Jezebel's Person of the Year Is Anyone Who Donated to an Abortion Fund

There are over 8 billion people in the world and yet, on Thursday, Time announced fuckass Donald Trump as its Person of the Year. For the second time.

He was last named as Person of the Year in 2016, which I get. He was a wildcard candidate running for president out of spite who shocked the establishment and lost the popular vote. He hasn't done anything particularly different since then, especially not this year, when all he did was barely dodge a bullet. Sure he won the election, but let's be real, it was not because he ran an impressive or strategic campaign. He picked the ickiest senator as vice president then held incoherent rallies where, if he wasn't yelling lies about Ohioans eating cats and dogs, he was playing the "YMCA" and doing his stupid little dance.

My point is, I think Time made a boring and uncreative choice. I also think it was uncreative to make Barack Obama Person of the Year for the second time in 2012 and I think it would have been boring to name Kamala Harris Person of the Year if she had won. Selecting a newly elected U.S. president just feels like you’re phoning it in.

This isn't to say Trump hasn't wreaked havoc on this country. And maybe this devastation helps make the case for Trump as Person of the Year; after all, Time says they pick "for better or worse." However, here at Jezebel, we prefer to highlight the people helping to clean up the mess.

So while we haven't been around for 101 years, nor do we have a tradition of selecting one human to represent everything that's happened in 365 days, the century-old publication that does have this tradition got lazy with it, so we decided to anoint our own: Anyone Who Donated to an Abortion Fund.

Trump will almost definitely impose some kind of federal ban, but for the past year, he waffled in public statements in an attempt to avoid saying anything about abortion at all. But before polls showed him that Americans overwhelmingly support abortion rights (though not enough to not elect him again, womp womp), Trump loved to brag and say that he was the one to overturn Roe v. Wade. Time even mentioned that he nearly publicly supported a 16-week federal ban:

Trump was in the private cabin of his plane, flying to an April 2 campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., when he picked up a document [Susie] Wiles had placed atop a stack of papers. The heading was not subtle: “How a national abortion ban will cost Trump the election.” Trump raised his eyebrows. “Kind of a nasty title, huh?” he said.

Since Roe was overturned two-and-a-half years ago by a Supreme Court stacked with Trump's rightwing justices, dozens of abortion clinics have closed, gynecologists have fled states with abortion bans, doctors have instructed women experiencing miscarriages or pregnancy complications to only return when their condition gets much worse, women have been forced to sue their states for fucking up their fertility and threatening their lives, and, in Texas and Georgia, at least five women died because an abortion ban delayed their care. As a result of those findings, Texas recently announced its maternal mortality committee — which investigates why and how a pregnant person dies — would conveniently skip analyzing any further mortality data from 2022 to 2024.

While the GOP and the right seem convinced that an "abortion clinic" is a little streetside shack that only offers one procedure, abortion clinics typically offer everything from breast cancer screenings to STD tests to contraception and family planning services. When an abortion clinic closes, it means an entire community, city, or state just lost more access to women's healthcare.

So what happens then? Abortion funds step in to ensure people can get abortions, either through abortion pills or with an appointment in a nearby state. They also help support patients in whatever they need, which often includes travel, lodging, and childcare. In May, Jezebel's Susan Rinkunas reported that abortion funds have been spending $1 million annually since Roe was overturned, and that doesn't include the funds' operational costs. Meanwhile, this week, a Tennessee Republican filed a bill to make mailing abortion pills punishable with a $5 million fine — and Trump hasn't even taken office yet. The demand for abortion funds will only continue to grow. You can find a local abortion fund here, or scroll through our guide for more options.

If you've already donated? Congratulations! You're Jezebel's Person of the Year. We appreciate your time and voice, but especially your money — and encourage you to consider setting up a monthly donation.

It's nearly 2025 in one of the wealthiest and most advanced countries in the world, and women in certain states are dying from common pregnancy complications because a giant orange blob once promised a bunch of right-wing nutcases that he'd get rid of an essential health procedure in order to get elected. And then he did it again. The next four years are going to be bad. So donate to an abortion fund today and you can put on your resume that you were named a Jezebel 2024 Person of the Year.