Emergency Medical Assistance, a West Palm Beach abortion fund founded in 1975, is on track to spend $550,000 helping people access abortion by the end of the year.
Jessica Hatem, the fund’s executive director, said that although the group will continue its mission, its spending pace is unsustainable.
While EMA received an influx of donations since Tuesday’s elections, Hatem said the fund may need to cap how many people it awards financial assistance to cover the cost of the procedure and out-of-state travel.
Increase in demand
“We can’t keep spending $550,000 every single year. So, it’s not like we don’t have the money to spend currently. But to plan for the future and especially as this landscape gets more and more hostile. The money needed to take on this hostile landscape is not there,” she said in a phone interview with Florida Phoenix.
Last year, before the state law took effect banning abortions after six weeks’ gestation in most cases, EMA spent roughly $320,000.
Although Hatem had looked forward to passage of Amendment 4, which would have enshrined abortion in the Florida Constitution, easing demand for the fund’s work, it wasn’t going to guarantee abortion access for everyone. In any event, although 57% of Floridians supported the abortion-rights measure, it didn’t earn the 60% approval needed to pass.