It’s expensive to give birth. Birth Care Funds are Trying to Fill in the Gap.
When Maleeha Aziz, deputy director of the abortion fund and reproductive justice organization Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund, needed an abortion when she was younger, she initially encountered a “crisis pregnancy center” (CPC), a fake clinic that tries to dissuade people from getting an abortion.
“They sort of misled me and caused me trauma,” Aziz said. “I had to go out of state to get my abortion.”
She later became TEA Fund’s community organizer, and when the deputy director position opened up in June 2022, Aziz already had an idea for the application’s required project proposal.
“My focus was the anti-abortion center campaign,” Aziz said. “I was wronged by these abortion centers and I had suffered harm.” It’s now important to me that I can offer the support needed to someone, regardless of whether they are seeking an abortion or if they wish to start a family. The experience of Aziz shows the importance of allowing people to make their own reproductive choices. Birth and infant care funds are helping women and transgender people care for their children and give birth according to their own terms in a country that spends an average of $21,681 per year on a baby. Only 13 states have laws governing family and medical leaves, and 14 require pregnant women to carry their babies to term. CPCs promise “free” medical care and birth and baby care products, and they lure pregnant women by offering them. However, the CPCs spread misinformation about abortion and stigma. CPCs often follow evangelical Christian ideologies. They abound and outnumber abortion clinics 3-to-1 nationwide.
Because of anti-abortion centers’ deceptive tactics, Aziz emphasized the importance of unconditional and noncoercive resources for families. Aziz explained that the TEA Fund Infant Care Resource Drive gives families in Texas “diapers and wipes, clothes, books, summer games, water toys activity kits, coloring pages, shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, as well as a variety of other items.” This is done about three times a yearly. We don’t have a wait list. It’s a no-questions-asked situation. We do not ask for identification or make people fill in paperwork. If you need supplies, if you make that request to our volunteers, you will get the supplies you need.”
According to a 2021 Equity Forward report, at least ten states diverted federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) funds, which are supposed to go to low-income families, to launch or sustain CPCs. Rewire News Group found that CPCs may spend nearly $1 billion per year. Since 2010, CPCs received almost half a million dollars in funding from state governments. In contrast, Aziz said the Infant Care Resource Drive relies on grassroots funding, donors, and grants.
Leah Jones, deputy director at SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, said SisterSong launched its Birth Justice Care Fund in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“SisterSong began doing birth justice programming in 2017, and in 2020 when the pandemic hit was really when we ramped up the birth justice work,” Jones said. We were going to conduct education and advocacy in rural Georgia. It now serves people in nearby North Carolina, Kentucky, and Florida. It now serves people in nearby North Carolina, Kentucky, and Florida.
Jones said the Birth Justice Care Fund’s expansion happened at an opportune time for pregnant Floridians.
“This year we added Florida, which seemed to be perfect timing because around the time the fund opened up, it was not far from when Florida went from a 15-week abortion ban
to a six-week abortion ban,” Jones said. “What’s happened ever since Roe v. Wade was overturned and the abortion bans came through is that people are understanding the importance of access to health care … We’re seeing the connections between birth and abortion.”
Jones said the Birth Justice Care Fund provides people with the money to access full spectrum and postpartum doulas, midwives, lactation education consultants, maternal mental health therapists, and other items such as diapers, wipes, and car seats.
Why people need birth funds
Just giving birth is expensive: On average, labor and delivery cost $18,865, with average out-of-pocket costs of $2,854 for people with insurance. Parents may not be able to afford perinatal care without additional help. Birth doulas can cost between $800 and $2,500, depending on the location, experience of the doula, and birthing needs. According to the National Health Law Program, as of January, Medicaid covered doulas in only 12 states, including Washington, D.C., while others were “in the process of implementing Medicaid coverage for the doula care,… or had taken some related or adjoining action.” In 2022, there were 817 deaths due to pregnancy-related issues, down from the 1,205 deaths that occurred a year earlier. The maternal mortality rate for Black women was still twice as high as the rate for white or Latinx women. Research shows that having a doula is associated with positive birthing outcomes and reducing anxiety and stress, specifically in low-income pregnant people. Research demonstrates that having a doula is associated with positive birthing outcomes and a reduction in anxiety and stress, specifically in low-income pregnant people.
Jones said the Birth Care Justice Fund serves low-income and other marginalized communities.[and then]”The majority of the people who come to our fund are low-income or young people from ages 13 to 22,” Jones said. Some queer and trans people reach out to fund to get access to lactation specialists who specialize in breastfeeding, or doulas. We see people who are solo parenting, Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, people who are impacted by incarceration, housing insecurity, or domestic violence, and refugees.”
How birth funds support the people who need them most
To reach these diverse communities, Jones said SisterSong partners with organizations that truly care about reproductive health advocacy–and were already doing it with SisterSong beforehand.
“We told them that we don’t just want you to provide a service to supplement income for yourself,” Jones said. This is advocacy. If you don’t put that principle first, this fund isn’t for you
.” So if you don’t put that principle first, this is not the fund for you
.”
Both Aziz and Jones said providing people with access to birth and infant care items are a necessary component of reproductive justice.
“Reproductive justice means if someone wants an abortion, we support them,” Aziz said. “If someone wants to have children, we support them and give the resources to them that they need for their families to thrive.”
“This is just education, information, and access to health care that people just desire and deserve,” Jones added.
