News

One Woman is Trying to Crowdfund Her Abortion

by Catie Keck
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images News/Getty Images

You've heard about people using Kickstarter to fund their rent checks and picnic side dishes, and now a Chicago woman named Bailey is trying to crowd fund her abortion. Bailey recently spoke to Vice about her attempts to fund the $2,500 procedure — her GoFundMe page, which has now been twice removed from the site, outlines her current circumstances and discusses her choice to have the operation. “Bailey is currently unemployed, completely broke, in debt, and in no position to hold down a job due to severe symptoms of a rough, unplanned and unexpected pregnancy,” the page said. Bailey is 23-years-old and, from what she says in her interview, in no position to be a mother. That is Bailey’s decision, and that is OK.

Crowdsourcing has yielded some pretty miraculous — as well as bewildering — results for people looking to fund projects or causes. You’ve no doubt watched your social media feeds flood with videos of people pouring water over themselves to raise awareness for Lou Gehrig's Disease (to the tune of $100 million), and you may have heard about that absurd campaign that managed to raise more than $55,000 for a potato salad recipe. (“Basically I'm just making potato salad. I haven't decided what kind yet,” the page read.) A few years ago I watched an acquaintance crowdsource on social media to raise enough money to buy a Metrocard after his was lost.

It seems perfectly reasonable, therefore, that a young woman who needs and cannot afford her abortion to utilize crowd-sourcing as a means. As with any other cause, if anyone takes offense, the reasonable thing to do would be forego donating in favor of minding one’s own business. After all, unplanned pregnancies occur even when engaging in sex responsibly (if you have not read Jenny Kutner’s essay on this topic, I very much recommend you do).

If anyone takes offense, the reasonable thing to do would be forego donating in favor of minding one’s own business.

In Bailey’s particular case, she tells Vice, her decision to crowd source the funds was also a matter of urgency, as her ultrasound revealed that she was already 20 weeks along and that her window to have the operation was narrowing quickly. Evidently her pregnancy thus far has been complicated and unimaginably painful.

Sometimes the pain is so bad that I can’t get out of bed, and I can’t go to the bathroom. When I cough, it feels like my organs being shredded inside of me. For a second, I was afraid it was ectopic, because that’s supposed to be incredibly painful, but it’s not. I don’t know if there’s any medical terms for what it is, but it’s difficult.

GoFundMe has evidently disabled Bailey’s donation page twice, the first time from complaints about “rewards” she and her boyfriend offered for donations, such as cleaning house and buying groceries. The second time, it seems, happened shortly after her interview with Vice. Naturally this seems very bizarre, if crowd-funding for a half-baked potato salad recipe can remain a worthy cause for donation.