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In honor of Dr. Tiller

Consider donating to a pro-choice organization. A few of my favorites:

The National Network of Abortion Funds (list of local funds here)

The National Abortion Federation

Medical Students for Choice

Planned Parenthood

Haven Coalition

Leave other suggestions in the comments.

UPDATED to add this press release from the National Network of Abortion Funds:

The Network has also received many requests from women who received care from Dr. Tiller and from activists in the reproductive justice community to set up a Fund in Dr. Tiller’s name. In response, we have established the George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund to assist the women to whom George Tiller dedicated his life. The Fund will assist women in the second trimester to pay for abortion care, as well as pay for travel and lodging en route to providers. To donate to the Fund in Dr. Tiller’s name, please send contributions to:

George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund
c/o National Network of Abortion Funds
42 Seaverns Ave.
Boston, MA 02130

You may also donate online at http://www.nnaf.org/tiller.html


54 thoughts on In honor of Dr. Tiller

  1. I particular recommend any of the links that provide direct financial assistance to women seeking abortion care. One of the man things that made Dr. Tiller so amazing was he did everything he could to make later-term procedures available to women who need them regardless of the money.

  2. I challenge all pro-(fetal) lifers to donate to their local Consistent Life Ethic organization in memory of Dr. Tiller …peace…

  3. I’m asking that you move Medical Students for Choice to the top of the list. There are so few doctors who are trained and willing to do abortions in the first place. It really doesn’t matter if you have the money to pay for an abortion if you have no doctors available to do the procedure. It would be a fitting tribute to Dr Tiller if we could replace him with hundreds more doctors to continue his work.

  4. As a medical student and a student leader for my local chapter of Medical Students for Choice, I would like to echo Donna’s comment. “Without providers there is no choice”.

    Consider making a donation to your local chapter (many medical schools have them, in both the US and Canada) to help with educational programming at the grassroots level. Or make a donation to the national organization and flag it for use in your community or a specific community that you feel is in greater need (like Wichita, Kansas) of help.

    For those in Canada: MS4C, NAF and PP all have Canadian chapters, too.

  5. In honor of the fact that Dr Tillman was a person of faith (murdered at his church) and an amazing advocate for reproductive rights, I suggest the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice: http://www.rcrc.org/. They do really good work with/for/by religious organizations to promote good sexuality education and argue for the moral agency of individuals to decide what is best for themselves in relationship to reproductive rights. Contribute directly here: http://www.rcrc.org/getinvolved/contribute.cfm.

    I’m an Episcopal minister, and I say that to any God that matters, Dr. Tillman was saint and martyr.

  6. I made a donation to Med Students for Choice and I highly recommend donating to them in honor of George Tiller. As Ann pointed out on Feministing, there were only two doctors including Dr. Tiller in his area that preformed late term abortions.

  7. Thank you for this list, Jill, and to the others who left suggestions. This is exactly what I want to do.

  8. Personally, I feel a donation would be best given to a little non-profit called ACCESS.
    (Though there are many others like it.) While donating to the larger groups such as NARAL etc… is also necessary, donating to the smaller groups will directly help women who need assistance.

    http://www.whrc-access.org/

    When our clinic is faced with women who have difficulty with affording abortion services, we turn to them. Though funding is VERY limited, they assist with hotel accommodations, transportation costs, and will help fund the womans procedure itself if the need is there.

  9. Thank you so much for including the National Network of Abortion Funds in your list. Losing Dr. Tiller is a great tragedy for all women and for our community, but it is a particular tragedy for all the low-income women and women facing extreme obstacles to abortion care that Dr. Tiller provided with compassionate, affordable care.

    The 100+ abortion Funds across the country worked closely with Dr. Tiller’s clinic to help arrange and pay for care for women who literally would have had no where else to go. In the face of this loss, these women and girls will experience even greater obstacles and will no doubt have to travel even further, and pay even more, for the abortions they need.

    Any donations to the Network help to strengthen the safety net of abortion Funds who provide critical financial assistance and practical support for women facing extreme obstacles to care across the country. We will honor Dr. Tiller’s legacy and continue his work to “trust women.”

    For anyone in Boston, there’s a vigil tomorrow night at 6pm at St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral across from Park St. T Stop. See facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=88629078374&ref=nf

    With a heavy heart,
    Megan Peterson
    Deputy Director
    National Network of Abortion Funds

  10. Done. Medical Students for Choice (which serves Canada as well as the US) got a couple of dollars from me. Thanks for the suggestions.

  11. This list is, of course, American-centric, and while many of them will take foreign donations, people outside of the Excited States of America can only use this as a tax donation to the extent they have American income. Plus, it doesn’t support pro-choice in our other countries, which are likewise endangered.

    I’d like to keep my money home. Any link to pro-choice charities in other countries, like Britain, Australia and Canada?

  12. I’m waiting to see first if Dr. Tiller’s family has a preference for where people donate, since I have limited funds and can’t afford to donate twice. But I’ll definitely be donating somewhere.

  13. Medical Students for Choice got $20 from me. Thank you for posting the info… it felt good to do something positive in the face of such horribly sad news.

  14. Sent the details to Jill so that she can add them to the post, but just got this press release in my inbox from the National Network of Abortion Funds:

    The Network has also received many requests from women who received care from Dr. Tiller and from activists in the reproductive justice community to set up a Fund in Dr. Tiller’s name. In response, we have established the George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund to assist the women to whom George Tiller dedicated his life. The Fund will assist women in the second trimester to pay for abortion care, as well as pay for travel and lodging en route to providers. To donate to the Fund in Dr. Tiller’s name, please send contributions to:

    George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund
    c/o National Network of Abortion Funds
    42 Seaverns Ave.
    Boston, MA 02130

    You may also donate online at http://www.nnaf.org/tiller.html

  15. “Lordship Mayhem,” I don’t really appreciate a flip remark like “Excited States of America” in a thread like this. This is about honoring the work of a doctor who happened to be an American, who was tragically murdered today, and ensuring that others can continue in his place. This is not about getting yourself a tax deduction.

    That being said, several in the thread have pointed out that Medical Students for Choice has Canadian chapters, and a quick google search for UK charities led me to

    http://www.efc.org.uk/Home

    and

    http://www.fpa.org.uk/Aboutus/Whatwedo

    There is also the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

    http://www.ippf.org/en/

  16. I’m a former coordinator for Haven and while I obviously think they do excellent and amazing work, it seems that another fund is covering the cost of housing for women forced to travel to New York City for abortions. Not that I want to discourage donations there (volunteers are always appreciated!), but I heard that NNAF and its affiliate funds have been swamped by requests for financial assistance in the past few months.

    A hearty thanks to everyone who is working in any capacity to help women exercise their legal right to reproductive health care.

  17. I donated to Medical Students for Choice and am asking everyone I know to do the same. My grandmother suggested this organization, as a retired physician herself. They’ve even heard of George Tiller in Ukraine.

  18. Spellcheck fail above. Sorry, everyone. Dr. Tiller. Saw the name once and got really upset. Remains saint and martyr.

  19. I linked to the list of Pro-Choice charities thru a local blog, but I gotta tell you, I have some discomfort with honoring Dr. Tiller under a site logo showing a character brandishing a pump shotgun. It seems to advocate what I’d like to discourage.

  20. Wow, Dan, so magnificently NOT the place. Yes, clearly the hosts at Feministe support not only gun violence, but CHILD ARMIES!!!!! If you can’t see the difference between the logo and the images on radical anti-abortion sites, you might need your vision checked.

  21. Hi everyone,

    An update on my earlier post.

    I wanted to let you know that due to an overwhelming number of requests from grief-stricken and outraged community members such as yourselves, the National Network of Abortion Funds has established a national abortion Fund in honor of Dr. Tiller to honor his memory by helping women in need, much as Dr. Tiller himself did every single day.

    The George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund will help women in the second trimester with assistance paying for abortion care, as well as paying for travel and lodging enroute to providers.

    To donate to this Fund, please go to: https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=19862

    You can also send donations via snail mail to:

    George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund
    c/o National Network of Abortion Funds
    42 Seaverns Ave.
    Boston, MA 02130
    Please feel free to contact me with questions at: Megan (at) nnaf.org or 617-524-6034

    Megan Peterson
    Deputy Director
    National Network of Abortion Funds
    http://www.nnaf.org

  22. “but I gotta tell you, I have some discomfort with honoring Dr. Tiller under a site logo showing a character brandishing a pump shotgun. It seems to advocate what I’d like to discourage.”

    ::titters in a near-hysterical fashion::

    You gotta be fucking kidding me. Oh, wait, he’s not…

  23. A made a donation to the George Tiller Memorial Abortion Fund. Pro- choice not
    anti-choice, none of us are against life.

  24. I donated to NNAF yesterday. I am gobsmacked by reaction to Dr. Tiller’s murder. I feel as if I myself have been attacked. I want to do more than just give money, and I feel so helpless.

  25. I was glad to see this post pop up as number three when I googled “donate in memory of George Tiller.” I made a donation to NNAF in honor of my sister, a life-long feminist and advocate, who turns 59 tomorrow.

  26. Does anyone know if Dr. Tiller’s widow and any others he may have provided for are taken care of financially?

    The information doesn’t seem to be in the mainstream or any other media, but it seems rather important.

  27. I donated to the Peggy Bowman Second Chance Fund at http://www.pbscf.org and
    NARAL Pro Choice Texas at http://www.ProchoiceTexas.org in memory of Dr. Tiller. They were small donations of $15 and $20, because I am between jobs, but it is what I would have spent on flowers.

    The first organization helps with funding in Wichita, KS and the other watches over the Texas Legislature. My cousin’s wife donated to Planned Parenthood.

    I have hosted 3 fundraisers over the past 4 years for the Texas Equal Access Fund teafund.org which is a NNAF abortion funding provider in the DFW area. It has been a year since the last, so I guess it is time for another. Texas has only two such organizations. One is in Dallas and the other in Austin to cover the entire lone star state.

    For those that can’t afford to donate, consider hosting a small gathering to raise money for your nearest NNAF organization. The Tea Fund calls them tea parties. You host the party and you can either ask for a specific donation amount or just let people donate as much as they can afford.

    I hosted one at my home where we had tea and cookies, one at a friend’s dress shop where we served champagne and mimosas, and one at a little cafe in Austin. Get a group of friends to help you host the party to cut costs, increase donations and expand the invitation list.

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