News broke this week that Go Fund Me, the popular crowd-sourcing site, bans all funding projects for any pro-choice campaigns, but accepts pro-life campaigns. I hope you will join me in the following pledge.
I will not contribute to any GoFundMe campaigns started after 9/9/14 until they treat abortion the same way they treat all other personal medical procedures.
I have contributed to many campaigns in the past, including just last week (funeral expenses for an unexpected death). I watched as the Darren Wilson GoFundMe campaigns soared into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, as the campaign profited off of racists (based on the many comments on the pages before they were deleted). Still, I didn't want to NOT be able to help good people in genuine need when they used the site, so I held off from boycotts.
This week, another story broke. GoFundMe refuses to let any abortion-related campaigns start - not to fund abortion, not to fund pro-choice messaging. Pro-life groups though; they're fine.
Salon has the story.
Last week, crowdfunding platform GoFundMe pulled a campaign to raise money for an Illinois woman’s abortion. In a message to the woman, identified only as Bailey, GoFundMe said that the fundraiser was not “appropriate” for the site because it contained “subject matter that GoFundMe would rather not be associated with.” In an earlier comment to Salon on its decision to shutdown the campaign, a “customer happiness” representative said that each review is handled on a “case-by-case basis” and, “In this particular case, GoFundMe determined that the fundraising campaign titled ‘Bailey’s Abortion Fund’ would be removed from the site.”
But as of this week, the site will no longer handle campaigns to fund abortion on a case-by-case basis. According to GoFundMe’s updated guidelines (“What’s Not Allowed on GoFundMe“), abortion fundraisers are banned without exception. In addition to prohibiting crowdfunded abortion campaigns, “content associated with or relating to” abortion is also banned.
Clear enough. No abortion. And not for any legal issues, but because it's “
subject matter that GoFundMe would rather not be associated with.”
That language is important. What GoFundMe is saying is that their management chooses campaigns and content by what makes them feel comfortable. They are comfortable profiting off racists. They are not comfortable profiting off people seeing help with their abortions or people advocating for pro-choice groups.
Pro-life, on the other hand, is just fine. The article details numerous groups fighting against choice who are fine with GoFundMe. That includes a campaign dedicated to "Bailey's healthy pregnancy," started by someone who thinks that Bailey does with her body is her business (link not provided intentionally).
I could have accepted, grudgingly and barely, a decision to stay out of the abortion issue altogether. Now that they have taken sides, I have offered my pledge.
Abortion is a personal medical decision.
GoFundMe must treat it that way or it deserves to be boycotted, to lose revenue, and to fade into internet oblivion.
Or maybe it can reinvent itself as "crowdfunding-for-bigots." I'm sure that's a fine business model, but count me out.
Take the pledge.
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I am a freelance columnist, blogger, long-time member of this site, and history professor. You can read my blog at How Did We Get Into This Mess? This is a modified version of today's post.
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