Crowdfunding Site Won’t Let You Raise Money For Abortion

GoFundMe has deleted the abortion fundraising project pictured here.

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Earlier this week, the company shut down the campaign of an Illinois woman, Bailey, who was trying to raise money for an abortion that she could not afford out of pocket. According to her page, she 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.” GoFundMe sent Bailey an email saying that her campaign was cancelled because it contained “subject matter that GoFundMe would rather not be associated with” and because of the high volume of complaints the website had received about the page. When that email was sent on Friday afternoon, the company said they handled such complaints on a “case by case” basis. By Tuesday, the company had switched its policy to a full-on ban.

However, it is unclear how far this ban extends. While the company’s website says that content must not relate to abortion or “content associated with or relating to” it, a company spokesperson told ThinkProgress that “at this time, GoFundMe makes no distinction and places no restrictions on a pro-life or pro-choice group’s ability to fundraise for rallies or protests.” This raises the question about what exactly is considered to be related to abortion under the company’s new guidelines…

…with its new policy prohibiting money to go towards abortion, GoFundMe is putting the procedure on the same level as other types of banned content, such as “criminal defense funds relating to violent, hateful or sexual acts,” pages associated with terrorist groups, and pages that are related to “rebel groups, militias, gangs or any organized violence.” Meanwhile, GoFundMe has allowed a page raising money for Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot unarmed teen Mike Brown, to stay up since August 17.[su_csky_ad]

D.B. Hirsch

D.B. Hirsch is a political activist, news junkie, and retired ad copy writer and spin doctor. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.