SAFE is an abortion fund which launched in February 2023. Based in The Netherlands, the country with the easiest non-resident access to second trimester abortions, SAFE works with pro-abortion activists, networks, and providers across Europe to support access to abortions for everyone who needs or wants one.
The Right is rising, abortion rights are under attack, and civic spaces in sexual and reproductive health are shrinking. SAFE was founded by Mara Clarke (founder of the first abortion fund on this side of the Atlantic,Abortion Support Network in the UK) and Kasia Roszak ten Hove (one of the co-founders of the first second trimester abortion network in mainland Europe, Abortion Network Amsterdam). SAFE is the first charity registered in mainland Europe funding abortions.
SAFE fills an important role – helping the grassroots abortion organisations across Europe ensure sustainability, abortion access, and knowledge sharing. SAFE performs four functions:
SAFE is an abortion fund. We raise money from organizations, foundations, and individuals supporting access. We distribute funds to individuals and organizations facilitating abortion access. Initially, we will work in partnership with Abortion Network Amsterdam, a group of volunteers supporting women and pregnant people to access safe abortion). In future, SAFE will work with additional existing abortion funds as well as provide seed funding and other fiscal sponsorship to new abortion funds.
Money raised by SAFE will:
SAFE will work with abortion providers to ensure clear pathways to abortion access, whether finding clinics and hospitals who will perform abortions on non-residents or mapping the best travel routes from one country to another.
SAFE deeply understands that knowledge is power, which is why SAFE will take on critically important “back office” tasks to shore up infrastructure and ensure the capture of best practices. SAFE collects, develops, streamlines and shares best practice learnings about abortion pathways, service delivery, fundraising, and more. SAFE works in partnership with digital security experts to ensure all platforms are, like our name says, safe.
Together the founders of SAFE have more than 25 years of experience in helping people access abortions. SAFE works with abortion providers, policy influencers, and decision makers to identify and support spokespeople and champions who will work to destigmatize abortion while advocating for better abortion pathways and laws across Europe.
How we work is as important as the work itself. SAFE believes in inclusivity and intersectionality and will work accordingly. We practice radical compassion and human empathy while working in partnership with the organizations, groups and individuals who come to us for support.
As such, SAFE uphold the following values in how we work with each other, with our service users, and our partners:
SAFE is openly, loudly, proudly pro abortion.
SAFE helps people access abortions at home with pills or at a clinic or hospital.
SAFE never requires people to justify why they want or need an abortion.
SAFE trusts and respects women and all pregnant people to determine what is best for their own lives.
SAFE provides a safe, non-judgmental, collaborative, intersectional, and supportive environment.
SAFE is respectful of differences – cultural, operational, and organizational.
SAFE works in partnership with other groups, organizations and individuals, in a way that is supportive and conscious of structural differences and power dynamics.
SAFE equally values the work done by all, whether it is paid for or voluntary.
SAFE helps anyone regardless of age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, ethnicity, country of origin, country of residence, spoken language, religion or belief, partnership status, disability, spoken language or immigration status.
Incorporated in the Netherlands, SAFE is led by two long time abortion activists, Mara Clarke and Kasia Roszak ten Hove. Together, Kasia and Mara have more than 25 years of experience in helping people cross borders to access abortions. Both of them come from countries with restrictive abortion laws (Poland and the US) and bring a mix of corporate, NGO and grassroots experience.
I was born and raised in Poland, a country with one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the world. I now live in the Netherlands and in 2017 I helped build Abortion Network Amsterdam, which helped more than 1,500 people access abortions in The Netherlands. I’m also one of the founding members of Abortion Without Borders (www.aboriton.eu), an initiative of activists from across Europe who together have helped more than 100,000 people in Poland access safe abortions. I bring to SAFE my skills in project management, process improvement, and movement building with multinational corporations, NGOs and anarchist collectives.
I became an abortion activist in 2002 when I learned that any restrictions to abortion access most negatively impact the most marginalized. In 2009, I founded Abortion Support Network, the first abortion fund in Europe, and grew it from five volunteers to a staffed international charity with an annual budget of £500,000, and I have also been credited with the “conception” of the Abortion Without Borders www.abortion.eu initiative. I will bring my 20+ years’ experience in grassroots abortion fund work as well as my skills in stakeholder engagement, movement building, partnership management and fundraising to SAFE.
As a professional woodworker, an art school librarian and long term feminist activist, my skills and interests are manyfold. Besides my involvement with Abortion Network Amsterdam from the start, i have years of experience with autonomous organizing in different fields of activism. I will bring a critical eye to the board table, to help ensure that SAFE will stay committed to its goals and values, especially those in connection to grassroots organizing. Above all, I wish to help SAFE in becoming an integral part of the pro-abortion movement, connecting with all those who are fighting for uncompromised, unbiased and radical access to abortion health care.
I love supporting abortions without stigma or judgment for everyone who needs or wants one. For the last two years, I have been involved with Abortion Support Network mainly as a helpline volunteer, helping people all over Europe access abortion health care. My primary areas of expertise are in education, law and human rights and I expect to spend much of my time helping SAFE build and maintain its knowledge sharing platform. I also hope to develop and deepen my connections within the community of people who do this work and share my values and priorities.
I am a migrant queer Latina and have worked on abortion for more than a decade in different capacities and in different places in the world. I am a lawyer and feminist researcher and have extensive organizational development skills to support SAFE’s work. I have successfully developed grant proposals, coordinated partnerships for joint fundraising efforts, maintained donor relations for feminist organizations, and managed international projects. I have been a member of Women Help Women for more than three years, have volunteered with Abortion Network Amsterdam. I hold a Ph.D. in International Law from the University of Groningen, an MJur from the University of Oxford, and an LLB from the Universidad de la República in Uruguay. I have consulted for Ipas, UNFPA, RSFU, WHO, and others and currently serve on the board of inroads.
I have been working in international SRHR for the past eight years, with a focus on access to safe abortions. My current work is as a Project Manager at FIGO (the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) where I work to support ObGyns and health care providers to become stronger advocates for safe abortion in Francophone West Africa. Prior to this, I worked with MSI Reproductive Choices, and I previously served on the Board of Trustees of Abortion Support Network for six years, including a stint as Co-Chair. Deeply passionate about abortion as a fundamental requirement for wider equality, I am excited to bring my skills in strategic thinking and project oversight to support the amazing work of SAFE.
I am a reproductive and social rights activist from Romania with over seven years experience of community building. My advocacy started in my teens when I organised an international webinar on abortion access around the world with the help of Girl Up Romania. I have since been involved with most of the local and national feminist collectives in reshaping reproductive freedom in Eastern Europe, planning conferences, immersive experiences and political campaigns. Grassroot work continues to be my top priority as I am mentoring and educating young people by holding workshops on sexual education. I will bring these skills to SAFE as we create a care-based support structure for abortion activists across Europe.
Abortion Network Amsterdam is a network of support for women and pregnant people who don’t have access to safe abortion.
