We Don't Have Time for Siloed Struggles

_{A graphic with a brown background and light pink text that reads “People of all genders deserve safe and affordable access to abortion.” A logo is underneath the text and reads “25 years of youth vision and activism for gender justice, Third Wave Fund.” There is an illustration in the lower corner of two people back-to-back with their fists up and purple flower decor behind.}

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Dear friends,

We are enraged alongside you, but we know these attacks are not new. We are exhausted alongside you, but we know this is a generational fight. We are steadfast in our commitment to resourcing grassroots gender justice movements year-round, but we still need more people to join us in movement building.

Our grantee partners have taught us that our collective liberation is beyond anything the legal system can ever offer us. As attacks on reproductive justice and trans people escalate, we follow the lead of our grantees who know this fight intimately, and who are not new to the criminalization of bodily autonomy. We follow the lead of Black women, Indigenous women, and women of color, trans, queer and intersex people, low-income people, disabled people, and sex workers who have been mobilizing their communities and sounding the alarms long before the leaked Roe v. Wade draft, long before the trans bans, and who will continue to do this work long after.

We don’t have time for siloed struggles. As Chase Strangio and Rafa P. Kidvai of Repro Legal Defense Fund said in a Twitter thread from February, “The attacks won’t stop with banning gender-affirming care for youth or abortion. This is part of a larger set of systemic imperatives that will also come for birth control, gender-affirming care for people of all ages, IVF, and even marriage equality.” As an unapologetically feminist, trans, and queer fund, we know that any efforts to restrict access to safe, legal, and affordable abortion and other sexual and reproductive healthcare are directly tied to ableism, classism, racism, and transphobia.

In moments of escalation and crisis, we see surges in one-time donations to organizations on the frontlines of these attacks. This influx of funds reflects real community power and is absolutely needed. But what if these organizations didn’t have to spend time fundraising in crisis? What if these groups had multi-year, long-term, unrestricted funding? Where would they be right now? Where would we be right now?

Join us in supporting work led by trans people, abortion funds, and reproductive justice organizations - donate and heed their calls to action. If you have the means, become a monthly donor to support their work for the long battles that lie ahead of us. As a fund who also ensures that our grants go towards youth-led, intersectional gender justice orgs who often don’t have 501(c)3 status or large budgets to qualify with big funders, we invite you to join hundreds of people who give monthly.

With love and rage,
Ana Conner, Kiyomi Fujikawa and Third Wave Fund staff

Some past/current grantees mobilizing to defend trans youth & abortion access:

• Access Reproductive Care: @ARC_Southeast
• Feminist Women’s Health Center: @FeministCenter
• Frontera Fund: @FronteraFundGrv
• Indigenous Women Rising: @IndigenousWomenRising
  
• New Voices for Repro Justice: @NewVoiceRJj
• The Reproductive Justice Action Collective: @ReJACNOLA
• Spark Reproductive Justice NOW: @SparkRJNow
• Southern Birth Justice Network: @SouthernBirthJustice
• TAKE Resource Center: @Take_ResourceCenter
• TGI Justice Project: @TGIJusticeProject
• TKO Society: @TKO_Alabama
• West Fund: @WestFundTX, a member of @AbortionFunds
• Wild West Fund: @WildWestfundNevada

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Recommended resources to read and share:

• Repro Legal Defense Fund
• Judicial Bypass Wiki
• Repro Legal Helpline, If/When/How
• The “Auntie Networks” Already Exist, Kelly Hayes, Truthout
• The Growing Criminalization of Pregnancy, Melissa Gira Grant, New Republic​
• We Must Love One Another: Why Trans & Repro Justice Movement Should Be Building Solidarity, Chase Strangio & Rafa P. Kidvai, Director of the Repro Legal Defense Fund
• The Reconstruction Amendments Matter When Considering Abortion Rights, Peggy Cooper Davis, Washington Post​​

Upcoming virtual events:

• 5/11: #BeyondChoice: Funding Abortion Access and Reproductive Justice in Uncertain Times (link has expired), virtual webinar hosted by Borealis Philanthropy. Register for requesting access needs

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