It started with hot dogs.
In the summer of 2022, Emily Roe invited friends and neighbors into her backyard for a fundraiser she called “Hot Dogs for Abortions,” donating the proceeds to abortion funds for patients in Southern states.
The event came in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and it raised $5,000 across two backyard gatherings. But Roe, who had been experimenting with homemade hot sauce since 2020, saw an opportunity to turn that initial burst of activism into something bigger.
Later that year, she started Female Rage Hot Sauce, a D.C. business that donates a portion of its proceeds to abortion access and wears its political mission on the label.
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The main organization the business donates to, the DC Abortion Fund, covers the cost of care for an abortion in D.C. for people from all over the country, some of whom have lost access to abortions in their home states.
Female Rage Hot Sauce donates to the fund quarterly, giving 5% of its proceeds to the organization; it has raised over $21,000 for the fund.
Roe said there was a lot to be angry about when she started making hot sauce, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, the 2020 elections and the racial reckoning around George Floyd’s murder.
For Roe, the sauce is about more than adding heat to a meal. It’s about starting conversations around abortion, challenging the stigma surrounding the word and supporting people who need access to care.
“From day one I knew that I wanted to be just unapologetic about it,” she told The Washington Sun.
“It was just so important to me that I never shy away from using the word or talking about it openly, because I wanted to bust the stigma and get rid of all this shame and guilt that they’ve created around this word. That’s just health care. It’s not a bad thing,” she said.
Mac Burgoyne, the community and communications manager for Female Rage, said conversations about abortion help create cultural change around reproductive health care and validating women who share about experiences with sexual violence.
“All of these solutions do start in conversation,” Burgoyne said. “They start in education, and education can start with something as small as looking at a bottle of Female Rage and asking a question about why it’s called that.”
Burgoyne said she joined the team in June 2026 because, as an outspoken local feminist, she can be herself in the brand.
“We’re raising money for abortion. That’s it. You don’t need more than that,” Burgoyne said. “And I think that that is what I really appreciate about the messaging of Female Rage, is that it’s direct, it’s unapologetic, it’s feminist, and yeah, it demands to be seen.”
Female Rage uses locally sourced peppers from Deep Roots Farm in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Gale Livingstone, who owns the farm, said she supports Female Rage’s mission to destigmatize the word “abortion” and to advocate for abortion care.
“I just feel like no other human being should have the right to tell another human being what they should and should not do with their bodies,” Livingstone said. “People get very emotional when they talk about politics, and I think the more you talk about something, the less emotions there are behind it.”
Roe said she doesn’t think the brand would have taken off outside of D.C. After all, it’s the political hub of the U.S. She said the 2024 election results “reignited a lot of anger in people.”
“Because we live in such a politically tuned-in place, I don’t know how well I would have been able to build my community if I did it anywhere else but here, because people here are just so tuned in and know what’s going on, and see the brand and don’t even need it to be explained to them, they get it immediately,” she said.
Other small businesses in D.C. similarly support the DC Abortion Fund. Capitol Jill Baking recently partnered with the fund with a “Pro Choice, Pro Carbs” bake sale, raising over $20,000 with a goal of $6,000.
Jill Nguyen, the bakery’s owner, said, “The biggest cause that is closest to my heart is being unapologetically pro-choice, and I really was drawn to support the DC Abortion Fund because I know a lot of folks who are pro-choice might stay away from the word ‘abortion,’ but I really love that that’s what they lead with.”
She said she hopes to make the bake sale an annual way to support the fund.
“If you just support, let’s say, child hunger, that’s a very easy-to-support issue, no matter where you are politically. But to say we support abortion rights, that’s more controversial. And I was really surprised and ecstatic to see how open people will do that,” she said.
Alisha Dingus, executive director of the DC Abortion Fund, said the organization also works with the ANXO businesses on Kennedy Street Northwest, including Brightwood Pizza & Bottle, which partners with the fund every March in honor of Women’s History Month.
She called it “a testament to the politics of the city and just how people are not afraid to say that they support their local abortion fund.”
“It’s a small business saying we are a pro-abortion business, we are going to invest in our community, and we have no apologies about it,” Dingus said. “And it’s been really beautiful to watch her grow. … Abortion is popular in this country, and people are going to buy hot sauce that funds their local abortion fund.”
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