Provide is a Massachusetts-based organization which specializes in training social service and medical professionals to refer for abortions. Its operations largely take place in the Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic United States. ^[1]

The organization has been known by several names. It was the Boston Reproductive Rights Network until 2000. ^{[2] [3]} It was named the Abortion Access Project until 2012. ^[4][5]

Funding

Provide raised over $1.2 million in 2016 and spent nearly $3.4 million. Almost all of its revenue comes from contributions and grants; nearly all of its expenses come through its training programs, staff compensation, and training-related travel. ^[6]

Provide’s revenues are inconsistent year to year. For example, it raised over $5.4 million in 2014 but only $527,533 in 2015. Its 2014 revenue grew its assets from $2.3 million to over six million, but as of 2016 its assets were under $2.1 million due to major losses in 2015 and 2016. ^[7]

Provide has received grants from left-leaning foundations, such as the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. ^[8] The John Merck Fund has provided multiple grants, including one for $35,000 in 2001. ^[9][10]

The General Service Foundation gave $35,000 in 2011. ^[11] The Open Society Foundations gave $190,000 from 1997 to 2003. ^[12]

Mission

Provide’s mission is to train social service and medical personnel in how to refer for abortions. Provide’s five focus areas are substance use, HIV, primary care, domestic abuse, and “family planning.” Its primary care, family planning, and domestic abuse areas are almost exclusively abortion-focused. ^[13]

It provided 92 trainings in 2015 and in 2014 designed six curriculum models for nurses. ^[14]

One of Provide’s three largest programs in 2012 was its “miscarriage management training.” The organization reported that this training was a multi-year initiative which simultaneously trained medical professionals to help women going through miscarriages as well as help women who want abortions. That year, Provide reported that 20 practices were incorporating its training into several abortion methods, including manually vacuuming a baby out of a mother’s body. ^[15]

Provide has issued two reports, one in 2015 and in 2019, which decried pro-life laws that make obtaining abortions more difficult. ^[16]

Provide’s trainings took place on 93 sites and trained 739 people in 2015. 1,304 people were trained on 140 sites in 2016. In 2017, 1,833 people were trained on 269 sites. ^[17]

Leadership

Fatimah Gifford is Provide’s Executive Director. She was previously vice president of communications and marketing for Whole Women’s Health during the three years leading up to the organization’s 2016 Supreme Court victory. She is also a board member for the international abortion research group Ibis Reproductive Health. ^[18]

Kristin Nobel leads program evaluation and strategy for Provide. She has a long domestic and international background in evaluating and implementing programs targeted to children. ^[19]

Katherine Bourne is president of Provide’s board of directors. She is a consultant and instructor on issues, programs, and policies related to promoting abortion, and has worked for high-profile institutions such as the United Nations. ^[20]

Provide’s founding executive director was Susan Yanow under its previous names. ^[21] Yanow consults for pro-abortion groups like Women on Web and co-founded Women Help Women. ^[22][23]