Moiv works in a women's reproductive health clinic in Texas. Since the Katrina disaster, her clinic -- and all reproductive and women's health clinics in the entire region -- have been overwhelmed as evacuees have flooded the area. Though they are without homes, they are in need of medical care all the same.

It's a long post that tells the story you never see in the news. But I'm going to cut to the chase:

This morning at the clinic I was paged to the phone to take a call that meant bad news for any low-income woman in this very large state who needs an abortion. Because of the huge additional burdens on its resources since the first part of September, the Lilith Fund has been completely wiped out and will no longer be able to offer help to any woman in Texas for at least the next one to two months. Nothing like this has ever happened before, because the Lilith Fund is a well-managed and extremely responsible organization, but providing care for the women of Katrina has overwhelmed us all, funders and providers alike.

The need of women who are faced with rebuilding their entire lives is tremendous, and the response of the pro-choice community has been remarkable. In Arkansas, a state with fewer evacuees, Dr. Jerry Edwards and Dr. William Harrison are offering abortion care without charge to women displaced by Katrina—and quite predictably have been condemned for it by all the usual suspects. But in the much more highly populated metropolitan areas of Texas, the need has outpaced our ability to provide services to all the women who need us, even at reduced fees. That’s what we get for having kept the regular cost of abortion care so low that, as a colleague in Louisiana often says, we seem to be producing quality medical care out of thin air.

The few national funding groups that usually can assist women in any part of the country now are so depleted that they are unable to help almost anyone but Katrina victims, and the Lilith Fund—which together with the TEA Fund has carried most of the burden here in Texas from the beginning--has been hit so hard during the last couple of months that it can no longer help anyone at all.

And there are so many women who need that help.

Financial support is needed. Here are the links:

The Lilith Fund

The Texas Equal Access Fund

And what kind of people are thinking about abortion in this trying time for the region? Gretchen Dyer of the TEA Fund tells us.

When Tracy called, she had the curtains closed and the door bolted. She spoke in a low whisper that made it hard to understand her. She was hiding in her apartment with her two children because her ex-boyfriend had threatened to kill her. When she'd contacted the police, they'd informed her that he was a known criminal and advised her to get as far away from him as possible.

This was good advice. The problem was, Tracy was a struggling single mother with no savings, no place to go and no one to protect her. She was also pregnant.

Tracy couldn't manage another child on her own, and she didn't want to bear the man's child or have any further connection to him. So she'd decided to have an abortion. For her, this was more than a choice. It was a chance to survive, to start over and make a safe life for herself and her children.

I speak to dozens of women in difficult situations every week, some more desperate than Tracy's. Most are single mothers working low-wage jobs that don't pay enough to support their families. Some are victims of rape or incest, women on the run from domestic abuse, women with serious health problems or teenagers trying to finish high school and keep from getting thrown out of their homes because they're pregnant.

Last week Charlene called. A few months out of treatment for methadone addiction and only a few days out of a homeless shelter, she's trying to get her life back together. Her child is about to start school, and she's looking for a job. Another baby right now will put her simple goals out of reach.

And then there was Louise, a single mother of two with breast cancer. She was too sick to work, had no medical insurance and had used up her savings on medical bills. The doctor advised her that the pregnancy was life-threatening for her and the radiation treatments an unacceptable risk to the fetus. The decision to abort was a life-and-death decision for her and for her two children who need her. It was a whole lot more than a choice.

Women like Tracy, Charlene and Louise need your help. Please consider giving.

About author

media girl also blogs at other places.