CV NEWS FEED // The National Abortion Federation (NAF) has been forced to cut the monthly budget of its hotline in half because funding to directly finance abortions has declined since 2023, according to the nonprofit organization’s CEO, Brittany Fonteno.
Fonteno told Bloomberg journalist Kelsey Butler in a June 26 article that there is “less support and less funding,” despite NAF working with a higher number of women seeking abortions.
Fonteno’s comments about the decline in abortion funding come amid the Democratic National Committee’s recent pledge to spend over $8 million towards getting pro-abortion candidates elected.
News outlet Roll Call reported on June 24 that the multi-million dollar pledge is a 25% increase from the DNC’s same budget in 2020.
Butler reported for Bloomberg that in 2022 after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, donations to NAF increased by 135%. In 2023, donations fell by 40%.
NAF previously had a $6 million monthly budget that covered its hotline and abortion procedure expenses for women utilizing NAF. However, NAF has had to cut that monthly budget down to $3 million, Butler reported.
“We were forced to make this decision to ensure that we could really stretch our dollars and support as many patients as possible through the end of the year,” Foteno said.
From July 2022 to May 2023, NAF’s hotline helped cover travel costs for 982 flights, bus rides, and train rides for women seeking abortions, Butler reported, citing a June 2023 NAF news release.
According to the news release, in the same time frame, NAF helped pay for over 1,000 hotel rooms for women seeking abortions, which is a 195% increase from the year before, when NAF helped pay for 369 hotel rooms.
As CatholicVote previously reported in January, almost two-thirds of young voters in a poll expressed support of putting limits on abortion access.
The poll’s findings also conflicted with Democratic rhetoric moving into the election year that young voters are in support of unlimited abortion access, CatholicVote noted.
Students for Life of America and the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement conducted the poll, and stated in a news release that less than 10% of the young adult participants agreed with the Democratic party’s support of abortion up to birth without limits.
President Joe Biden has been running a pro-abortion reelection campaign, and also promised in his 2024 State of the Union address that he would support making Roe v Wade “the law of the land again”.
