every caller, every need.

take a look at how we have supported our callers, and the movement for abortion justice, in the year since the Dobbs decision – together.

We dream of a future where everyone has access to the healthcare they want, need, and deserve free of judgment and interference – and we are actively working towards that future, together. In the past year we unapologetically advocated for our callers' needs with lawmakers across all levels of government, mobilized thousands of pro-abortion champions in the streets of Chicago, and closed our first community-led research project to amplify the experiences and policy priorities of our grantees. We have been able to offer support to 100% of the people we reach on our helpline, without exclusionary means testing based on who they are, where they are from, or how much they make.

We can't thank you enough for standing alongside us in the movement for abortion justice. Your support has taken so many forms: sending generous donations, organizing fundraising events in your communities, having heart to heart conversations about abortion with loved ones, bringing your friends & families along to march in the streets for abortion access, and more.

Below, you'll find snapshots of a Year-in-Review, highlighting some of the amazing direct support, advocacy, research, and community building we accomplished together in this time of struggle. We know we are ready for another year of fighting for accessible, affordable abortion care for all with you by our side.

In gratitude, 

The Chicago Abortion Fund Staff

A Message From Our Staff

Group photo in which 11 CAF staff members stand together in 2 rows smiling

Meet Our Staff

  • Headshot of CAF’s Executive Director Megan Jeyifo (a person with tan skin and short hair) from chest up smiling in a blue blouse and round earrings

    Megan Jeyifo (she/her)

    EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

    “Everyone should be able to make decisions that are best for themselves and their families without interference. Helping to make those decisions a reality, and the community I get to do it with, brings me so much joy.”
    photo by Ally Almore

  • Headshot of CAF’s Deputy Director Qudsiyyah Shariyf (a Black person with curly hair) from chest up with two hands under their chin smiling in a green knitted top

    Qudsiyyah Shariyf (she/they)

    DEPUTY DIRECTOR

    “Abortion is freedom & finding home in our bodies is our birthright!”

    photo by Ally Almore

  • Headshot of CAF’s Movement Building Director Alicia (a white Latine person with split dye red and brown hair) from waist up smiling in a black T-shirt and a gold necklace

    Alicia Hurtado (they/she)

    MOVEMENT BUILDING DIRECTOR

    "Everyone deserves to have affirming, supportive people in their corner while accessing abortion care. Funding abortion is an act of love, and standing beside someone until they get the care they deserve – through every barrier – is an act of resistance."

    photo by Ally Almore

  • Headshot of CAF’s Operations Manager Danielle Grubb (a white person with purple hair and black glasses) from the chest up smiling in a blue denim shirt

    Danielle Grubb (she/her)

    OPERATIONS MANAGER

    "By funding abortion we are empowering people to make the decisions that are best for them. Bodily autonomy is a fundamental right, and access to abortion is an important part of that."
    photo by Ally Almore

  • CAF’s Operations Associate Annabelle Negron (a white person with brown hair) stands with a black turtleneck and vest smiling

    Annabelle Negron (she/her)

    OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE

    “I love funding abortion because I believe in safe, accessible, and supportive health care for anyone seeking it.”

  • Headshot of CAF’s Director of Services Meghan Daniel (a white person with short blonde hair) from the chest up smiling in a gray blazer and gold necklace

    Meghan Daniel (she/her)

    DIRECTOR OF SERVICES

    "Funding abortion is radical, meaningful, and necessary to meet people where they're at and co-create a supportive, loving abortion experience with them. Abortion is a community responsibility, and community is all we've got.”
    photo by Ally Almore

  • Headshot of CAF’s External Program Manager Olivia Dockery (a mixed, Black person with braids) from the chest up smiling in a casual blue top and gold necklace

    Olivia Dockery (she/her)

    EXTERNAL PROGRAM MANAGER

    “Everyone deserves the support to make the decisions they want about their bodies and lives. People should not have to navigate extreme barriers when accessing abortion. The love and care we give to our callers to make sure they feel supported on their abortion journey shows us that even under strenuous circumstances we know how to show up for our people.”

    photo by Ally Almore

  • Headshot of CAF’s internal program manager Vanessa Borjon (a tan, Latine person with brown hair and a tattoo on her chest) from the chest up smiling in a white tank top, pink cardigan, and a necklace with purple pendant heart

    Vanessa Borjon (she/her)

    INTERNAL PROGRAM MANAGER

    "Making access to abortion possible both financially and logistically is community care that exists outside of the state. Reproductive justice means the right to a life you dream of, however that may look!"
    photo by Ally Almore

  • CAF’s Support Coordinator Neve (a tan person with curly hair) smiles with a silver "Abortion" necklace and a black turtleneck

    Neve (she/her)

    SUPPORT COORDINATOR

    "Abortion is critical to our liberation, and nobody should have to navigate unnecessary barriers and stigma while seeking abortion care. It's a privilege to be able to show up for our callers, help them navigate the process, and wrap them in the love, support, and care that they deserve."

  • Headshot of CAF’s Support Coordinator SabriAnan (a black person with a shaved head and glasses) from chest up smiling in a navy sweater and a blue pendant necklace

    SabriAnan (they/them)

    SUPPORT COORDINATOR

    "I love funding abortion because everyone deserves to make the choice that is best for their body without having to worry about the cost! Healthcare should be affordable – and that includes abortions and all the related costs."

  • Close-up of pink tulip blossoms and purple lavender blossoms

    Audrey (they/them)

    SUPPORT COORDINATOR

    “Protecting people's rights to bodily autonomy is an act of community care and love!”

  • A portrait photo in vintage style of CAF’s Support Coordinator Lucy (a white person with short bangs) looking up to the up left corner and smiling in a tank top

    Lucy (she/they)

    SUPPORT COORDINATOR

    “I love funding abortion because it's such a tangible way to support people in living in their own power. It's a huge honor to work alongside people as they make decisions about when, where, and how they want to receive abortion care – and then supporting in making those ideas a reality. It's such a powerful way to say ‘I love you, I trust you, and I’m here for you.’”

  • CAF’s Support Coordinator Ezra smiling and wearing a pink tie-dye shirt

    Ezra (he/him)

    SUPPORT COORDINATOR

    “Abortion access is essential. People face so many harsh barriers trying to access their care. And everyone seeking an abortion deserves to be met with affirming care and compassion, and deserves the support to make their own decision for what is best for themselves.”

  • Headshot of CAF’s Lead Researcher Aalap Ooha Bommeraju (a brown, Southeast Asian person with curly hair) from chest up smiling in a black outfit

    Aalap Ooha Bommeraju (they/them)

    LEAD RESEARCHER

    "I love funding abortion because my dissertation research has illustrated empirically that funding abortion does, in fact, build power."

    photo by Ally Almore

  • Headshot of CAF’s Researcher and Creative Consultant Joanna Preston (a mixed, Black person with curly hair) from chest up sitting on a white bench smiling in a navy jacket

    Joanna Preston (they/she)

    RESEARCHER & CREATIVE CONSULTANT

    "A healthy future includes bodily autonomy for all people."

Board of Directors

Chitra Panjabi, Chair
Victoria Torres-Garcia, Treasurer
Hannah Lee, Secretary
Ana Aguilera
Tory deMartelly
Lara Haddadin
Kheira Issaoui-Mansouri
Mattia Katz
Aileen Kim
Janeen Lee
Rabiah Mayas
Alyssa Stenson
Christina Uzzo
Suz Warshell

Helpline Volunteers

Aalap, Abigail, Ashlee, Caroline, Dominique, Dani, Emma G., Emma S., Hailey, Jessie, Joanna, Julia, Katherine D., Katherine J., Kati, Krystal Kara, Louisa, Logan, Lydia, Madeline, Michelle, Rabiah, Radia, Ruthie, Sahar, Samantha

Movement Building Cohort Volunteers

Laura, Tecora, Alicja, Jayme, Michelle, Logan, Ashlee, Diana, Connie, Alexa, Julia, Callie, Alyssa, Tonya, Allison, Sara, Tenzin, Karen, Amy, Sindu, Zelene, Annie, Maya, Ryan, Abby

Volunteers

Our Helpline Program

Where most of our callers are based Post-Dobbs (June 24, 2022-June 2023)

Where most of our callers were based Pre-Dobbs

Where most of our callers are accessing care Post-Dobbs

Our helpline is our largest program at CAF – and this year we supported historic numbers of people in accessing abortion care – regardless of who they are, how much money they make, or what zip code they happen to live in – to meet the growing needs of a post-Roe world. We want to especially acknowledge our volunteer helpline team members, over 25 people who support our work and connect callers to the care they deserve alongside our staff.

  • Expansive Service Area

    • CAF has working relationships with over 75 clinics, telehealth providers, and hospital-based abortion providers across 12 states. We also have deep partnerships with the abortion funds in our region, and are connected with over 100 funds nationwide via the National Network of Abortion Funds. This flexibility is critical, as the over 10,000 people who have reached out to us in the past year came from 40+ states, two U.S. territories, and four other countries.

  • Funding Abortion + Wrap-Around Support

    • Since the fall of Roe we have offered support to every person that we reached on our helpline. We have fielded over 10,000 requests for support. We are on track to spend close to $3 million to directly go towards appointment costs and related wrap-around supports. Our average pledge of $174 pre-Dobbs has stood at $425 this calendar year. In the past year, our lowest pledge was $20 and our highest was $10,940. We expanded our Programs staff from two in June 2022 to ten in June of 2023 to meet increased volume and case complexity as we field between 250-325 support requests each week.

    • In addition to abortion funding, CAF offers wrap-around support. This is anything that our callers need to make it to their appointments outside of medical costs: meal and gas stipends; planes, train and bus tickets; lodging; coordinating and providing childcare with our partners at the Chicago Childcare Collective, and/or deliveries of new clothes, pads, or other necessities. The need for this type of flexible and holistic support increased drastically post-Roe. For context, in the year before Roe fell, we supported 442 people with wrap-around support. In the last year, post-Dobbs, we have supported over 3,100.

  • Hospital Based Care

    • Chicago is a hub for hospital-based care, serving the Midwest and much of the South. People with complex medical needs face unique barriers to accessing abortion care, and these barriers can be even greater for those forced to cross state lines. Navigating hospital-based care is not an easy task, especially when the need is identified only after someone has gone to their initial appointment at an abortion clinic.

    • Hospital-based care also comes with extremely high costs: this year, we've pledged an average of $2,500 for appointment costs for each hospital-based case, with an additional average cost of $650 for those with travel and logistical needs. CAF has been working with hospital-based care partners at Rush University Medical Center, University of Illinois Health, Northwestern University, and the University of Chicago to develop a consultation and patient navigation center called CARLA. CARLA Nurse coordinators will support with medical intake, scheduling and coordination with hospitals, and with connecting people to CAF's financial, logistical, and emotional support.

A man carries a young child on his back, and many people are carrying signs that say "abortion justice now" or "I love someone who had an abortion" at the Families for Abortion Access March & Rally on 7/4/22

Our Movement Building Program

Legislative Work

  • Celebrated the end of Parental Notice of Abortion in June of 2022

  • Rapidly spent a $250K grant from the City of Chicago’s 2022 Justice for All Pledge to support the influx people accessing abortion care in Chicago. This grant was renewed in 2023.

  • Supported in writing bill language for the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, a federal bill that aims to provide financial assistance to those who travel to receive reproductive health care

  • Supported the creation and advancement of two ordinances passed by the Chicago City Council – the Bodily Autonomy Sanctuary Ordinance and the Chicago Abortion Clinic Defense Fund – that seek to prevent the collaboration of city law enforcement with states pursuing charges against people who access gender affirming or abortion healthcare in the city of Chicago, and to provide resources to organizations protecting clinics on-the-ground

  • Met with lawmakers to advocate for the EACH Act – an ongoing piece of federal legislation to end the Hyde Amendment, secure Medicaid coverage of abortion nationwide, and support broader insurance coverage of abortion at the same rate of pregnancy-related care

  • Celebrated the passage of the Patient and Provider Protection Act – the first proactive piece of abortion legislation in the country post-Dobbs. This bill protects people seeking abortion or gender affirming care and their providers that are based in, or travel to, the state of Illinois. The bill also increases access to abortion care, gender affirming care, assisted reproduction, contraceptives, and PEP/PrEP

  • Mobilized hundreds of people to submit witness slips, and included our own caller testimonies to pass Senate Bill 1909, a bill that creates a mechanism for the Illinois Attorney General to bring legal action against anti-abortion fake “clinics” for deceiving and misinforming pregnant people. The bill is currently awaiting the Governor’s signature

  • Worked with partners at the City and State to hereby declare March 10th Abortion Provider Appreciation Day in Chicago and in Illinois

  • Met with newly inaugurated Chicago alderpeople in June 2023 to brief them on the state of abortion access in Illinois and Chicago with partners at Personal PAC and Planned Parenthood Illinois Action

Movement Building

  • Facilitated a conversation on abortion access between Vice President Kamala Harris and elected officials, movement leaders, student activists, and healthcare providers across the City and State

  • Onboarded 30 volunteers for an inaugural Movement Building Cohort to focus on mutual aid, political education, and fundraising projects, and hired a full-time Movement Building Director to lead grassroots and legislative organizing initiatives

  • Organized the only post-Roe mass mobilization on the South Side of Chicago with community partners at Kido, and saw a turnout of 2,000+

  • Co-led a Twitter Power Hour and served as an action community partner for All* Above All’s BOLD AF, UNITED AF: Hyde Anniversary week of action, marking 44 years of Congress imposing the harmful Hyde Amendment on our communities

  • Took leadership roles within coalitions of Illinois and Chicago-based repro organizations to plan, promote, secure speakers for, and/or MC three mass mobilizations in Downtown Chicago with tens of thousands of attendees in total

  • Raised over $240K for our annual Fund-A-Thon in 2023, empowering 176 individual fundraisers and 33 fundraising teams to talk about abortion in their communities & encourage people in their lives to support abortion access

See more (and photos!) in the Photo Year-In-Review!

Several young people and parents hold a banner that says "Support Abortion Funds from Texas to Illinois" at the Families for Abortion Access Rally and March on 7/4/22
Meghan (a white woman with a blonde bob) and her fried (a white person who has brown hair and his holding a sign that says "Hope is A Discipline") march at the Decision Day rally on 6/25/22. They are both wearing CAF shirts and black KN95 masks
Alicia (a person with split dye brown and red hair) stands behind a podium with other advocates and elected officials at a press conference ahead of the Bodily Autonomy and Sanctuary City Act in Chicago's City Hall
Olivia (a lightskinned mixed woman with an afro), Jo (a light skinned mixed person with an afro puff), and Alexis (a darkskinned Black person with red locks) present in front of a projected image of our Shaping Change Zine cover

Our WESearch Program

  • Completed our flagship Shaping Change Study, a qualitative analysis of 99 of our callers experiences accessing abortion care in Illinois during the pandemic

  • Produced a zine presenting the findings of the above study, “Shaping Change: 99 Steps Towards Justice,” that was released at a celebration in partnership with the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry at the University of Chicago. Read the digital copy, as published in Portable Gray, here.

  • Conducted interviews with members of the CAF community on the question “What does Reproductive Justice Mean to You?”, and produced a short video of the answers

  • Partnered with Ibis Reproductive Health to aid with analysis and participant recruitment for their IMAP project, a longitudinal study of Indiana callers barriers to accessing abortion care

  • Completed a qualitative analysis of case managers' approach to abortion wayfinding and the nature of care work on our helpline

  • Provided our expertise on multiple panels discussing the impact of both private and public insurance coverage of abortion care

  • Facilitated workshops with Ci3 at the University of Chicago, exploring preferred consumer experiences for medication abortion care delivery in a community health care setting given recent changes to mifepristone regulations

  • Participated in preliminary discussions with academics and movement leaders in Washington D.C. to discuss the strategic implications of research exploring over-the-counter medication abortion pills

Aalap Ooha (a brown-skinned South Asian person with a curly mullet) interviews Trisha (a CAF volunteer who is a South Asian person with light brown skin). They are sitting outside with a boom mic and a camera
Qudsiyyah (a Black person with curly black hair and glasses) is in Federal Plaza on live television. The ticker reads "Breaking News Roe v. Wade Overturned; Federal Plaza, Adams & Dearborn"

CAF in the News

Throughout this year, we advocated for our callers, spoke about the movement, and highlighted the work of abortion funds in articles, podcasts, and news segments. Below, we've featured some of our favorite pieces from the last year: 

Megan (a tan woman with short brown hair) and Qudsiyyah (a mixed, Black person with a curly afro puff) talk to a PBS News Hour reporter (a blonde white woman) around a dining table.
A hairpin that reads "Abortion" clipped into a brunette ponytail

Our Collaborators

Our work cannot happen in isolation. We collaborate with regional and national abortion providers, abortion funds, and advocacy organizations to support our callers and build our movement. These existing networks hold deep expertise in abortion access – and are even more crucial as more people must travel for care. This list is non-exhaustive – we work with over 75 clinics, Telehealth providers, and hospitals across 12 states; are in network with over 100 abortion funds nationwide, and are connected several to robust coalitions – but we wanted to name and appreciate some of our most regular collaborators.

Awards and Honors

Organizational Awards

2023 Donald F. Erickson Synapses Award recipient from Crossroads Fund

2022 Lucy Gonzales Parsons Award for Community Organizing recipient from Chicago DSA

Chicago Mayoral Medal of Honor

Staff Honors

City of Chicago Women’s History Month Honorees: Executive Director Megan Jeyifo

Chicago Magazine Chicagoan of the Year: CAF Executive Director Megan Jeyifo

Thank You to our Donors & Grantee Notes

Each donation to CAF goes directly towards getting people to the abortion care they want, need, & deserve – and working towards a reality where everyone has access to affirming, affordable abortion care in their communities. We could not do our work without the generosity of our donors– big and small. Thank you.

Major Funders of 2022

Amalgamated Charitable Foundation | Anonymous | Anonymous | Anonymous | Argosy Foundation | Charter Oak Foundation | Chicago Foundation for Women | City of Chicago | Conant Foundation | Crossroads Fund | Digital Defense Fund | Equality Illinois | Ford Foundation | Frank E. Rubovits Fund and Michael Reese Health Trust | George and Cindy Rusu Family Foundation | Grant Healthcare | Hasenbalg-Gorouhi Charitable Giving Fund | Irving Harris Foundation | JarMar Giving Fund | Lefkofsky Family Foundation | Love On The Menu via The Abundance Setting | Masson Family Fund | National Network of Abortion Funds | Paul M. Angell Foundation | Planned Parenthood of Illinois | Polk Brothers Foundation | Prentice Foundation | Sara & Two C-Dogs Foundation | Sparkjoy Foundation | Squared Impact Fund | Summer Oaks Fund | UIC School of Public Health MCH Gift Fund | The Vermont Community Foundation | Vivo Foundation | Whirled Peas Foundation

Notes From Our Grantees
Alt text included for accessibility

Handwritten note: "Thank you so much. This has all been so hard and your help made it a little easier with Christmas around the corner and my 3 little ones I provide for."
Handwritten note: "Thank you so much. I couldn't have got my life back without this. Grateful of how kind everyone is! [drawing of a heart]"
Handwritten note: "I really appreciate you guys! The staff here are really nice, and is making my situation much easier to process for me. Thank you!"
Handwritten note: "Thank you so much. I came in very nervous I had a possibility of being turned away. Forever grateful [drawing of a heart]"
Handwritten note: "I would like to thank everyone who helped me through this. The support and assistance has been beyond amazing and everyone has been really understanding and kind. Thank you so much!"
Handwritten note: "Thank you so much for giving me a choice. I will continue to advocate for people like myself who needed more time [drawing of a heart]"

Partner Testimonials

  • Jonah Fleisher, Abortion Provider

    “CAF is a lifeline for my patients who need abortion care in a hospital. Without support, few of my patients could afford their hospital medical care, let alone the many other wraparound costs. Beyond that, the CAF case managers are phenomenal human beings who support my patients' emotional needs as they navigate the complex path toward getting an abortion, while busting stigma all along the way. CAF is amazing, and I just couldn't provide the clinical care that I do without them.”

    – Jonah Fleisher, MD MPH FACOG

  • Nebraska Abortion Resources Fund

    “NEAR is eternally grateful for CAF stepping up and providing us with the capacity to serve our callers in a timely manner. Without CAF doing our caller interactions and intakes we would struggle to find an intentional, responsive, and trauma informed process to get folks the resources they need to access care. CAF’s ability to have staff that are dedicated not only to our callers but also to collecting, synthesizing and sharing our data has been instrumental to our success as a new and smaller fund.”

    – Chelsea Souder, NEAR Founder

  • Family Planning Associates Clinic

    “In the year since the Dobbs Decision was announced, FPA has seen patients from 33 states outside of Illinois. Without support from CAF, many of these patients would not have been able to access abortion care outside of their home state. We know from having participated in the Turnaway Study, and working with thousands of patients every year, how devastating and life altering being denied abortion care is for patients and their families. CAF provides patients essential financial help yes, but there is also an emotional component which is equally important, because patients come away from their abortion experience feeling validated and supported. CAF helps to chip away at the stigma that the Dobbs decision and state abortion bans perpetuate, one patient at a time.” Katy Rabbitt Phipps, Director of Business Operations, Family Planning Associates

  • Kentucky Health Justice Network

    "Since the Dobbs decision, we have worked with our sibling funds like never before to meet the growing demand for funding and practical support needs. Our partnership with Chicago Abortion Fund has been pivotal in ensuring Kentuckians have support for their abortions. CAF embodies the principle of solidarity; we have all felt the effect of how abortion bans have impacted our communities. Thanks to CAF, we have the capacity for a more intentional approach to wrap-around support for our callers. We appreciate their leadership, vision, and compassion for folks in Kentucky and beyond." – Savannah Trebuna, Abortion Support Fund Program Co-Director, Kentucky Health Justice Network

  • Louisiana Abortion Fund

    "I personally, and I think the organization as well, am stunned by the amount of support CAF has been able to provide to folks from our service region. I am really grateful for what you do and especially what you do to support folks traveling from the South." – Merritt Rebouche, Director of Client Services, Louisiana Abortion Fund (Formerly NOAF)

  • Women's Aid Center Clinic

    “Thank you, CAF for: all of your sincere support, enduring time, unconditional effort! You are our HERO!!” – Larisa R., Director, Women’s Aid Center

Year-In-Review

Qudsiyyah, CAF's Deputy Director, signs a placard with the Justice for All Pledge amidst the former Mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot and other advocates.

On May 9th, after the Dobbs decision was leaked, we attended the signing of the Justice for All Pledge – a commitment from the City of Chicago to invest $500K into increasing abortion access to reproductive healthcare. CAF would go on to be one of two recipients of this critical investment. Since then, we have quickly spent the full $250K award breaking down barriers for Chicagoans, Illinoisans, and people traveling from across the country to access abortion care in the city of Chicago; this grant was renewed in 2023.

Alicia, CAF's Movement Building Manager is speaking to a crowd at Federal Plaza, and CAF community members and supporters hold a banner that says 'Support Abortion Funds from TX to IL!"

On June 24, 2022 – the day that Roe fell – CAF staff, board members, and volunteers spread out to attend press conferences, interviews, and a massive rally and march with thousands of abortion access supporters in the streets of Downtown Chicago. We also reached back out to each of the 60 people who called us that day for assistance, and continued to support the people who we had already connected with – some of whom were facing immediate trigger bans that blocked them from their original appointments. 

People march with pro-abortion signs and a banner reading "Families for Abortion Access" on MLK Drive in Bronzeville. CAF ED Megan and Kido Founder Keewa address the crowd holding microphones. A child and their parent color on a sign with crayons.

On 'Independence Day' in July, we teamed up with Kido for a specifically family-focused march & rally on Chicago's South Side to imagine a future with true independence and bodily autonomy. Over two thousand children, parents, and community members showed up to support abortion access – with tunes from DJ Cash Era, merch from Kido, snacks from Stephanie Izard and Rogers Park Food not Bombs, and safety support from Indivisible Chicago. We created a space for all ages, all genders, and all voices to speak up for reproductive freedom.

CAF Board member Chitra and staff member Alicia stand with lawmakers and advocates at two press conferences surrounding the introduction and passage of the Bodily Autonomy and Sanctuary City Act.

This summer we helped write bill language for the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act, a federal bill that aimed to provide grant assistance to those who travel to receive reproductive health care. We also supported the crafting and passage of two ordinances that passed in the Chicago City Council in July – the Bodily Autonomy Sanctuary Ordinance and the Chicago Abortion Clinic Defense Fund. These initiatives seek to prevent the collaboration of city law enforcement with states pursuing charges against people who have transgressed restrictive laws regarding gender affirming or abortion healthcare by traveling (or aiding someone who is traveling) to the city of Chicago for care, and to provide resources to organizations protecting abortion access on the ground.

July 17th through 23rd, we celebrated the first ever Abortion Funder Appreciation Week, recognizing the love, care, and commitment of our helpline staff and volunteers in an extremely chaotic time. We not only uplifted our CAF community, but we also sent graphics and notes of support to our sibling abortion funds.

Collage or CAF Fundraisers: a signed benefit dinner menu, three people wearing "it's my body and I'll do what I want to" shirts, abortion-themed cookies, a person posing with a pizza, two people screen printing a shirt, a person playing a red guitar

All year, but particularly in this post-Roe era, our community has banded together to fund abortions for people across the Midwest and beyond. While it is impossible to name them all, we wanted to acknowledge and thank everyone who mobilized their communities this year, organizing bake sale pop-ups, benefit concerts, pizza parties, chef-driven dinners, house parties, art raffles, t-shirt sales, small business fundraisers, or monthly dice nights. Our work would be impossible without grassroots support from unapologetic abortion access supporters – folks who put their resources towards getting people seeking abortion to the care they want, need, and deserve.

Images of CAF staff Megan and Alicia with state and city elected officials, other advocates, and VP Harris

On September 16th, Executive Director Megan Jeyifo moderated a roundtable featuring Vice President Kamala Harris, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul, U.S. Congressman Danny Davis, and former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. After initial remarks in front of the press, CAF and other Chicago reproductive health providers, organizers, and advocates entered a closed session to share our work and our policy concerns with these leaders.

CAF staff, volunteers, and friends outside at Antique Taco and Build Coffee

In September, we participated in the national Taco or Bev Challenge and called on our supporters to "taco-bout" abortion in their communities, donate to their local abortion funds, and host house parties with their communities to gather and support abortion access. This year, we partnered with four Chicago businesses across the city – Antique Taco, Moneygun, Build Coffee, and The Native – who each hosted a taco- or beverage-themed promotion with proceeds going to CAF during the month of September. 

In October, we released the findings from our Shaping Change study with a zine release party at the Stony Island Arts Bank in partnership with the Gray Center for Arts and Inquiry. This study, spearheaded by CAF's WEsearch Department, is a qualitative analysis of 99 of our callers' experiences accessing abortion care in Illinois during the pandemic. Through this groundbreaking research, we compiled concrete policy priorities from our grantees, were able to compensate each interviewee for their expertise, and built a strong team of community-based Reproductive Justice researchers. We hope to use this experience to help us continue to foreground our callers' experiences and to build out a more robust follow-up program.

The 2022 Chicagoan of the Year recipients seated, watching the program; Megan and three CAF staff members smiling and laughing at the reception

In December, CAF Executive Director Megan Jeyifo was named a 2022 Chicago Magazine Chicagoan of the year, and celebrated the honor with friends, CAF staff members, past recipients, and the four other trailblazing Chicagoans. In her acceptance speech, Megan closed with a sentiment of hope:

"It's a privilege to do this work that's so close to my heart. Abortion is common, essential healthcare, and it is under attack right now. It has been under attack for a long time. But when we publicly affirm people who had abortions – people like me – and when we unapologetically advocate for abortion access for all people, we change culture. And that will help us win."

In February and March we met with U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky and Senator Tammy Duckworth to speak to them about our work, and to ask them to sign onto The Abortion Justice Pledge. The pledge is based on the All* Action Plan for Abortion Justice and demonstrates these elected officials’ leadership and commitment to policies that ensure abortion care is affordable, available, and accessible.

On February 10th, CAF volunteers tabled at the Yollocalli annual Anti-Valentines Day Party, where they talked to hundreds of young people about abortion, collected anonymous Q&A submissions, and distributed goodies (including free Plan B)!

While we celebrate abortion providers all day every day, this year we were proud to work with our state and city partners to have Abortion Provider Appreciation Day officially recognized both at the state and city level on March 10th. To mark the first official celebration, we met with abortion providers, city officials, and former members of the Jane Collective at City Hall, and received our own copy of the state proclamation. The CAF team also sent lunch and snacks to providers in Chicago, Illinois, New Mexico and Washington, D.C. 

Throughout March, members of our Movement Building Cohort created curriculum for a community teach-in entitled ”Unapologetically Pro-Abortion: A Workshop on Reproductive Justice & Busting Abortion Stigma.” The teach-in was facilitated in-person and virtually to over 50 participants, who engaged in heart-to-heart abortion conversations, learned about the connections between abortion justice and reproductive justice, and reflected on how to talk about abortion free of stigma and shame.

On March 21st, we joined our partner Chicago For Abortion Rights to speak at a press conference and counterprotest in Springfield as anti-abortion protesters gathered at our state’s capital for their so-called March for “Life.” Alicia, who spoke on behalf of CAF, opened by stating:

I am proud to be pro-abortion. I am proud to be pro-abortion because I know that abortion access means liberation. Abortion access means autonomy and freedom. Abortion means caring for your body, centering yourself and your needs. It means accessing basic healthcare. Because abortion is safe, common, necessary healthcare, and everyone deserves access to the healthcare they want and need. Period. 

On January 13th, 2023 we spoke at the signing of the Patient and Provider Protection Act into law, the first proactive abortion justice bill post-Dobbs. The bill increases access to birth control & PEP and PrEP, and aims to protect individuals seeking abortions, assisted reproductive technology, and gender affirming care in Illinois, even if they are coming from states where these procedures are banned, restricted, or otherwise criminalized. This was a huge step that further cements Illinois’ status as an access point for many types of reproductive health care.

In April, we responded to the legal attacks by anti-abortion extremists on mifepristone – a drug with a 20 year track record as a safe, effective option to end an early pregnancy. We attended a press conference with Chicago For Abortion Rights, Gay Liberation Network, and Planned Parenthood of Illinois; shared remarks for a Chicago for Abortion Rights protest at Federal Plaza; and spent the month coordinating state allies with our independent clinic partners to prepare for the worst case outcome. The fate of mifepristone is still being settled through the courts.

In April and May, we mobilized hundreds of people across Illinois to submit witness slips for SB1909, a bill that will create a mechanism for the Illinois Attorney General to bring legal action against Crisis Pregnancy Centers (A.K.A. anti-abortion clinics that lure people seeking abortion through their doors) for deceiving and misinforming pregnant people. We also supported Senator Villanueva in preparing for debate on the Illinois Senate floor, where she shared stories of several CAF callers who had been harmed and/or deceived by fake abortion clinics in her closing remarks. To celebrate the passage of this initiative, we joined Reproductive Transparency Now and gave remarks at their action in front of Women’s Aid Center, a fake abortion clinic downtown. SB1909 currently awaits Governor J.B. Pritzker’s signature.

In March through May, an amazing team of staff and volunteers planned and hosted our most successful Fund-A-Thon yet! The Fund-A-Thon is the largest nationwide peer-to-peer fundraiser for abortion funds, and also serves as a moment for community building and political education. Through screen printing pop-ups, bake sales, Twitch streams, custom merch giveaways, heart-to-heart conversations about abortion, and more; our 173 grassroots fundraisers went into their communities and raised over $240K for abortion access. We celebrated our collective accomplishments with a gathering at Lo Rez Brewery & Taproom, complete with food, drinks, raffle items, a DJ set from Rae Chardonnay, and more!

On June 21st, we celebrated the release of our zine, “Shaping Change: 99 Steps Towards Justice” in the Family Issue of Portable Gray. This affirms two things that we know to be true: (1) abortion access is a family issue, and (2) that our helpline staff and callers hold deep expertise on the current abortion access landscape that is worthy of (but not defined by) academic attention. The celebration was part of Shred the Shed, a pop-up skate park with food, drinks, and an incredible DJ lineup, at the Salt Shed, and CAF Executive Director Megan recorded a live podcast with Bad At Sports at the event. In the afterword of this publication of the zine, Megan shares this quote:

I realize I don’t know very much. None of us knows very much. But we can all learn more. Then we can teach one another. We can stop denying reality or hoping it will go away by magic.

—Octavia Butler,Parable of the Sower