THE SHADOWY WORLD OF “PRIVATE ABORTION FUNDS”

According to the latest survey of abortionists from the Guttmacher Institute, in 2009 the average cost for a first trimester surgical abortion at 10 weeks was $451. Chemical abortions, done with abortifacients such as RU486, averaged slightly more, about $483. Surgical abortions at 20 weeks were priced at $1,500 or more. The truth, however, is that many women pay nothing for their abortions, at least in monetary terms.

Seventeen different states, including states with large populations such as California and New York, pay for the abortions of many of their citizens through their state programs providing medical services to low-income persons. . . . For the year 2008, Guttmacher says about 20% of women who had abortions reported Medicaid as their method of payment. . . . For many other women, though, private insurance covers the cost.

. . . Guttmacher says that an additional 13% in 2008 were paid for by “financial assistance programs such as private abortion funds and reduced fees to cover some or all of the cost of the service.” Few realize that there is a “National Network of Abortion Funds” which both raises funds for thousands of women’s abortions and actively lobbies for repeal of the Hyde Amendment to restore broader federal Medicaid coverage for abortion. The percentage given by Guttmacher would be equivalent to about 157,612 of the 1.2 million abortions reported for 2008.

There are private abortion funds in forty different states, many with multiple groups, and in the nation’s capital, as well as a few national abortion funds. The state groups include funds with names such as Pauline’s Abortion Loan Fund (Alaska), ACCESS Women’s Health Justice (California), the Freedom Fund (Colorado), Emergency Medical Assistance, Inc (Florida), the Women in Need Fund (Georgia), the Planned Parenthood of Illinois Reproductive Justice Fund (Illinois), the Peggy Bowman Second Chance Fund (Kansas), the A Fund, Inc. (Kentucky), the Fountain Street Church Choice Fund (Michigan), the HOTDISH Militia (Minnesota), and the Hope Fund (Rhode Island). National Right to Life