The asymmetry in the abortion-rights movement. Grassroots activists believe that high-altitude advocacy is taking precedence over helping patients access care.

More evidence from failed campaigns that money is not what decides elections, though it helps:

In the Ohio Senate race, Sherrod Brown’s campaign committee burned through eighty-eight million dollars, outspending the winner by four to one. Jon Tester, of Montana, put up similarly lopsided numbers in surrendering his Senate seat.

Direct aid for women needing abortions seems to have become an overlooked form of charity:

Many abortion funds were showered with donations in 2022, after the Supreme Court abolished the constitutional right to abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. As the shock of Dobbs has worn off, that largesse has withered, and the strains on abortion funds have intensified. Bree Wallace, who is the director of case management and the sole paid employee of the Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, said that this year her fund has pledged to spend about six hundred and ninety thousand dollars directly on abortion care and has spent about eighty thousand helping patients pay for airfare, rideshares, hotels, child care, and other costs related to travelling out of state for treatment. Put another way, the Tampa Bay fund’s total annual disbursements will come out to a fraction of one per cent of the cost of the Amendment 4 campaign.

It may be difficult to figure out where the money really goes:

Donors to abortion funds are often attracted to the idea that their contribution stays close to the ground—it will go straight toward a patient’s procedure or hotel bill, instead of getting folded into a giant organization’s administrative outlay or fund-raising budget. But these direct donors may not realize that they might be indirectly donating to Planned Parenthood. Spaeth, of the Prairie Abortion Fund, explained how a typical exchange between her fund and Planned Parenthood might unfold: “They will reach out to us and say, ‘We have a patient coming in from your service region. Are you able to contribute towards the cost of their appointment?’ Then I say yes, and then, sometimes, they’ll follow up and say, ‘This patient screened further along than we previously thought—are you able to increase your pledge?’ ”

I wonder if there is anyone evaluating which abortion charities are most effective, for donors making a decision between charities? It seems like a difficult problem that most people would have a hard time figuring out on their own.

Mirror: https://archive.is/R9r4I