up with the reduced cost, and I greatly appreciate your help. Thank you for what you have done for me; taking a HUGE load off my back and helping ease my mind.”
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Fund-A-Thon 2021
TOGETHER WE MADE 10K+!
Though we were sad to have to cancel our in-person Bowl-A-Thon last spring, Kansas Abortion Fund donors still came through by participating in our online Fund-A-Thon.
We ended up with 66 donors, 5 fundraising teams, and we made over ten thousand dollars! As an all-volunteer organization, you can always be secure in the knowledge
that your donation goes directly to a Kansan in need of abortion care.
We want to extend a huge THANK YOU to the Sunflower State DSA—and most especially the Kansas City DSA, Topeka DSA, and Lawrence DSAs—for being the team that raised the most money! We also want to give a special shout-out (and some sugar) to former board member Jean Rosenthal for her generous donation.
But we value ALL our donors for your community and your commitment to providing abortion access to ALL Kansans. To show our appreciation, we handed out lots of prizes and sweet swag (pictured) because we simply cannot do this work without you.
Everyone with KAF would also like to thank Robin Marty, author of Handbook for a Post-Roe America, for participating in a live interview and Q&A session over Zoom as a Covid-safe activity during the Fund-A-Thon. It was an informative and lively discussion (sometimes with adult beverages) about the current state of abortion rights in the US, and what the future of abortion looks like in the face of ever more extreme anti-abortion zealotry. Even though the subject was serious, we had a great time and gave away 6 copies of Robin’s books! Thanks again for her generosity
and knowledge.
We here at KAF—along with all of you—will continue to do the work it takes to ensure ALL KANSANS can access abortion care, no matter what the political landscape brings. In these hostile and uncertain times, we need and value your
partnership more than ever.
Much love and solidarity!
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The Kansas Legislature and You
ABORTION RIGHTS, VOTER RIGHTS, MEDICAID EXPANSION & REDISTRICTING ARE ALL ON THE TABLE
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Because you support the Kansas Abortion Fund, you already know two things: 1. The Kansas Legislature is absolutely wild, and 2. In January, our legislature passed a constitutional amendment that will be on our August 2022 ballots saying there’s no right to abortion in the state. More on that very soon—the coalition of groups fighting the amendment will have opportunities for all of us to engage in the work shortly. Make sure you’re keeping up with URGE: Unite for Reproductive and Gender Equity, Planned Parenthood Great Plains, Trust Women, and the ACLU of Kansas to stay current.
In the meantime, we wanted to give a brief recap of the 2021 Kansas legislative session, brought to you mostly by our fellow advocacy organizations working to transform the state. If you have time, check out the activist recap of the session convened by Loud Light; it features Nigel from URGE and is about an hour. Among the highlights (lowlights?) from the legislative session is a failure to expand Medicaid to cover over 165,000 Kansans who aren’t currently insured. Medicaid coverage is crucial for both sexual and reproductive health, and for preventing maternal mortality.
Two other major developments from our legislature affect the future of democracy in our state. First, House Bills 2183 and 2332 enshrine outrageous voter suppression in our state laws. To borrow Loud Light’s summary, the bills: 1. Ban nonpartisan groups from out of state from encouraging us to vote; 2. Impose burdensome and vague signature requirements; 3. Make it a crime to assist and educate voters if the assistance appears to come from an “election official”; and 4. Stop an individual or group from helping more than 10 people deliver their completed ballots. Groups at the state and federal level have sued the state to block the law-no news on the outcome of that lawsuit yet. It’s worth noting that anti-abortion groups supported these voting restrictions, because they’re invested in ensuring as few people as possible can vote on their unpopular constitutional amendment.
Next, the Legislature has taken steps to fulfill its responsibility to redraw Kansas’ district lines once per decade, but it’s done so with as little transparency as possible. The committee in charge of redistricting released a list of town halls for public input with one week’s notice, most during 9-5 working hours. The town halls end on August 13. If you can go on short notice, please let legislators know you expect fairness and transparency-our legislature has a long history of gerrymandering to keep conservatives in power. For more, visit www.ksfairmaps.org.
Finally, Governor Kelly convened a commission to study racial justice in Kansas and make policy recommendations for change in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The commission has now released a set of recommendations, which include several reproductive justice priorities like improving maternal health care, birth equity, and parenting support. Many of these recommendations require action by the Legislature. The commission will release its final report at the end of the year, and then it’ll be up to us to push to get the recommendations implemented. It’ll be an uphill battle, but there’s so much we can do when we organize where we live to make changes at the local and state level. Kansas can be a truer reflection of our values of justice and equity, and we can make it happen.
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