Data collected delivering the fund would also help identify the amount in need, they said.

In September, not-for-profit sexual health provider Maries Stopes Australia called for donors to establish a $3 million fund for women unable to afford abortion or contraception.

Women's Centre for Health Matters ACT chief executive Marcia Williams said it was hard to quantify the scale of the problem in Canberra.

"One of the issues is that data isn't collected on this because if you can't afford to get an abortion it's not recorded anywhere," Ms Williams said.

"Our issue is just proving that there's a need."

She said women's services in Canberra had intervened out of their own pockets to help women in dire need.

Tim Bavington, executive director of Sexual Health and Family Planning ACT, said the fund was urgently needed but also called on the government to allow Canberra's public hospitals to provide abortion services.

"A public hospital service would be available to all residents regardless of capacity to pay," Mr Bavington said.

He said public hospitals were reluctant to provide the service but Canberra also lacked practitioners to perform the procedure .

Victoria Dolphin, the nurse unit manager at Marie Stopes' Canberra Clinic, said the fund proposed in September was urgently needed in the ACT.

She said in allocating the fund, Marie Stopes could collect data on women facing barriers to accessing abortion.

"We actually don't know what we don't know," Ms Dolphin said.

"This fund will allow us to make a realistic picture of who is affected and how many affected."

Costs for medical or surgical abortions can range between $470 to $530.

Ms Dolphin said an extra $100 after a surgical procedure to insert a contraceptive device could be too costly for women.

ACT Labor backbencher Tara Cheyne previously defended Canberra women's right to choose at a ACT Labor Conference in July, where a resolution was passed to explore more affordable abortions in Canberra.

The Member for Ginninderra said the fund would be a good thing for the ACT.

"The cost of terminating a pregnancy can be prohibitive and by being prohibitive it restricts the actual choice that women have," Ms Cheyne said.

"My view is that there's always more work to be done in this space."

Earlier this year, a report on abortion access in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health showed one in three Australian women found it difficult or very difficult to pay for an abortion.

More than two thirds of those surveyed had got help to pay for the abortion with just over a third having to forego paying bills or buying groceries in order to pay for the procedure.

Ms Dolphin estimated about 10 per cent of her patients were from the immediate NSW region.

Know more or got a tip? Contact finbar.omallon@fairfaxmedia.com.au or use the Signal smartphone app to message 0437 464 126.