UCSF

In this dissertation, I set out to understand how funds shape and are shaped by policy changes, how funds negotiate and portray their own organizational identities, and what role funds play – if any – in the movement for reproductive health, rights, and justice. To investigate these issues, I completed a content analysis of 97 abortion fund websites and social media profiles as well as in-depth interviews with 22 abortion fund leaders. I find that abortion funds were founded in response to local conditions and have continued to evolve in response to deep rooting in local communities. This was particularly highlighted in the immediate aftermath of the Dobbs decision, as funds’ public-facing communications focused on connecting with their communities to engage existing supporters, recruit new people to the cause, reassure local individuals seeking abortion care, and connect patients to resources. However, over the course of the next year, funds’ response to the Dobbs decision shifted, becoming more national in scope as they were forced to work more closely with other funds to move patients from states with newly restrictive abortion laws into states with more permissive or supportive policies. Through an exploration of funds’ espoused and enacted values around diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, I find that abortion funds are continuing to negotiate their identities in response to a variety of internal and external forces, including leadership transitions and pressures from umbrella organizations and funders. Finally, I find that funds center care work, which sometimes makes it hard for them to locate themselves within the movement for health, rights, and justice. By centering care work as liberatory and resistive movement work, I challenge current theories of social movements and locate funds as movement actors.