A Call To Arms

If you're not already well versed in the travesty that happened to Biting Beaver, click here to read her story and here to read the consequences.

Long story short: an adult woman with several children in a committed relationship was not able to obtain emergency contraception in time (due to some serious backwards actions on the part of several doctors and nurses) and became pregnant against her will. Now she must pay for an abortion she really can't afford.

Reading about this seriously infuriated me, but I was also heartened that pretty much every thread I read about this story on contained information about how to lend Biting Beaver a financial hand.

What they say about tragedy brining out the worst in people *and* the best in people as usual proved true.

(To give to Biting Beaver, click here . Let's help out one of our own.)

But it got me thinking, as all of the feminist blogtopia (y!sctp!), including me once again devolved into an endless debate about "fun." What about the countless women who must have shared Biting Beaver's experiences who *don't* have all of blogtopia behind them?

At the Pandagon thread about this, Amanda linked to this charity, The National Network of Abortion Funds. And of course there's Planned Parenthood. What I'd like to do is to rally the feminist blogtopia around not only Biting Beaver, but around all women needing reproductive care (well, let's not euphemize, needing *abortions*) who can't afford it.

The average cost of an abortion in the United States is 468 dollars. Somewhere, there is a woman in need of this money who doesn't have it.

Let's see if we can get together and raise this amount, either by giving to Biting Beaver, the National Network of Abortion Funds or to Planned Parenthood. Please leave to amount you donated or pledge to donate in the comments (or if you've already donated, leave that amount).

And if you prefer to remain anonymous, that's cool. You can even email me your pledge.

Even if you can only donate a dollar, please do. (I know I've taken to paying bills with credit cards since going back to school and having a baby. I'm so broke I'm broken! So poor I'm po!) And if you can't donate anything, please at least spread the word either on your own blog, or if you don't have one, amongst your friends.

Let's demonstrate that feminist blogtopia is about more than infighting about clothes and shoes and waxing and whatnot. Let's demonstrate what we can do when we unite.

Again, here are the links:

Biting Beaver (and her blog, here.)
The National Network of Abortion Funds
Planned Parenthood

I'll be tallying the amounts as they come in. The first especially generous donation wins a free t-shirt of choice from either the Plucky Shop or the Aelthing Shop.

So that's my call to arms. Let's see what happens.

**update** The lovely John Goff starts us off with 25 dollars total. Just 443 dollars to go!

And Haloscan appears to be down. Nice. If comments aren't working, please just email me your pledge.

**update** Haloscan seems to have calmed down. Good.

Also, please no comments about the pros and cons of abortion. If the need arises, I'll put up a thread where this can be discussed.

And now we're at 45 dollars! 403 dollars to go!

**update** Thanks to everyone (and some anonymous donors) we're a whole *95 dollars* over the mark! Wow, I honestly didn't expect that to happen in a DAY! I'm totally impressed.

And super-thanks to Zvoruna for the first extra-generous donation. She wins a t-shirt.

**UPDATE** I'd like to see if maybe we could hit the target twice. So far it's at 105 over...let's see if it will happen again.

**UPDATE** Now we're at 155! Thank you, anonymous donor!

**UPDATE** We're at 180! Just 288 to go to hit the target TWICE!

**UPDATE** 200! Thanks to a donation from bluemeanie! Just 268 to go!

**UPDATE** Woot! Thanks to you guys we're down to 73 dollars!

(I think I converted pounds to dollars right...70 pounds is 130 dollars?)

**UPDATE** Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been a busy few days.

But now, if I've counted right, we've definitely doubled and reached a total of 1,423 dollars! That's a little over three hypothetical (or really, Biting Beaver's real one and two hypothetical) women we've helped secure the reproductive freedom for.

**UPDTATE** And the final tally (drum roll...) 1,458 dollars! (Barring any stragglers.) Thank you so much everyone for making this happen.