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Teen Vogue
May 2024
These influencers are pushing a message to “be clean, be optimized and be as perfect an example of femininity as you can be,” Hurley said – values that are reminiscent of the “tradwife” movement and other far-right ideas about gender.
“The fundamental thing that these antis want to get rid of are not birth control pills, it’s not even abortion,” Hurley said. “They want to get rid of our autonomy and our ability to choose the direction of our own lives.”
Prism Reports
April 2024
As Israel’s war on Gaza continues, a number of abortion support organizations are facing criticism over their public statements calling for a permanent ceasefire in Palestine. At the center of some of these critiques is the assertion that local abortion funds and U.S. healthlines have no business commenting on international policy.
According to eight abortion support organizations that spoke to Prism, speaking out about Palestine is very much in line with their work—work that is approached through an international reproductive justice framework and that has a material and political reach that far exceeds U.S. borders.
In the past year alone, one of the largest abortion funds in the U.S. provided resources to people seeking care from 14 countries across the globe. Since 1995, the DC Abortion Fund (DCAF) in Washington, D.C., has helped provide access to abortion care to anyone who needs it—including people living outside of the U.S.
According to data provided by DCAF, the fund has assisted abortion-seekers from Norway, Australia, Canada, Spain, England, Northern Ireland, the Netherlands, the Bahamas, Cuba, Poland, Ukraine, Mexico, and Curaçao. Domestically, DCAF also assists abortion-seekers from states that have restrictive anti-abortion laws.
DCAF Communications Manager Jade Hurley said there are just a few abortion clinics in the country that perform abortions in the third trimester, and three of them are in the Washington metropolitan area.
“So we are a very, very crucial access point,” Hurley said, noting that because D.C. is an accessible travel hub, by default, the fund assists a great deal of people traveling internationally for later abortions.
Both Williams-Diggs and Hurley were eager to dispel the myth that Europe and Canada are safe havens for abortion access, citing the number of people they assist who have traveled to the U.S. for later abortions that are generally not available where they live. In this way, abortion funds receive direct insights into the ways reproductive rights restrictions in one country affect abortion access in another. Gil said that when abortion access is increased or limited in one place, it can have a “ripple effect” across the globe.
CapitolBop
May 2024
The diversity of the festival’s programming shows that “it’s not just one genre of music, area of the city, or type of venue that shows up for abortion rights,” DCAF communications manager Jade Hurley told CapitalBop.
“We hope for My Body, My Festival to be the ultimate stigma-buster,” Hurley said. “Marrying music and abortion felt intuitive to us. What better way to normalize and educate than to connect abortion access to things we all love — song, dance and our D.C. community?”
My Body, My Festival is a collaboration between Hamburger’s production company, Burger Sounds, and DCAF, which is the most prominent organization working in the DMV area to provide funding to people who need help affording access to abortion. DCAF is also one of the largest abortion funds in the nation.
As more restrictions on reproductive healthcare across the country have galvanized public support for abortion rights, funds like DCAF have had to drastically increase spending and outreach to compensate for the influx of new patients from more care-restrictive areas of the country who often require funding for travel and legal fees.
This influenced the festival’s organizers to expand the scope of both the festival programming and fundraising, seeking to raise more than $60,000 by the end of the weekend. They have already raised more than half via ticket sales and sponsorships.
Over the past couple of years, DCAF saw an influx of new abortion patients as abortion bans and restrictions became more prevalent across the country. These patients require increasing amounts of funding to secure reproductive healthcare due to travel and ever-rising procedural expenses.
According to Hurley, DCAF’s average pledge to abortion-seekers was $260 before Dobbs, a total that has since nearly tripled to $715. She said that the organization had pledged funding to patients from the District and more than 40 states in the past year.
So far in 2024, the organization has spent nearly $600,000 assisting almost 1,200 abortion seekers from across the nation. Last year, they spent $1.7 million.
Hurley sees the festival’s growth as being inextricably tied to the growing demand for reproductive healthcare in the DMV, as more states are denying local options to their residents.
Undue Burden: Life and Death Decisions in Post-Roe America
Shefali Luthra, May 2024
Jade Hurley, who worked at the D.C. fund, referred to it as a sort of "second migration": the district was the place to go for those who had been displaced, not by a ban in their own state, but by the national shrinking of abortion rights.
Prism Reports
May 2024
“Florida’s limited abortion access has functioned as a Band-Aid for the South,” said Jade Hurley, the communications manager for DCAF. “That Band-Aid is now being ripped off.”
Hurley said DCAF has served 34 Floridians in 2024, 13 of which reached out to them in April alone.
Salon
May 2024
“We're already routinely going over budget every single week in order to help more folks, and we put first the fact that everyone deserves accessible abortion care in their community,” Hurley said.
“When someone comes to us and says they need help, we're going to find a way to help them—but that also means we need the funding to do it.”
HuffPost
April 2024
“No other way to say it ― DCAF and funds everywhere were already in the red before this news out of Florida,” Hurley told HuffPost.
“We expect the forced migration, starting May 1, to overwhelm clinics in North Carolina, Virginia and D.C. ― in turn, overwhelming us abortion funds,” she said. “We just don’t have the dollars, appointments or capacity to serve everyone who will need us this summer.”
Salon
April 2024
The DC abortion fund said it has “continually supported Floridian abortion seekers in the post-Dobbs era; whether they’re native Floridians coming to us for care after 15 weeks, or they’re Southerners forced to travel twice for their abortion due to gestational bans,” said Jade Hurley, DCAF’s communications manager.
The Hollywood Reporter
March 2024
“The #GUTSWorldTour is asking abortion funds not to bring emergency contraception (EC), condoms, or lube to tour stops,” DC Abortion Fund communications manager Jade Hurley said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “We hope to see this change before DC’s date on July 20th.”
The Guardian
March 2024
Olivia Rodrigo has reportedly stepped in to halt the distribution of free contraceptives and the morning-after pill at her concerts, days after the American singer was praised for encouraging young people to take responsibility for their sexual health.
But Jade Hurley, communications manager for the DC Abortion Fund, told Variety the rightwing backlash is based on false information.
“It’s disappointing that extremists are causing a moral panic over something they don’t even understand,” she said. “They don’t know the difference between emergency contraception and the abortion pill, which are two completely different things.”
Activista Media
March 2024
“A lot of the backlash we recieved was not just filled with misinformation, but disinformation.”
BuzzFeed
March 2024
DC Abortion Fund communications manager Jade Hurley told Variety that the decision was made because "children are present at the concerts."
Billboard
March 2024
And while contraceptives will no longer be offered within the bounds of her shows, the DC Abortion Fund still has plans to make sure fans have access to them.
“Little do these decision-makers know,” the organization tweeted, “We have no issue handing out Plan B, free of charge, on the public sidewalk outside the venue.”
HuffPost
March 2024
“The reality is that youth have sex,” Hurley said. “What we’re doing is completely legal in all 50 states.”
Variety
March 2024
Abortion organizations hosted at Olivia Rodrigo‘s “Guts” tour will no longer be distributing emergency contraceptives at the singer’s concerts.
Organizers tell Variety that after widespread media attention, local abortion funds were told Thursday afternoon that they were no longer allowed to hand out free emergency birth control pills and other reproductive health resources at the concerts.
According to three sources at local abortion funds, that decision came from Rodrigo’s team and was relayed over Slack by the National Network of Abortion Funds, which partnered with the pop star to set up booths at each of her North American tour stops. Jade Hurley, the communications manager for the DC Abortion Fund, says the NNAF said Rodrigo’s team preferred they no longer pass out lubrication, condoms and Plan B because “children are present at the concerts.”
“The reality is that youth have sex, and youth need access to birth control and emergency contraception,” Hurley tells Variety over the phone.
Says Hurley, “We’ll keep doing our work regardless of whether we can do it in the Capital One Arena.”
Washington City Paper
January 2024
DC Abortion Fund, which recently announced its first My Body My Festival, is following in a long line of abortion activists by raising funds via community-driven, transgressive events. What could be more punk rock than that?
If you’re like me and can’t wait until May’s festival to show up and show out for D.C.’s music scene and abortion rights, Punk Rock Karaoke should do the trick.
Washington City Paper
January 2024
My Body, My Festival is set to be a revolutionary celebration of D.C.’s strong local music scene, small businesses, and ongoing support for abortion access. Hurley describes it as new, transgressive, community-powered, and from the ground up, just like abortion funds.
“Abortion for many people is joy. It’s the best decision they’ve ever made. And we’re allowed to have that joy too,” Hurley says. “My Body, My Festival is not just joy, it’s also an action. Every ticket goes toward funding abortion. What’s better than that?””
HuffPost
June 2023
The DC Abortion Fund, one of the largest and oldest abortion funds in the country, has been overwhelmed by the increase in callers since Roe fell, said Jade Hurley, the fund’s communications manager. Like every other fund HuffPost spoke with, it has seen an increase in how much people are spending on average to receive abortion care. DCAF’s average pledge per person was $260 before Dobbs, but now it’s closer to $710 per person — a 173% increase.
Abortion fund volunteers are increasingly having to prepare callers before they tell them the full cost of obtaining their procedure. Hurley recalled one patient whose full abortion care cost — not including travel or lodging — was around $25,000.
“Our funding gap grew exponentially after Dobbs came down, [and] funds like ours found that our funds were drained much quicker,” Hurley said. “There really is a lack of secure abortion funding in this country right now.”
And patients are scared. They’re worried about criminalization and have more concerns about security, Hurley said. Some are afraid they’ll be pulled over by police and interrogated about their plans. Case managers at DC Abortion Fund report that it’s more and more common for callers to cry on the phone.”
HuffPost
June 2023
If Hurley really takes a moment to think about the day-to-day at DC Abortion Fund, things can feel really bleak. Folks are being pushed further into pregnancy, making abortion care even more expensive. There is a general lack of secure and sustainable abortion and practical support funding across the country. Clinics are overworked and understaffed, and there aren’t enough hours in the day to care for patients. People are spending every dollar they have to get to clinics, and case managers are reporting that it’s more common for callers to break down crying on the phone.
But Hurley, a self-described eternal optimist, hopes that from Dobbs comes a phoenix effect.
“This is something really, really horrifying that happened to our movement and to our country, but I really do hope that from the ashes something better will rise. Because Roe wasn’t enough,” she said. “When we have nothing, we’re forced to be imaginative. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can build.”
DCist
June 2023
““No one should have to pay for abortion care, but just the cost of getting the procedure is becoming pretty astronomical,” Hurley said.
The higher pledge amounts could also be influenced by the increase of patients from states like Florida, Georgia, and Texas coming to D.C. for an abortion — longer travels cost more. Hurley said DCAF had a huge pump in “rage” donations after the Dobbs leak last May. Things have stabilized slightly in the past few months but she says DCAF’s mission remains to build a community of love and support around abortion, making sure they’re reaching the people who need their assistance most. The organization has reshaped its intake and data collection system to identify holes in populations they need to reach. They’re preparing to handle a further increase in out-of-state requests if North Carolina’s ban comes to fruition.
“When abortion is banned somewhere, it’s going to impact it everywhere.””
NPR’s Morning Edition/WAMU 88.5
June 2023
“I spoke with Jade Hurley—she’s the Communications Manager of the DC Abortion Fund, which is an organization that helps people afford abortions. In the past year, they’ve seen an increase in both the volume of callers and the average amount of money those callers are needing:
“Our average pledge went from $260 to $710 after Dobbs, so people started needing about $400-500 more.””
19th News
June 2023
“The Carolinas, Florida and Virginia have been quite literally the last stronghold of abortion access in the South. Come July 1, Southerners generally won’t have anywhere to go but north,” said Jade Hurley, of the DC Abortion Fund. “We just don’t have the funding and infrastructure to help everyone past the first trimester or past six weeks.”
News from the States
June 2023
“A first-trimester abortion can range from $500-$1,000 to tens of thousands in the second trimester, and up to $25,000 in the third, said Jade Hurley, communications manager for the DC Abortion Fund, one of more than 100 mutual aid organizations to crop up during the past two decades to help cover these steep costs, which are compounded by travel, transportation, and child care costs.”
DCist
March 2023
“Providers say they’re figuring out how to continue serving patients and dispel misinformation caused by the cases. According to Hurley, DCAF has already been hearing from confused and fearful callers since the overturn of Roe v. Wade. She said the current legal challenge to medication abortion, regardless of outcome, could make people wary of making the decision that’s best for them out of fear of criminalization, or confusion about the pill’s safety.
“We’ve already seen since Dobbs a huge increase in the fear of especially criminalization in our callers, especially when they’re calling from out of state,” Hurley said, adding that the group has also seen an influx of donations since last week’s federal decisions. “There’s a lot of fear around ‘am I supposed to be calling you?’ ‘Am I allowed to be calling you, is this going to be tracked?’ ‘Is someone going to see this?’ Even though it’s completely within their legal right to obtain an abortion in the District of Columbia.””
Axios
February 2023
“U.S. advocates considered the two-day meetings "extremely historic," as it was the first time these groups "met in a formal way to discuss strategy," says Jade Hurley, communications manager for the DC Abortion Fund.
Hurley says that the U.S. abortion rights movement is often "reactionary" — focused on responding to claims made by anti-abortion groups, especially since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
But Green Wave advocates are often more proactive, Hurley adds.
For example, they spread information on what an abortion looks like — self-managed or clinical — before misinformation reaches the public.”