Stories
Meet Alma
In 1999, the brand new Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund received its first call.
Seventeen-year-old Alma was living with her boyfriend in northeastern Massachusetts. Although Alma had MassHealth, there was no abortion provider on the North Shore who would accept it. Alma located a clinic in Boston that would take her MassHealth, but she simply did not have money she would need to pay for commuter rail tickets and two MBTA tokens.
Less than $20 stood between Alma and the abortion she needed.
Alma called the EMA Fund in the summer of 1999, bereft at the possibility of carrying a pregnancy to term simply because she didn’t have the money she needed to get to her appointment. The fledgling EMA Fund covered the cost of Alma’s transportation.
One woman got what she needed.
Meet Tamara
Tamara called the Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund in 2004. At the time she reached out to us, Tamara was dealing with several hardships at once. She had just lost her nursing job. Her sister had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Tamara and her longtime boyfriend were breaking up, and she would have to be out of their shared apartment within a week. When Tamara needed help paying for her abortion, the EMA Fund was there. She sent us a handwritten thank you card.
You gave me hope, she said. Maybe now I can get through the rest of this.
Meet Natacha
In 2007, Natacha and her father had recently immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti. Only 17, Natacha had been raped by a classmate. Natacha was afraid that her father wouldn’t believe her about the rape and knew that he would force her carry the pregnancy to term.
Natacha was determined to gain control over her own life, but Massachusetts law requires parental consent or permission of a judge before a minor can get an abortion. Language barriers and lack of knowledge about the U.S. legal system made things even harder.
In the end, Natacha waited until the day she turned 18, when she went to her local community health center for help in getting an abortion. Natacha needed to raise nearly $2,000.
With only 12 hours notice, the EMA Fund located the money Natacha needed.
Natacha got her abortion, and her chance.
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