Interviews with Two Abortion Funds at 25 Years

Indigenous Women Rising (IWR) is an emerging abortion fund based in New Mexico, addressing the needs of native families in their state.  

Rachael Lorenzo started Indigenous Women Rising in 2014 as a campaign designed to bring attention to the fact that indigenous people who rely on Indian Health Services for healthcare were being denied access to Plan B, a form of emergency contraception. Since then, IWR has expanded the scope of its work and recently started an abortion fund.  According to Lorenzo, “There’s no fund in the country that’s dedicated to helping native women… There are native people who need abortions and access is really hard to come by. For rural people it’s the cost of travel and childcare and taking time off work, and all of these things that people have to take into consideration when getting an abortion.” IWR also helps people navigate the Indian Health Service (IHS) hospitals in the state of New Mexico by letting callers know which have or do referrals for abortion care. IHS hospitals are federally funded and restricted by the Hyde Amendment from providing abortions.

So far IWR has provided funding for 15 people, many of whom also needed help with gas and food. In addition to their work around funding and access, they are committed to reproductive justice and work on a wide range of issues including breastfeeding and sex education. “In our communities we have grandparents raising grandchildren, which is a very unique phenomenon for native communities, so our sex education curriculum is also inclusive of grandparents and any caretaker who might have trouble talking with the young person in their life about sex,” said Lorenzo. “Reproductive justice isn’t just about access to abortion, it’s about being able to parent the children that people already have and the way that makes sense for them economically, socially, politically, culturally.”

Read more from our conversation with Rachael:

What is this political moment calling for? What does it require of us?

I think that right now this political moment is really calling  for white allies to start spending social and political capital to help move our communities forward and together in a cohesive way. I get really discouraged when I hear white women essentially say you know “why do we have to bring race into this I don’t see race” — part of IWR’s work is providing education and giving tips and strategies on how to address internal biases of different groups of people: how to address it, how to sit and be uncomfortable, and how to use that comfort level to make health outcomes better and to think outside of the box when providing care.

We’re calling for these [reproductive justice, criminal justice and environmental justice] movements to be intersectional, but we really can not do it unless the people who hold a lot of power — white women — get on board with us, address their biases, and let communities of color, who have been doing this work for decades and generations, lead.

If people want to be true allies then they will put themselves on the line, whether it is their reputation or their work or finances, even if there is no benefit to them. That might look like  giving their money to a queer-led organization, or saying hey that’s not cool when someone makes a sexist or racist comment at work, followed by educating that person why their joke is sexist or ableist or racist. As women of color, we put ourselves on the line everyday just by waking up. I wish race didn’t matter, I wish people were embraced for who they are but that’s not the reality we live in, and I feel like that kind of mentality that will always hinder the kind of work we know needs to be done.  

Why is NNAF best positioned to take on the challenges of the next 25 years?

The summit was truly one of the most transformational experiences professionally and personally that I’ve ever been a part of. Hearing about the growth of NNAF during the membership meeting gave me confidence. To have staff, board members, and leadership say “hey something needs to change” then actually do it, to me is a sign that an organization is totally capable of owning maybe some of the not so good things and make the needed changes.

Something I have seen professionally is that there are people who stay in their work for a really long time then when someone new comes along and says “hey this isn’t working for my community or generation, here’s how it might be better,” they are really resistant to hearing a critique of their work essentially. Not wanting to hear a critique of your work to make it better is not healthy. For me that’s the biggest reason NNAF is the best organization to take on the challenges of the future because they’ve already proven they can get through growing pains.

I try to practice what I preach. I founded Indigenous Women Rising, but I have no intention on staying on forever. My goal is learning all of the good and bad lessons and work with my cousins to build up IWR so that I can step away from it and let young people lead it. IWR doesn’t belong to me, it belongs to the people that I started it for, and if they feel there’s a need for it and they’ll take hold of it and change it to what it needs to be.

Abortion Fund Spotlight – Chicago Abortion Fund

Chicago Abortion Fund (CAF) is one of the founding members of NNAF. For 33 years, CAF has been a steadfast champion in the fight for abortion access throughout the Midwest.

Read our interview with CAF interim Executive Director, Shailushi Ritchie:

Tell us about what the Chicago Abortion Fund:

I think one thing that is really interesting about CAF is that we are largely in a place of transformation. We are taking the core of what we’re doing now and being really strategic about what we have [and growing it] into something bigger that is going to stay true to what we’ve been doing around abortion access and funding people who need support while helping to engage neighboring states and regional funds to build the power we have in the midwest and really engage people beyond city borders.

Our organization is in a place of transformation, which means everything is on the table – including our vision and mission – to ultimately build support for access both on an individual level and together as a culture.

What is this political moment calling for? What does it require of us?

I think this political moment calls for us to recommit ourselves to the ideals that our movement seeks to live every single day. We’re gearing up and really have to recommit ourselves to those shared values of freedom for everyone, autonomy for everyone, and justice.

It calls for us to look beyond our traditional partners and borders. We need to redefine things we’ve always known expand our vision to embrace new growth within the movement as a part of our goal of advancing freedom, justice and autonomy for everybody.

It requires us to work hard but it also requires us to know our limits and to engage in self care when we’re feeling drained. I think as freedom fighters for reproductive justice and autonomy we really are genuinely trying to build a better world and we sometimes let the mission come before our own needs.We’re not helping anyone when we’re drained and burnt out.

We’re all so dedicated and passionate and we want to build this better world, so we need to take the baton when the people behind us are tired and we need to take it as far as we can and hand it over when we are tired. And we need to focus on what we can do and have faith that, over the course of many baton passes, we will make a difference.

Why is NNAF best positioned to take on the challenges of the next 25 years?

NNAF is best positioned to really take on these big challenges because the organization has both this national view of what’s going on and maintains connections with other national organizations. NNAF has that presence, that power, that money, those connections to really bring the network’s collective power to the big table, and that’s what funds need. We need someone advocating for us with all the other power players.

I think what is really critical about NNAF’s position right now, and it’s ability to really broker change, is that it’s finally able to connect funds regionally. In Illinois we are really taking a look at our work in a regional perspective now that Roe is really threatened. We’re considering how we are going to partner with our neighbor states and funds in the Midwest to ensure that all people seeking services get a safe, affordable, supportive experience. NNAF has been critical in helping us engage with our regional funds and build a regional strategy.