Last week, the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) was targeted by two apparent anti-choice cyber attacks. Hackers sent emails to supporters with anti-choice propaganda from NNAF email addresses. Because we are working so hard to protect access for ALL people seeking abortion, abortion funds are an obvious target for this kind of attack. And it comes as no surprise that these attacks happened in the midst of many abortion funds’ biggest fundraiser of the year, our annual Bowl-a-Thon. Due to these attacks, the Bowl-a-Thon website has been taken down as a security precaution. To donate to Lilith Fund directly, visit lilithfund.org/donate.
Bowl-a-Thon (BAT) is an online fundraiser where supporters of abortion funds from all across the country raise money to provide financial assistance to people who can’t afford to pay for their abortions. This year, Lilith Fund is hosting BATs in five cities across our service area in Texas.
BAT demonstrates abortion funds’ grassroots power. In many ways, it is what drives our Fund community and brings us together. For some who are new to the intersections of economic injustice, racism, and bodily autonomy, it’s an important entryway into the reproductive justice movement as a whole. BAT isn’t just critical to our work, it is our work–it’s movement building, mobilization, a public awareness tool, and it quite literally enables us to provide direct assistance to clients year-round.
The momentum created through BAT kick starts an entire year of support for our organization and many others, but these cyber attacks are a direct threat to our mission of funding abortion and building power in Texas.
At Lilith Fund, we are going to work even harder to bring in money to make abortion funding possible, but it’s an uphill battle. Our beautiful movement doesn’t deserve this, and our clients certainly don’t, either. As former Lilith Fund President and NNAF staff member Lindsay Rodriguez said, “No matter your stance on this issue, this is a deeply wrong way to cut off healthcare access from people who need it. This is impactful—funds will help fewer people, maybe thousands fewer, across the country because of an interruption like this.”
These cyber attacks could be incredibly detrimental to the livelihood of many abortion funds whose budgets greatly depend on this annual peer-to-peer fundraiser. Before the attacks, Lilith Fund had raised about $53,000 through BAT. We needed to bring in about $1400 per day to reach our goal of $75,000 — and we were on path to meet that goal before the attacks. Since the BAT site has been taken down, unfortunately we have not seen the same level of support.
Many of our BAT participants are, understandably, waiting for the BAT site to come back up so they can continue advocating for this cause, but the time to act is now. We can’t let anti-choice bullies dictate how or when we should build support for abortion access in Texas, or let them attempt to cut off the funding sources that allow abortion funds to serve our clients.
Year-round, we work to break down barriers to safe abortion that were created by the anti-choice movement that has fueled these cyber attacks. We won’t be stopped. But we need your support now to show that no matter what these anti-choice hackers do, they will never shut us down. We will never stop fighting for reproductive justice. We will always be here for Texans who need support. Please donate to us at lilithfund.org/donate and help us reach our goal of $75,000 to make abortion accessible in Texas. We can’t do this alone.
Lilith Fund Board & Staff
