Buckle Bunnies Fund provides vital information, funds, companionship for Texas abortion seekers
Makayla Montoya Frazier founded Buckle Bunnies Fund in 2020 as a mutual aid collective run exclusively by volunteers but without non-profit status. For the past four years, the organization has been informing Texans who seek abortions of their options. Buckle Bunnies Fund provides tens of thousands of Texans every year with funding for abortions, logistical support for abortion access, and harm reduction materials.
Frazier recently joined Clayman Institute’s Writer in Residence Moira Donegan for the event “How to Get an Abortion in Texas,” as part of the Feminism in Theory and Practice series.
Frazier is 25 years old and came to Buckle Bunnies Fund leadership—she is currently co-executive director—with experience in sex work and following her own abortion in a clinical setting.
She knows first-hand that reproductive justice mutual aid remains both urgent and risky business. In 2021, Senate Bill 4 severely limited abortion by medication in Texas, preventing providers from both prescribing abortion pills to patients who are more than 7 weeks pregnant and from mailing them within Texas. Also in 2021, Senate Bill 8 banned abortion care after 6 weeks of pregnancy. SB8 has a private enforcement provision that allows individuals to sue anyone who “aids and abets” abortion care, including providers. And then, in 2022, the State of Texas banned abortions altogether following the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“Though the Texas abortion ban seems absolute, abortion pills coming from another state or country and self-managing your own abortion are both legal in Texas. Sharing information about where to get pills, how to use them, and other resources is legal in Texas,” explained Frazier.
“It’s our [First Amendment] right to give out this information,” Frazier added. “And what people do with it is their business.”
Buckle Bunnies Fund wants pregnant Texans to understand that self-managed abortions are a viable alternative to clinic care. Mexican and Latin American reproductive justice activists initially inspired the understanding that abortion is a criminalized act regardless of bans, and self-managed abortions are both a safeguard against criminalization and a way to preserve choice and dignity given criminalization.
Mexican and Latin American reproductive justice activists initially inspired the understanding that abortion is a criminalized act regardless of bans, and self-managed abortions are both a safeguard against criminalization and a way to preserve choice and dignity given criminalization.
Now that abortion is banned in Texas, and providers have been forced out of state, Texans travel on average 200 miles to the nearest clinic. But Frazier estimated that Buckle Bunnies Fund has supported between 15,000 and 20,000 individuals with their self-managed abortions since 2020. Today, Buckle Bunnies Fund estimates that 42 percent of the total requests for support pertain to self-managed abortions.
“How did we adapt [after Dobbs]?” asked Frazier. “We didn’t!”
Buckle Bunnies Fund has prioritized self-managed abortion over in-clinic care since its start. Like their Mexican and Latin American counterparts, Buckle Bunnies Fund works to dispel misinformation about self-managed abortions, providing companionship for all matters of reproductive care.
Following SB8, Buckle Bunnies Fund saw an influx of donations of Plan B medication and became a community resource for emergency contraception. Today 19 percent of requests for support are for Plan B. Distribution of at-home pregnancy tests became even more urgent for the fund following Texas’ abortion ban. Like emergency contraception, pregnancy testing is an important preventative measure. Regular pregnancy testing allows for early detection, empowering pregnant individuals to travel out of state to receive clinic care if they so choose.
Frazier described reproductive justice work in Texas as an uphill battle. She expressed no hope in that reality changing any time soon. When it comes to elections, Frazier encouraged voters to pay attention to local ballot propositions. “If you are in a place where there are abortion amendments on the ballot, I hope you tear it up, I hope you get in there and you go crazy.”
Frazier conducts her business with flair. Donegan said in closing, “I think [anti-choice Texans] are afraid of you, and they should be.”
