Dear MoveOn member,
My name is Dr. Erin King. I am a Missouri resident and an abortion provider at the Hope Clinic for Women, just across the Missouri state line in Illinois.
Two weeks ago, Missouri's Republican governor signed into law a near-total abortion ban. The following week, the state refused to renew the license of the Planned Parenthood in St. Louis, which is the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri.
A judge granted a temporary reprieve for Planned Parenthood last Friday, but the fight to keep Missouri from becoming the only state in the country without an abortion clinic is far from over.
Already, more than half of the patients that I see at the Hope Clinic are Missouri residents who have been forced to travel hundreds of miles across state lines just to access care. Even more personally, I am also a gynecologist seeing patients in Missouri and I happen to be married to the medical director of the Planned Parenthood in St. Louis.
I know firsthand that for too many seeking help, it is an impossible financial burden. That is why I am writing to you today, Eddie.
The Gateway Women's Access Fund in Missouri provides financial assistance to people who do not have the money to travel for an appointment or pay for an abortion. They provide critical, lifesaving assistance to people across my state, and with the newly signed law that threatens Missouri's last remaining clinic, they are now more essential than ever.
And MoveOn is organizing its members in Missouri and every state across the country to stop these attacks and ensure access to safe and legal abortion in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
That's why I'm asking you to donate to support those seeking safe and legal abortion in Missouri.
Your donation will be split between the Gateway Women's Access Fund, which provides financial assistance to Missouri residents who cannot afford the full cost of abortion care, and MoveOn, which is working to ensure access to safe and legal abortion in all 50 states. Will you chip in $3?
Every day when my husband and I walk into our respective health clinics, we walk past protesters who try to trick our patients into going to a fake clinic with false promises and outright lies. It is infuriating.
Those protesters have threatened my life. They have threatened the life of my husband. They have shown up at our home. They have put our children at risk.
One in four women will have an abortion in her lifetime. This new wave of abortion bans will not stop abortion. It will just force people who have the resources to travel farther—and those who don't? They'll be forced to stay pregnant or be criminalized for self-managed abortions. As a physician, I know exactly how dangerous that can be, and I am absolutely terrified of the deadly consequences facing those in need of abortion care if that becomes our new reality.
Already, expecting people to travel hundreds of miles and wait for days just to receive a safe, minor medical procedure severely limits access for many of the people who need it the most. This is why we need immediate financial help for people in Missouri and to support advocates such as MoveOn to beat back extremist attacks and save Roe v. Wade.
Abortion funds such as the Gateway Women's Access Fund can be the difference between being able to access safe care or risking your life.
MoveOn is on the front lines of this fight for safe, legal abortion across America. Will you chip in $3, or whatever you can afford, now?
Thanks for all you do.
–Dr. Erin King
Want to support our work? The MoveOn community will work every moment, day by day and year by year, to resist Trump's agenda, contain the damage, defeat hate with love, and begin the process of swinging the nation's pendulum back toward sanity, decency, and the kind of future that we must never give up on. And to do it we need your support, now more than ever. Will you stand with us?
Click here to chip in $3, or whatever you can afford.
Contributions to MoveOn.org Civic Action are not tax deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes. This email was sent to Eddie Alfaro on June 4th, 2019. To change your email address or update your contact info, click here. To remove yourself from this list, click here.
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