When Maleeha Aziz, associate director of the abortion fund and reproductive justice organization Texas Equal Access (TEA), needed an abortion when she was younger, she first encountered a “crisis pregnancy center” (CPC), a fake clinic that tries to prevent people from the abortion.
“They dragged me away and traumatized me,” Aziz said. “I had to go out of state to get the abortion.”
She later became the community organizer for the TEA Fund, and when the deputy director position opened in June 2022, Aziz already had an idea for the application’s required project proposal.
“My focus was the center’s anti-abortion campaign,” Aziz said. “I had been wronged and damaged by these centers. So now it’s important to me if someone needs an abortion or if they want to start a family to give them the support they need.”
Aziz’s project proposal was a program where Texans could access the reproductive support they needed without coercion. This project proposal was made by the TEA Fund My choice, not a judgment campaign, which spreads information about the dangers of CPCs and includes a baby care resource drive.
Aziz’s experience highlights the importance of people being able to make their own reproductive decisions. In a country where parents can spend an average of $21,681 per year for one childin the first year of their child’s life, only 13 states have family and medical leave laws and 14 states force pregnant women to continue giving birth, birth and infant care funds help women and transgender people give birth and care for their families on their own terms.
Not all organizations with the purported mission of helping people with their reproductive health meet this goal. CPCs lure pregnant women by promising “freebies” birth and baby care items and medical care, but then it spread Misinformation and stigma about abortion. Many CPCs are inspired by evangelical Christian ideology. They abound and outnumber abortion clinics 3 to 1 nationally.
Because of the deceptive tactics of anti-abortion centers, Aziz emphasized the importance of unconditional and non-coercive resources for families. TEA Fund’s Infant Care Resource Drive provides Texas families with “diapers, wipes, hygiene items, diaper rash, clothes, toys, books, summer toys, water toys, activity kits, coloring books, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen — a whole bunch of stuff basically for families about three times a year,” Aziz said.
“If someone has specific needs, where they might need baby milk, a pack of diapers or something else, they can call the helpline or send a message to our text line and ask for those supplies,” Aziz added. “We don’t really have a waiting list. it’s kind of no question. We don’t ask for ID, we don’t make people fill out paperwork. If you need supplies, if you make that request to our volunteers, you will get the supplies you need.”
According to a 2021 Equity Forward Reportat least ten states diverted federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) funds, which are supposed to go to low-income families, to start or maintain CPCs. Since 2010, CPCs have received nearly half a billion dollars from state governments and a Rewire News Group research found that these anti-abortion centers may be spending nearly $1 billion a year. Instead, Aziz said the Infant Care Resource Drive relies on grassroots funding, donors and grants.
Leah Jones, associate director at the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, said SisterSong started the Birth Justice Care Fund in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“SisterSong started doing birth justice programming in 2017 and 2020 when the pandemic hit was really when we ramped up our birth justice work,” Jones said. “We’re going to do on-the-ground advocacy and education and get into rural Georgia. As a group we came up with this idea: “What if we took our money that we would use for programming, curriculum and education and just gave it to children who give birth?”
In its first year of operation, the Birth Justice Care Fund served only people in Georgia. It now serves people in nearby North Carolina, Kentucky and Florida.
Jones said the expansion of the Birth Justice Care Fund came at an opportune time for pregnant Floridians.
“This year we added Florida, which seemed like perfect timing because around the time the fund opened, it wasn’t too far from when Florida passed the 15-week abortion ban. [and then] to a six-week abortion ban,” Jones said. “What happened since then Roe v. Wade overturned and abortion bans came is that people understand the importance of access to health care … We see the connections between birth and abortion.”
Jones said the Birth Justice Care Fund provides people with the money to access full-service and postpartum doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, maternal psychotherapists and other items such as diapers, wipes and car seats.
Why people need birth funds
Just giving birth is expensive: On average, the cost of labor and delivery $18,865with an average out-of-pocket cost of $2,854 for people with insurance. Without additional help, parents may not be able to afford this perinatal support. Depending on his years of experience, the geographic location of the pregnant woman and the needs of the birth, the birth could cost anywhere from $800 to $2,500 depending on where you live. Only since January 12 states and Washington, DC have Medicaid coverage for doulas, although others are “in the process of implementing Medicaid coverage for doula care or have taken some related or adjacent action,” according to the National Health Act Program.
For pregnant women, having a therapist or maternal psychotherapist could mean the difference between life and death. In 2022, 817 people died of pregnancy-related causes, down from 1,205 deaths a year earlier. But maternal mortality rates for black women were still more than double the rates for white and Latino women. Data collected from 2017 to 2019 by maternal mortality review panels found that more than 80 percent of pregnancy-related deaths were preventable. Research shows that having a doula is associated with positive birth outcomes and reduction of anxiety and stressespecially in low-income pregnant women.
Jones said the Birth Care Justice Fund serves low-income and other marginalized communities.
“The majority of people who come to our fund are low-income or 13- to 22-year-old youth,” Jones said. “Some queer and trans folk turn to the fund seeking access to lactation consultants who specialize in breastfeeding or doulas. We see people who are single parents, black, indigenous and other people of color, people affected by incarceration, housing insecurity or domestic violence, and refugees.”
How birth funds support the people who need them most
To reach these diverse communities, Jones said SisterSong partners with organizations that really care about reproductive health advocacy—and they already did with SisterSong beforehand.
“We told them we don’t just want you to provide a service to supplement your income,” Jones said. “This is defense. You don’t come here to get rich and make money. this is where you come to help communities. So if you don’t put that principle first, this is not the fund for you [to collaborate with].”
Both Aziz and Jones said giving people access to birth and infant care supplies is a necessary component of reproductive justice.
“Reproductive justice means that if someone wants an abortion, we support them,” Aziz said. “If someone wants to have children, we support them and give them the resources they need to make their families thrive.”
“This is simply education, information and access to health care that people want and deserve,” Jones added.
