If you’ve been solving along with the Autostraddle mini and midi crossword puzzles over the last six months, you may have become familiar with the experience of seeing yourself and the things you care about represented in a puzzle. We (Rachel Fabi and Brooke Husic) are two of the crossword constructors for Autostraddle, and we have made it our mission to create puzzles that reflect queer joy and highlight some of the things we care about, and that we believe the solvers on Autostraddle also care about. To that end, we thought you might also be interested to know about a different passion project we’ve been working on for the past two years: a crossword puzzle fundraiser called These Puzzles Fund Abortion.
As anti-abortion laws spread around the country, we, along with our friend Claire, found ourselves grasping for a way to help people in need of abortion care. We brought together some of the best crossword constructors out there to create a pack of puzzles all themed around reproductive justice in order to raise money for abortion funds as part of an annual fundraiser hosted by the National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF).
In exchange for donations that support five abortion funds around the country (the Baltimore Abortion Fund, Chicago Abortion Fund, Indigenous Women Rising, Tampa Bay Abortion Fund, and Wild West Access Fund of Nevada), you can receive a pack of 16 crossword puzzles that are all around the same level of difficulty as the A+ midi puzzles, or a New York Times Tuesday. Every dollar we raise goes straight to the funds we’re supporting, who in turn help people afford abortions, including support for their travel. We poured our hearts into this project, and we hope Autostraddle crossword lovers will join us in supporting abortion access through puzzles.
You can donate to receive the puzzles through our Fund-a-Thon page until May 31, 2023, after which the puzzles will be available through the These Puzzles Fund Abortion website. We are also selling TPFA merch through Bonfire until May 24.
Here’s a puzzle from the pack that you can solve today!
Great value! The first puzzle in the 2023 pack has the “French bread?” clue which still makes me smile every time.
yay!!!!!!!!
More queer crossword puzzles AND i get to support abortion access?! Incredible!!
Rachel and Brooke, thanks for the great work you are doing
I got these when they came out and love them. Good reminder to get the previous sets :)