Our Story

In 1969, when Joyce Schorr was a freshman in college in Atlanta, Georgia, her best friend got pregnant and traveled to another state to get an illegal abortion procedure. When her friend returned, she started to hemorrhage. In those days there were septic wards in hospitals for women who had complications, but no one ever wanted to use them since there was always the possibility of being arrested and questioned by police to turn in the abortion provider. Her friend was lucky in that one of her friend’s father was a doctor and he came to her rescue.

Fast forward to 1982. Joyce was eating at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant and women from NOW were outside placing brochures on car windows. The brochures were about Carl Karcher, former owner of Carl’s Jr., and how this anti-choice man was using money spent at his restaurant to support anti-choice policies. These two events led to Joyce’s activism and her vow to never let another woman go through what her friend had experienced.

In 1989, Joyce was invited to join NCJW/LA and their pro-choice satellite, and she brought to them the idea of an abortion fund for low-income women. Thus, WRRAP was founded in that moment. In 1991, as we rapidly grew, we separated to form our own 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Additionally that year, we helped to start the National Network of Abortion Funds, of which we are a founding member.

Today, WRRAP founder & President, Joyce Schorr is still actively involved in our mission — to ensure that financially-in-need individuals of all ages, ethnicities, cultural backgrounds, gender identities, and sexual orientations can access abortion care and emergency contraception funding. It is because of Joyce’s vision, voice, dedication, and leadership over the years that WRRAP has grown to become the leading nonprofit abortion fund for ALL 50 states.

WRRAP has always operated on a high-efficiency, volunteer model, enabling us to direct 90% of donated funds to help individuals in need. In 2018, WRRAP’s board of directors made the decision to finally establish our first paid position, and Sylvia Ghazarian was hired as WRRAP’s Executive Director. With an incredible resume and a long advocacy track-record, Sylvia is leading WRRAP into the future and building on the many WRRAP accomplishments to date. She is laser-focused on heightening fundraising efforts to meet the ever-growing funding needs, expanding WRRAP’s affiliate network, and increasing WRRAP’s collaborative advocacy work with other reproductive rights organizations.

WRRAP takes hundreds of calls from hundreds of clinics each year. The staff and doctors at the clinics we work with face tremendous hostility. They are the true heroes in this fight that we collectively work on! We are truly grateful to work with them to help fund as many individuals as possible in need of abortion care.