Lawmakers have done everything in their power to take choices away from Ohio’s women. On April 29, we stood up defiantly and gave women their choices back. Throughout the month of April, abortion funds around the country participated in the National Abortion Access Bowl-a-Thon organized by the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF). WHO/O joined the fun with 31 teams made up of 161 bowlers from around the state. Teams representing Planned Parenthood of Central Ohio, Denison University Students for Choice, VOX at OSU, Women Have Options board members, and others joined us to celebrate choice and strike down financial barriers to abortion access. Our bowl-a-thon was more than a great fundraiser: it was a great way to build community, bringing together progressive people who support women’s equality.

We would like to thank the amazing sponsors who made this event possible:

• Brezel
• Capital Care Network
• Evolved BodyArt
• Pattycake Bakery
• PUSH Dayton
• Signature Wines
• St. James Tavern
• ThoughtCo
• Wholly Craft

Nationally, more than $474,000 was raised, and Women Have Options was #6 in the country for fundraising!

To raise $27,000, lots of individuals did some impressive fundraising. As encouragement, we offered prize packages to the top five individual fundraisers:

Trust Women

• Sony Bloggie Touch camera
• $25 Mozart’s Café gift card
• $20 City Barbecue gift card
• $50 Evolved BodyArt gift card
• Women Have Options tote bag

A Date with WHO/O

• $200 wine tasting for 10 at Signature Wines
• $25 Mozart’s Café gift card
• $30 Brezel gift card
• $20 Evolved BodyArt gift card
• Women Have Options tote bag

WHO/O Delight

• $50 Pattycake Bakery gift card for a special-order cake
• $20 Brezel gift card
• $15 Evolved BodyArt gift card
• Capital City Fitness: 2 personal training sessions and 2 group training sessions
• Women Have Options tote bag

Repro Justice Rocks

• Blue Rock Station 4-person tour
• Blue Rock Station gift basket
• $50 Brezel gift card
• $20 Evolved BodyArt gift card
• Capital City Fitness: 2 personal training sessions and 2 group training sessions
• Women Have Options tote bag

Abortion Access for All

• Yoga on High: 11-class pass
• Capital City Fitness: 2 personal training sessions and 2 group training sessions
• Women Have Options tote bag

Leading up to the bowl-a-thon on April 29, we offered prizes along the way, including gift cards to Brezel and Evolved BodyArt, as well as tickets to COSI, Gateway Film Center, Funny Bone, Columbus Crew, and the OSU Department of Theatre.

To see all the photos from the event, please visit our Facebook page. We can’t wait to make the 2013 bowl-a-thon just as amazing!

We're here to support you, Ohio!

Recently, Katha Pollitt wrote a piece for The Nation about why women of means should donate to abortion funds. We won’t recap the piece here–we encourage you to read it for yourself!–but the point of it is that a contribution to an abortion fund is a direct way to impact a woman’s life while making a stand for choice. We agree 100%! In fact, we wanted to tell you a little more about why the points in the article ring true for us here at WHO/O:

1. As hard as it is to get an abortion when you’re broke, it’s even harder in Ohio.

When it comes to abortion access, Ohio is a tough place to live. NARAL has consistently given Ohio an F in their ranking of abortion laws due to the wide variety of legislation that restricts access. Many of those restrictions add to the cost of an abortion in a straightforward way, such as restrictions on covering abortion in state employees’ health insurance policies or restrictions on public funding  for abortion procedures. Other laws add cost and stress in multiple ways.

Consider the mandatory counseling and 24-hour waiting period required in Ohio. Say you’re an hourly worker with no health insurance–your time is literally your paycheck–and you’re spending hours, days, weeks of it jumping through legal hoops to access the health care you need. Oh, and did we mention that you live in one of the 91% of Ohio counties that don’t have an abortion provider? So you have to travel to obtain an abortion. If you don’t have a car, you have to find a ride or pay for a bus ticket, which can cost up to $75 or more. Even if you have a car, how much will it cost to fill the tank with gas for a trip or two–since the 24-hour delay requires you to make two visits with the provider, you have to travel twice or find a way to stay overnight in another town. Even if you do have the money to pay for your abortion, these are major roadblocks to overcome.

Now imagine that you don’t have that money. After all, an abortion can typically cost between $350 and $1,000 depending on multiple factors. In a state where nearly 20% of adult women live in poverty, financial barriers are significant ones and absolutely prevent some women from obtaining a medical procedure they desperately want. Many of the women we help are within $20 of being able to afford their choice. Your donation really can make the difference.

2. Your donation makes a real difference in your community.

Women Have Options is Ohio’s statewide abortion fund. Our funding is distributed directly through 10 clinics throughout Ohio. We also partner with and advocate for choice on the state and local level in…you guessed it, Ohio. We are grateful for every single dollar we receive because we know it’s going directly to help women in the communities that we live in. Women Have Options has helped thousands of Ohio women make choices about their bodies and their lives. Those are women from your communities: your state, your city, maybe your neighborhood. Maybe someone you know. When you donate to Women Have Options, you are giving it directly to the women in Ohio that need it the most. You literally give them the power to change their life. Isn’t that worth being proud of?

3. Donating to an abortion fund is a great way to be an effective activist in a state where we need it.

Women Have Options is a proud member of the activist community here in Ohio. You’ve seen us at Walk for Choice, FOCO Lobby Day, our annual Bowl-A-Thon and anywhere else that people are advocating for reproductive justice. You’ve seen us at our pro-choice partners’ phonebanks, rallies, and maybe even at one of our own fundraisers. We’re out there supporting a woman’s right to choose every day. But we don’t do it alone–we do it with the donations of every person who has ever supported us.

In 1992, our fund was born because a friend of one of our founders needed help paying for an abortion she couldn’t afford. Twenty years later, we have thousands of friends helping women in their communities afford their reproductive choices. In a state where legislation like the Heartbeat Bill abortion ban gains more traction every day, we need all the friends we can get! The time and money you give to Women Have Options–the handful of bills you donated, the crafts you bought at our winter fundraiser, the afternoons you spent lobbying and rallying with us–those are all the things that keep WHO/O fighting. By supporting WHO/O, you are a part of our mission, and we need you now more than ever. We dream of an Ohio where every woman can make meaningful reproductive choices. Until that day comes, we’ll be working for it. We hope you’ll be there with us.

On April 29, we are holding our third annual Bowl-A-Thon. This year, the bowl-a-thon is about giving choices back to the women of Ohio. Lawmakers have done everything in their power to take away women’s choices. We are standing up defiantly and giving choices directly back to women.

Whether you start a team or join a team, all bowlers are expected to raise a minimum of $50 (just $30 for students) to bowl at the event. When you register, you receive your personal donation/fundraising page with a unique link. So you can email it and post it on Facebook and Twitter. You fundraise for Women Have Options, telling your friends why you’re bowling to increase access to abortion in Ohio. Then the progressive community comes together for a bowling party on April 29.

Interested in captaining a team, or joining a team? Check out the event website. Or email info@womenhaveoptions.org for details. We can tell you how to start a team or get you connected with a team.

One of the most exciting events that WHO/O participates in is Freedom of Choice Ohio’s annual Lobby Day. This year’s event is called 2012 Lobby Day: Storm the Statehouse. On Wednesday, March 21, from 9:30am to 1pm, we will gather at the Downtown YWCA and meet face-to-face with our state senators. This year we’ll be speaking out against Ohio’s mounting War on Women, and encourage our senators to oppose the so-called Heartbeat Bill abortion ban. We’ll be there in solidarity with our pro-choice allies, and we want you to join us! To register, sign up here.

We would like to share the experience of someone who attended the 2010 FOCO Lobby Day for the first time. Kay serves on the Emeritus Board of Women Have Options, and although she is a longtime supporter of women’s choice in Ohio, she had never tried to talk to her state legislators—just like most of us! We wanted to share her story of gaining the courage to talk to her legislators, so that you might join us at Lobby Day. Here is Kay’s story…

Some people have a fear of flying. I, as I discovered to my dismay a month or so ago, have a fear of lobbying. I became aware of that fear when I first heard about the Freedom of Choice Ohio (FOCO) Lobby Day scheduled for April 21, 2010. Although I feel strongly about the need to protect women’s reproductive choices, I was uncomfortable about the prospect of sharing my feelings with a state legislator, especially the rather conservative ones who represent my district. So I tried to ignore the nagging little voice inside that told me I should at least give lobbying a try. My husband, however, has more faith in me and my powers of persuasion than I do, and he urged me to sign up. Not wishing to disappoint him nor my WHO/O colleagues, I finally signed up as a participant, more or less at the last minute.

For the next week I worried about my rash act while trying to prepare for my encounter with Rep. Jay Hottinger and Sen. Tim Schaffer. (I even asked my husband to role play and ask tough questions so that I wouldn’t “freeze” during the interviews.) Fortunately, FOCO had posted detailed information on its web site so I was able to familiarize myself with the bills we were supporting. In the House, the Compassionate Assistance in Rape Emergencies bill would require hospitals to provide emergency contraception and information about sexually transmitted diseases to rape victims. The Senate bill, called Prevention First, would offer the same guarantees for rape victims as the CARE bill; in addition, it has other provisions to facilitate access to contraception and information related to pregnancy.

Four of us from WHO/O attended the Lobbying Day: Nancy Pitts, Linda FreemanWalker, Angie Shyrigh, and myself. When we arrived at the Lobby Day headquarters, we were trained on how we might best approach the legislators, then sent off to our appointments. Linda and I met with Rep. Hottinger. He was unfamiliar with the CARE bill, but listened attentively as we explained its broad outlines. The father of three teenage daughters, he seemed genuinely concerned about how rape victims are treated. As we were leaving, we asked if he could support the CARE bill, and he indicated that, although he would need to give it closer study, he was in principle in favor. (Senator Schaffer was not in his office, so we were only able to drop off materials there.)

Our lunch program featured three speakers: Sondra Miller of the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center, Elizabeth Williams (a rape victim who founded Survivors to Alivers) and Rep. Dan Stewart, who sponsors the CARE bill in the house. It was inspiring to see Williams’s personal courage and Stewart’s political courage, and I left our meeting feeling hopeful about the long-term prospects of this important legislation. We were able to chat with Representative Stewart for an extended period, as well as networking with other pro-choice advocates.

Have I conquered my fear of lobbying? Not entirely, but it was definitely a worthwhile day, and I’m glad to be involved in such an important movement. I also felt more optimistic about the future of democracy, both because of Dan Stewart’s support of women’s right to choose and because even conservative representatives like Jay Hottinger took time to listen to our presentation, no matter what their own personal views might be.

As you can see from Kay’s experience, lobbying is worth the effort. It can be intimidating, but it’s empowering, and a great chance to ensure that your voice is heard. We hope that Kay’s story has convinced you to join us on March 21. Let’s storm the statehouse together!

Our board is ready for 2012!

On January 22, Women Have Options gathered for its first-ever board retreat. The plan for the day was to give our board a chance to get to know each other better—since we welcomed four new members to the board in 2011—and make decisions about an action plan for 2012 and beyond.

We started the retreat with an icebreaker, where our more experienced members got to know our newer members and talk a little bit about their lives. Next, we had a values clarification training where we discussed why we chose to work with Women Have Options. Board members shared their ideas about the organization, and why they feel abortion access is vital to women’s health care and reproductive rights.

Moving on, we reviewed the history of Women Have Options. Our founder is still an active member of our board. She told the story of how Women Have Options was originally founded and gave us a good background of what the organization used to do—including staffing a hotline for women to call to request funding for an abortion, and an outreach project in Appalachia—and how it changed to become the organization it is today.

We then reviewed our 2011 achievements: 2011 was a record-breaking year for WHO/O in terms of fundraising, with over $53,000 raised for reproductive health care access! We also had an amazing year for outreach, with multiple successful events, presence at political events, and even some local media coverage. It was great to get the chance to celebrate our success as a group, and learn more about the foundation of our current work.

Our own line of Signature Wines...pretty classy!

No, we didn’t get sneakier. But we did get craftier, by ending 2011 with our first-ever craft bazaar and reception: A WHO/O Holiday Affair to Remember! On December 1, we threw a house party in Columbus to give our friends and supporters a chance to mingle and celebrate the holiday season. We provided some delicious appetizers (thanks, board members!) and some special guests: local crafters who came out to support our cause and sell their wares. Throughout the night, a portion of all sales benefited Women Have Options. Vendors included:

Wholly Craft: Wholly Craft is an awesome local boutique for handmade goods in Columbus. They brought a great variety of their most popular items, including Stinky Bomb soaps, Out of the Pink Sky‘s vintage-styled jewelry, AmyD‘s handmade aprons, stationery and magnet sets by Poshta Design, and hand-sewn stationery and fabric scarves by Umbrella Girl Productions. We recommend this place highly! It’s woman-owned, supports progressive local organizations, and has items that you just can’t get any place else.

Jewelry for Choice: Based in Athens, Ohio, Jewelry for Choice is a group of jewelers who use their talents to support abortion access. They sell hand-crafted jewelry items and donate a portion of the proceeds to pro-choice causes like Women Have Options. The Never Again pendants are their most well-known item, but they sell many other kinds of pieces too.

Signature Wines: Signature Wines is an urban micro-winery in Columbus. Signature Wines is the only winery in Ohio with a female owner and award winning wine maker. They specialize in creating customized labels for gifts. Thanks to their help, we had our own WHO/O wine for the evening, including cabernet sauvignon, unoaked chardonnay, and zinfindel blush!

Additionally, local photographer Katherine Stewart donated a beautiful framed print of “The Buddha” for a silent auction, while supporter Grace Cherrington donated fabric gift bags for door prizes. Thanks for your generous donations!

Overall, the night was a huge success. Not only did we have a lot of fun, but we raised over $1300 for WHO/O. Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, women all over Ohio will have a happy and healthy new year.

On behalf of the women we serve, Women Have Options would like to thank everyone who made our holiday event such a huge success. We are looking forward to 2012′s gathering already! In the meantime, we still have some wine left…any takers?

Activists in Maryland rally to support Dr. Carhart's clinic, a popular target for anti-choice protesters and one of the few clinics that can help women needing later-term procedures. We love Dr. Carhart too!

WHO/O is here to make sure every Ohio woman has the right to choose the medical care she needs. Traditionally, WHO/O’s funding goes directly to clinics in Ohio to assist clients who cannot afford abortions or other procedures. However, sometimes help is needed above and beyond that financial assistance. When that happens, we’re here to help.

In October, one of the clinics we fund had a 20-year old client who was 25.3 weeks into the pregnancy. In Ohio, the procedures that would allow for an abortion to take place at this point in the pregnancy are prohibited. Like many women in Ohio, and other states where these procedures have been made unlawful, she was referred to a clinic outside of Ohio for the care she needed. She was referred to Dr. Carhart’s clinic in Germantown, Maryland. Dr. Carhart’s clinic, one of the few places in the country that can help women needing later-term procedures, is a popular target for anti-choice protesters and a political punching bag for anti-choice activists. It is also one of the few places in the country that many women who find themselves unable to continue a pregnancy can get the care they desperately need. The family was impoverished, and needed assistance for travel, lodging, and food in addition to the procedure. All told, the family needed over $6000 to make the journey. An urgent request for funding went out to the funding community, as the client and her mother needed to get to Maryland as soon as possible.

Diverse funding sources stepped up to offer their assistance, including some of the national abortion funds and a local fund near the clinic in Maryland. Other groups and individuals pledged dollar amounts large and small. WHO/O pledged $500 to help this Ohio woman get the care she needed. Staff at the Ohio clinic that originally referred the woman shepherded the woman and her mother onto the bus to Maryland, and met them at the bus stop upon their return. Many, many groups and individuals across the country came together to help a woman afford her reproductive choice.

Your donation truly can make the difference for women in situations like this. If you want to help us in our mission of providing real access to reproductive health care for every woman in Ohio, please make a donation here: http://womenhaveoptions.org/donate. With your help, we can ensure that a woman’s right to choose is a right she can access, regardless of finances or anti-choice politics.

“Part of what motivates me to stay involved is my vision for changing the cultural conversation about abortion—integrating women’s personal stories into the cultural conversation on abortion, humanizing the face of abortion, so that the conversation isn’t simply about fetuses and rights and something called “choice.” So that people realize that we probably all know someone who has had an abortion, that it’s a normal part of women’s lives. Stories of abortion have power. I have seen that power in action, and have seen how these stories—both my own story of abortion and the stories of other women—help raise funds so low-income women in Ohio can afford their reproductive choices. I’m just getting started…”

Read the rest of the piece here, and check out the other great features on Feminists for Choice!

1. The Heartbeat Bill would require a medical provider to perform an ultrasound and look for a fetal heartbeat as a part of pre-abortion medical counseling. According to this legislation, if a heartbeat can be found, the doctor must play the sound for the woman, show her the image on her ultrasound, and explain what it is. Terminating the pregnancy would then be forbidden. A fetal heartbeat can be detected as early as the sixth week of a pregnancy, before many women even know they are pregnant.

2. The bill includes no exception for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. This is a point of contention for supporters and opposition alike.

3. The stated purpose of the Heartbeat Bill is to contribute to incremental legislation that pushes fetal viability criteria back to the point of conception. As stated in the official Heartbeat Bill Q & A: “Once we draw the line of protection [at the detection of a fetal heartbeat] . . . our goal will actually be within reach. One strategic approach would be to introduce legislation to move the line back to ‘presence’ of a heartbeat instead of detection of one. That moves the line to 18 days and would protect virtually every child. Then, with the unique DNA which appears at conception, we move the line 18 days from there: a short distance has always been easier to travel than a long distance.”

4. The Heartbeat Bill is being supported to provide a direct challenge to the Roe v. Wade decision.
The Roe v. Wade criteria of fetal viability is that a fetus is considered “viable” after 22 to 24 weeks. Under the Heartbeat Bill criteria, if a fetal heartbeat is detectable, an abortion is prohibited regardless of the amount of time that has passed since conception. States can restrict abortion access after fetal viability is established, but not before. The Heartbeat Bill is in direct conflict with this federal ruling, and may be considered constitutionally unenforceable. Supporters of the bill are hoping that it can force a challenge to the Roe v. Wade decision at the U.S. Supreme Court.

5. Even if the Heartbeat Bill isn’t enforceable, if it is signed into law, it will still affect pre-abortion counseling requirements. Even if some parts of the Heartbeat Bill are found to be unconstitutional and are struck down, other parts of the law will remain: notably, the part of the law requiring a health care provider to make a fetal heartbeat visible and audible to the mother as part of the process of giving informed consent. This is insensitive to those who are seeking abortions due to rape or incest or to preserve their health, and it interferes in the doctor-patient relationship.

The Heartbeat Bill is only one example of the Ohio Senate’s ongoing war on a woman’s right to choose. For more information on legislation you should know about, check out the Bill Watch at NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio.

The Repeal Hyde art project lets women speak out about the Hyde Amendment. You can participate at http://repealhydeartproject.org.

On September 30, the Hyde Amendment celebrated its 35th year of preventing low-income women from accessing abortion. The Hyde Amendment bans federal dollars from being used to pay for abortion except in the case of rape, incest, or life endangerment of the mother. The way this legislation is enforced varies from state to state, but in most states it creates a significant barrier between women and the services they need.

This legislation has long been opposed by advocates for choice, as it effectively prevents the majority of low-income women from accessing abortion services. Many opponents see it as a direct attack on low-income families that rely on public benefits. When you consider that the Hyde Amendment is traditionally a rider on the yearly legislation that funds those programs, it’s a hard point to ignore.

The public debate over the Hyde Amendment has fired up recently with the  completion of a study of publicly funded abortion. According to the results, which were published in the American Journal of Public Health, the majority of abortions that should qualify for public funding still do not receive it:

“The researchers found that 37 percent of the 1,165 abortions provided for cases of
rape, incest, or life endangerment included in the research were ultimately covered by
Medicaid. The rest were paid by the women themselves, by the abortion providers
or by nonprofit, contribution-based abortion funds.

. . .‘Ibis’ research has shown that in states where abortion coverage is limited
to the Hyde Amendment exceptions, it is extremely challenging for providers to get
reimbursed,’ said Kelly Blanchard, principal investigator of the study and president of
Ibis.”  —On Anniversary Of Funding Ban, Even Allowed Abortions Often Go Unpaid For,
NPR

In other words, if you live in a state that does not provide Medicaid funding for abortion, you may not be able to access state or federal abortion funding—even when you technically qualify for it. This may seem shocking, but it is reality—and it is a reality that advocates for women’s health have been aware of for a long time. The bottom line is that the legislators who write funding bans like the Hyde Amendment may include “compassionate” exceptions to the rule on paper, but don’t support putting them in practice. Medicaid fights the claims, and low-income women end up footing the bill or being forced to carry pregnancies to term because they can not afford the same rights as women of means.

This is where funds like Women Have Options step in. We believe that every woman has the right to make choices about her healthcare, regardless of financial circumstances. We disagree with politicians who feel they have the right to stop women from making those choices, be it through bans on funding, restricting providers and clinics, or contributing to the shame and stigma for those who choose to terminate a pregnancy. We stand in solidarity with our pro-choice allies and will continue to fight for women to have real choices about their health and their bodies. Most importantly, we put our money where our mouth is by providing direct funding to the clients who need it. This is why abortion funds are important, and this is why we need your support!

Don’t let the anniversary of the Hyde Amendment pass without making a stand for choice. Sign the NNAF petition to see this dangerous and shortsighted legislation repealed for good. Call or write your elected representatives and tell them you want abortion funding bans eliminated. And most importantly, keep supporting Women Have Options—because as long as these funding bans exist, we’ll be working hard to keep choice alive for every woman in Ohio!