Describe your nonprofit’s mission.
Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund fully embodies the pro-choice principle by providing direct financial assistance for abortion care services for women who cannot raise the full amount to pay for the procedure. We believe a woman’s right to healthcare should not depend on her ability to pay. By offering these small grants, Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund hopes to make “choice” a reality for all women.
As well as funding abortions, Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund works to educate and raise awareness in the Charlottesville area about abortion issues. Events and printed materials dispel myths about abortions and explain how abortion restrictions harm women’s health and are linked to a rollback of women’s rights.
What need in our community brought about the creation of your nonprofit?
Abortion care is not a choice for those who don’t have the money to pay for it. There are many in the service area of the Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund who are poor or in financial distress and cannot access abortion services which are available to women who do have financial resources.
How has your nonprofit made a difference in our community?
During each of the past two years, the Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund has helped 300 Virginia women with money and other supportive services for abortion care and has educated and informed hundreds more.
How can community members help you achieve your mission?
Community members help by becoming donors and volunteers. Our volunteers help by screening calls from women seeking financial assistance, organizing public events, fundraising, administrative tasks, and community outreach including using social media.
Tell us a story that has come out of your work.
Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund changed “Susan’s” life. In an abusive relationship for nine years, Susan sent us a thank you letter in which she shared:
“I’m writing this letter with all the appreciation humanly possible… I finally got the strength to leave him and move on with my children, however he found me. The child I aborted was a result of my ex finding me, beating me, and raping me. It was only once I finally [moved] from Mississippi to Richmond that I discovered I was pregnant. Your fund helped me to not have even more ties to my abuser but to also have the possibility to work and provide for my children. I came to Virginia with a pregnancy, two children and no money. Your fund gave me an opportunity to have a fresh start and a chance to provide for my children financially. I owe more gratitude than this letter can express… Thanks again for my chance at a fresh start with my children. I hope to pay it forward in the way [Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund] and your donors do daily. Thank you again for the constant contact through this difficult but necessary choice.”
Learn more about Blue Ridge Abortion Assistance Fund
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