Abortion In America is a pro-abortion media project launched by the late former Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards. The project featured short videos of people allegedly affected by state-level abortion bans. The goal of the project is to keep the nation’s attention on abortion as a major issue. ¹

The Arabella Advisors-managed Hopewell Fund, which sponsors left-leaning single-issue advocacy groups, is the group’s fiscal sponsor. As of October 2024, the project had reportedly raised over $1 million from a half-dozen donors. ¹

Background

The late former Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards devised Abortion In America in 2021 after the passage of a near total abortion ban in Texas. Richards believed that while there was already media reporting on how abortion bans affected women, those stories only stayed on the public’s mind for a very short time. Richards quoted her mother, former Texas Governor Ann Richards (D), who said, “It’s only when you get sick of repeating something that people are really starting to hear it.” ²

Richards came up with the idea of recording short videos from people impacted by state level abortion bans. The videos are around a minute long, recorded using smartphones, and posted to social media platforms. ²

The project got a slow start due to Richards’s brain cancer diagnosis. But the project started gaining traction in 2024. ²

The New York Times described the project as “blurring the lines between their advocacy work and traditional news media.” The project features videos that it records posted on its website next to articles from local and national publications, which are sometimes published in full with the outlets’ permission. ¹

State Focus

Abortion In America focused first on Texas. The project recorded a video of Ryan Hamilton, whose wife nearly died after being denied miscarriage care on an iPhone. The video received nearly two million views on TikTok as of January 2025. ²

The project then shifted its focus to Louisiana, which has some of the strictest pro-life laws in America and where Richards has a home. The project held its first in-person event in the state, a four-day event where pro-abortion advocates came together to tell their stories about how Louisiana’s pro-life laws have affected them. After the event in Louisiana, the project moved on to Florida and met with pro-abortion advocates there who told their stories about that state’s pro-life laws. ³

Funding and Partner Groups

Abortion In America is a fiscally sponsored nonprofit project of the Hopewell Fund, which is managed by the for-profit consulting firm Arabella Advisors. The Hopewell Fund is a host of left-leaning single-issue groups. ¹

As of October 2024, Abortion In America had raised $1 million from a reported half-dozen donors, including Phoebe Gates, the daughter of Microsoft founder Bill Gates. ¹

The Ford Foundation hosted the group’s official launch event at its headquarters in New York City in October 2024, and Glamour magazine co-hosted it. ¹

People

Cecile Richards co-founded Abortion in America. Richards was a former president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. ¹ Richards died of brain cancer in January 2025. ²

Kaitlyn Joshua is a co-founder ¹ and a community organizer from Louisiana who suffered a miscarriage that she says was not treated adequately due to Louisiana’s pro-life laws. ³

Lauren Peterson is a co-founder ¹ and a political strategist who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and for Planned Parenthood Federation of America. ⁴

1. Testa, Jessica. “Can Stories about Abortion Break through the Noise?” Cecile Richards Is Trying to Ensure Abortion Stories Break Through – The New York Times, October 31, 2024. https://web.archive.org/web/20241107113551/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/31/business/media/cecile-richards-abortion-social-media.html.
2. Tuma, Mary. “Cecile Richards Isn’t Giving up the Fight.” The Texas Observer, January 20, 2025. https://www.texasobserver.org/cecile-richards-isnt-giving-up-the-fight/.
3. McNeal, Stephanie. “These Abortion Storytellers Won’t Be Silenced.” Glamour, October 23, 2024. https://www.glamour.com/story/these-abortion-storytellers-wont-be-silenced.
4. “Home.” Lauren Peterson. Accessed February 17, 2025. https://www.laurencpeterson.com/.