Politics and Current
Black women forced to choose between abortion and rent in post-Dobbs America
Jenice Fountain saw women forced to make seemingly not possible decisions.
As an Alabama-based reproductive justice advocate, Fountain has a front row seat in America in the post-Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization era, in which the Supreme Court struck down abortion rights two years ago. Although abortion has been legal since Roe v. Wade in 1973, abortion is banned or severely restricted in nearly half of the country’s 50 states.
Alabama is considered one of 14 states which have enacted a whole abortion ban, forcing residents of considered one of the nation’s poorest states to travel for the procedure and sometimes choose between covering their basic needs and their future.
“At the community level, I hear people saying, yes, I have care. But first I went to Georgia and then to Ohio. So now I don’t pay rent and I don’t know where I’m going to live,” Fountain said. “If my client is now homeless because she had to have an abortion, I don’t consider that a win.”
As executive director Yellowhammer Fund, Fountain provides communities with financial support and resources for reproductive justice. Reproductive justice is a framework developed by Black women activists in the Nineteen Nineties that focuses not only on procedures similar to termination of pregnancy, but more broadly supports their right to have or not have children in a protected and healthy environment.
But since Roe v. Wade was overturned two years ago, Fountain has seen the core idea of reproductive justice challenged in tangible ways, especially for marginalized groups. Alabama’s Black population is above the national average, with Blacks making up 1 / 4 of your entire state (over 25%). Fountain said that in a state that after sparked the civil rights movement with the Birmingham bus boycott and that has faced a history of brutal racist attacks and violence, there may be a way of despair that has led many women to consider that in the face of an unintended pregnancy has no alternative but to move forward.
“I see people saying, ‘Well, we’re in Alabama.’ We’ve become accustomed to another extra layer of oppression, so we’ll just be born now. Where can I safely give birth? Where can I get the funds for this?” The fountain is obtainable.
Fountain says the work of this era will not be nearly funding abortion, but additionally a few holistic approach to supporting people, especially marginalized groups who find themselves targeted by state institutions after giving birth and struggling to make ends meet.
“We had to create a legal fund because most of the legal funds we were able to contact wanted to support people who would be penalized for getting (abortion) out of state,” she said. “But we are saying, ‘Hey, they need legal support since the Department of Human Resources is now involved in this pregnancy that they otherwise would have terminated, but now they’re trying to separate the family.’
The Yellowhammer Fund can be involved in a lawsuit against Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall after he threatened to prosecute anyone who helped a pregnant woman have an out-of-state abortion. Despite attempts to dismiss the lawsuit, a federal judge ruled last month in order that the Yellowhammer Fund lawsuit can proceed.
The organization said the specter of criminal prosecution was enough to intimidate them into stopping their work and violating freedom of speech. Numerous civil rights organizations agree and support their efforts.
“If Attorney General Marshall is able to criminalize abortion-related speech and assistance, more pregnant women will have difficulty finding out-of-state care and the financial and logistical support needed to obtain that care without the knowledge and insights of their chosen provider,” she said Alison Mollman, legal director of the ACLU of Alabama, said in a press release following last month’s ruling.
“This could have deadly consequences for Alabamians who live in a state that has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, and especially for Black women, who account for a disproportionate share of maternal deaths,” she continued.
It’s this stark reality that makes Fountain challenge reproductive rights advocates to do greater than just donate to abortion funds.
“If we do this work and call it reproductive justice work or even abortion advocacy, it has to look like we are truly supporting people with their care needs,” she said. – Because not everyone gets to leave the state. That’s just the truth.”