Indigenous Women Rising launches fund for those in need of reproductive medical care

According to SD News Watch 132 South Dakota women traveled to Nebraska for their procedures last year, 152 women scheduled in Minnesota, ten women went to North Dakota, 123 South Dakota women found care in Colorado and Iowa saw a jump of at least 200 out of state women who sought medical care that South Dakota refuses to provide.

New Mexico is the political inverse of my home state. It's where if the lopsided Supreme Court of the United States ultimately overturns Roe v. Wade women will still be free to exercise their reproductive rights because Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Respect New Mexico Women and Families Act that repealed the 1969 state statute banning abortion. In New Mexico Medicaid covers abortions and even transportation in rural areas to get to clinics in Albuquerque.

Now, red state governors have announced plans to compel even more women to go out of state for their procedures. These actions are not only the way the extreme white wing of the Republican Party raises money it's designed to break Planned Parenthood in red states and drive abortions even further underground.

One New Mexico organization hoping to address that disparity is Indigenous Women Rising, which relaunched its Abortion Fund Sept. 1 to help Indigenous people pay for abortion procedures or the costs associated with traveling to a state like New Mexico, Colorado or Oklahoma to get an abortion, such as gas, food and childcare. For now, the fund will cover only people living in North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Texas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Missouri or any state in the "Deep South" — who are planning to get an abortion there or elsewhere — or those who are traveling to New Mexico or Colorado to get an abortion, which is already the majority of the organization's callers seeking help. [New Mexico advocates are 'anticipating an influx' of patients after Texas abortion law]

Learn more about women's rights and red state failure at NPR.

Black infants die at twice the rate of White infants. "In 2019, almost 3,600 more Black babies died before their first birthday," @AnnaFlagg writes.

The so-called "pro-life" folks hardly seem to care about the Black infants (and mothers) dying each year.https://t.co/FMYrjTVUzr

— Ibram X. Kendi (@DrIbram) September 2, 2021

Some real talk from Sen. Tina Smith on how Dems will protect abortion rights:

"I support ending the filibuster. I support codifying Roe v Wade. I would support reforming the Supreme Court. But we need to be real: There are not votes in the U.S. Senate to do any of those things."

— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) September 2, 2021