‘AN ACT of COMMUNITY CARE’
Couples use wedding registries to raise funds for reproductive rights
“It’s kind of us saying that it’s very meaningful to get a beautiful bowl, and it’s equally meaningful to us to be able to take that money and use it to help people to have access to reproductive health care.” — Jen McCartney, who requested donations to the National Network of Abortion Funds on her wedding registry
When Jen McCartney and Jay Balagna made a registry for their wedding Oct. 29, among the typical items they included — plates, towels, tablecloths — was a less traditional request: donations to the National Network of Abortion Funds. McCartney, 32, a comedy writer, and Balagna, 33, a doctoral candidate at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, said raising money for abortion access as part of their wedding was a way to honor her mother, Karen Blumenthal, a journalist and the author of “Jane Against the World: Roe v. Wade and the Fight for Reproductive Rights,” who died in 2020.
But the couple, who live in Los forefront, requests for donations Angeles, were also motivated to to organizations that support access request the donations by what they to reproductive rights have risen. said was a more urgent cause than Emily Forrest, Zola’s director of furnishing their home as newlyweds: communications, said there have protecting access to abortion, been 858 registries requesting donations a constitutional right that was eliminated in support of abortion rights by the Supreme Court’s June created on the website in 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson, which compared with 201 created in 2021. overruled Roe v. Wade. This year, such registries have
Their registry, created using raised more than $100,000 in donations wedding planning website Zola, has — $70,000 of which has been already raised more than $750 for raised since early May, when Politico the National Network of Abortion published the leaked draft of the Funds from nine people. Dobbs decision — added Forrest,
“It’s kind of us saying that it’s very who noted that registries on Zola meaningful to get a beautiful bowl,” raised about $24,000 for abortion McCartney said, “and it’s equally advocacy groups in 2021. meaningful to us to be able to take On wedding planning website the that money and use it to help people Knot, there have been 137 registries to have access to reproductive health requesting donations in support care.” of reproductive rights created for
Charitable registries have become weddings happening between May a popular way for marrying couples 2022 and May 2023, compared with to highlight their shared values, said 61 created for weddings happening Amy Shack Egan, the founder and between May 2021 and May 2022, CEO of Modern Rebel, a wedding said Melissa Bach, the senior director planning company in New York’s of communications for the Knot Brooklyn borough. And as the debate Worldwide. over abortion has moved to the political Registries for weddings happening between May 2022 and May 2023 have raised $44,000 for abortion rights organizations, compared with $18,000 raised by registries for weddings that happened between May 2021 and May 2022, she added.
On both websites, there have been fewer registries requesting funds for anti-abortion organizations. Three such registries have been created on Zola since January 2021, Forrest said, noting they raised a total of $50. And on the Knot, Bach said that four such registries have been created for weddings happening between May 2021 and May 2023. Those registries have raised $70 for anti-abortion groups, she added. Neither Zola nor the Knot give funds raised by registries directly to organizations; the money is deposited into a bank account provided by a couple, who must donate it themselves.
Mary Ziegler, a law professor and historian at the University of California, Davis, who has written five books on abortion in the United States, said reproductive rights groups had long had a fundraising advantage over anti-abortion organizations, in part because the former tend to be more recognizable.
“There hasn’t really been the equivalent of a Planned Parenthood on the pro-life side,” Ziegler said.
Forrest said the National Network of Abortion Funds was the second most popular reproductive rights organization featured on the website’s registries this year, behind Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood has also been the most popular abortion advocacy group featured on the Knot’s registries, according to Bach.
The National Network of Abortion Funds distributes grants to more than 90 local organizations across the country, which support a range of needs related to abortion access, including paying for the procedure, transportation or lodging.
Its managing director, Debasri Ghosh, said she was unaware that couples have been requesting donations to reproductive rights groups on their wedding registries. But those requests did not surprise her.
“We see abortion funding as an act of love, an act of compassion, an act of community care,” Ghosh said, “so it isn’t surprising to me that people are choosing to honor their marriages by supporting abortion access.”
Some couples who have requested donations on their registries say that getting their guests to talk about abortion access is as much — or even more — of a goal as raising money.
Rather than collecting donations to the National Network of Abortion Funds through their Zola registry, Rachel Altmaier and Angelo Lecce, who were married Oct. 1, included a link to the organization’s website.
By sending their guests straight to the group, Altmaier, 32, an engineer, and Lecce, 30, a business systems analyst, could not track if or how much people donated. But for the couple, who live in Silver Spring, Maryland, raising awareness of the cause through their wedding was just as important.
“We don’t need to know whether or not they donated,” Lecce said. “If that allows them to reflect without judgment, I think that’s a good thing.”