This past Saturday marked a year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade, ending the constitutional right to abortion just shy of its 50th birthday. Great articles have been written about the effect of this decision: the continued stripping of reproductive rights in Republican-led states, clinics closing across the country, escalating attacks against doctors who perform abortions even in states where it is still legal. But I find myself still stuck on the cause.

To me, the rollback of reproductive rights is fundamentally about trust. Trust and power. In this case, six people had the power to decide that I as a woman am not trustworthy enough to make choices about what happens to my own body after I fall pregnant. And soon, as Clarence Thomas so graciously warned us, they may just have to reconsider whether I am trustworthy enough to choose prevent a pregnancy at all. (Who I marry is, for the moment, protected, but that could all change with a few more reversals.)

Last year, I wrote that I was “shocked but not surprised” by the decision, and looking back with this framing of trust, the whole thing tracks. Socialized female, growing up in in the United States, I was taught not to trust myself. Misogyny-laced culture made it clear to me that I was not to be trusted when it came to deciding what and how much to eat, if and when to have sex, how much love and attention to devote to my work versus a man…I could go on.  Only as I tried to unlearn that confusing and contradictory messaging did I begin to see how pervasive it was - and is; it’s probably no coincidence that as I practice listening to myself, I’m doing more things that invite me to test but respect boundaries and force me to be in my body (intuitive eating, yoga and pilates) rather than deny and push past them (diet culture and distance running). 

How can it be a surprise, then, that the first time the Supreme Court took rights back was on the subject of women’s bodies?

Ok so that’s one thing. But, you know me. My brain spins right on over into the world of international development, where trust and power relate to control of resources: who has them, and who wields the power to decide who can be trusted to receive them.

I’ve written about the perverse incentives that discourage us from working together. But think about the structure of funding to begin with: some usually white, cis, straight men in Europe or North America decide who is worthy of enough trust to receive money to defend the rights of mostly non-white, non-European or American people. Of course, our recent elections and coups and criminal ex-president have necessitated a re-direct of funding in defense of the rights of people in the U.S., but the majority of funding is still flowing from the Global Minority 1% to the Global Majority. And then, having survived the Hunger Games gauntlet to secure the funding, recipients are trapped in a vise of rules and checks and reporting based on the funders’ lack of trust that they will do what they promised to with the money they receive. 

Trust-based philanthropy and mutually accountable partnerships are only now the buzzwords and live conversations of the moment. Why did it take this long? Because those with the power to dictate resourcing deemed those without it unworthy of trust.

I recently heard Kamala Harris define innovation as “what could be, unburdened by what has been." What got us to the doorstep of our existential polycrisis will not get us out. We need new approaches.

Luckily, there’s a lot of great work and thinking already happening on this front. No surprise that feminist organizations have led the way for shifting towards relationships of “humility and collaboration” and systems of accountability that actually make sense, and respect the dignity of the recipient partners. But we need to amplify it and weave it in to the fabric of how we do this work. 

To that end, here’s a brief and definitely incomplete list of articles and collectives tackling this head on:

What feminist collective leadership has to offer philanthropy in these times

Trust-based Philanthropy Project

Transforming our grantmaking: the Digital Freedom Fund

Where is the Money for Black Feminist Movements? - Black Feminist Fund

Philanthropy: What’s Trust Got to Do With It? - Shift the Power

Assistance Development led-Locally on Funders Climate from Lessons

WINGS Philanthropy Transformation Initiative