The possible overturn of Roe v. Wade should surprise no one. Marginalized women have been sounding the alarm for decades.
Published in CNN.com | By Pamela Shifman
Keep Abortion Legal. Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash
(CNN) The leaked draft ruling of the US Supreme Court to reverse Roe versus Wade -- the landmark 1973 judgment that ruled it unconstitutional to restrict the right to have an abortion -- was devastating but not surprising. Nor was the news on Wednesday that the Senate voted down a key bill that would have preserved abortion access across the US. Grassroots feminist organizations, especially those led by women of color, Indigenous women and other historically marginalized communities, have been warning us of this day for decades.
Soon after the news broke, Laurie Bertram Roberts of the Yellowhammer Fund, an Alabama-based non-profit that offers support for women who have abortions, was quoted by NBC as saying: "We've been planning for this possibility for several years...This isn't a new threat, but it's a larger threat."
Despite their sizes, the organizations these individuals represented played outsized roles in protecting democracy and human rights for us all, yet their effectiveness -- and ability to safeguard the hard-earned wins -- has been limited by a dire shortage in funding.
“Too many of our communities in the US have been existing in a pre-Roe reality. With few clinics and ever mounting bans and restrictions, abortion access is still legal yet out of reach.”
A report analyzing existing data, and published in 2021 by the Association for Women's Rights in Development found that "99% of development aid and foundation grants still do not directly reach women's rights and feminist organizations" and "despite new funding commitments made, women's rights organizations receive only 0.13% of the total Official Development Assistance and 0.4% of all gender-related aid."
And yet, grassroots feminist groups -- organizations, leaders and networks working together to challenge and change power structures that reinforce gender inequality -- have been credited with helping to end the war in Liberia and bring progressives into government in Slovenia. Amongst other victories, they've also succeeded in widening access to legalized abortion in countries from Argentina to Ireland.
These organizations do the hard work of creating the conditions for, and accelerating, much-needed social change, and data analysis shows that women's rights organizations in the Global South that do this essential work operate on shoestring budgets averaging $30,000 a year.
On the other hand, according to a 2020 report by the Global Philanthropy Project, over a 10-year period, US organizations that oppose women's rights and those of LGBTQ+ communities, had an aggregate revenue of more than $6 billion. They spend their money in the US but also around the world, funding campaigns against our rights and supporting court cases.
The reversal of Roe versus Wade will be the culmination of decades-long attacks on abortion rights in the US. Feminist movements, especially led by Black women, and especially in the US South, have also been on the frontlines of responding to attacks that have included eroding reproductive rights at the state level and dangerous so-called 'abortion reversal' methods.
The fact is, even with Roe versus Wade intact, abortion had become increasingly inaccessible for many women, particularly poor women, women of color and those who live in rural areas.
As Paris Hatcher, Founder and Director of Black Feminist Future said via email: "Too many of our communities in the US have been existing in a pre-Roe reality. With few clinics and ever mounting bans and restrictions, abortion access is still legal yet out of reach."
"The reality is that the Roe decision has been the floor in reference to what we actually need and want for abortion access and reproductive justice," added Hatcher whose organization offers leadership development and community care. "Lack of serious investment in feminist groups for the last decades has meant our movements barely have what they need to respond to constant attacks rather than building on Roe and advancing the bold visions and policies we so desperately need".
People who care about abortion access -- in the US and beyond -- should also want to see unprecedented resources flow directly to those most impacted by this injustice. We need to counter the under-investing in these people, which is reinforced by flawed practices such as selecting grantees from closed networks, giving project-based rather than core support, and basing grant size solely by organizational budget as opposed to need and organizational promise. These practices have perpetuated rather than challenged inequalities.
This month, new research from my organization Shake the Table -- working with The Bridgespan group which provides consulting to non-profits and philanthropists -- calls for an additional $1.5 billion a year to be invested in feminist movements globally, including to organizations in the United States.
In order to reverse the mounting damage being done every day to women's and LGBTQ+ rights, feminist movements need more resources. They also need the freedom to respond to new threats and opportunities and to boldly innovate. The threats, in their source and nature, are always changing and we need feminist organizations that are resilient and able to change too. Now is the time to fund those organizations into being.
About the Author
Pamela Shifman
President of the Democracy Alliance, and the founder of Shake the Table, a new organization bridging philanthropy with movements for racial, gender and economic justice.