It’s completely understandable if your first reaction to the unraveling of abortion rights is to want to give all of your money to pro-choice organizations, convert your spare bedroom into an abortion Airbnb, buy out your local pharmacy’s stock of Plan B, or even start researching how to make a manual vacuum aspirator.
Take a minute and pause. You don’t have to do everything yourself, and a lot of activists have been planning for this moment for decades. The bad news is that abortion is now going to be mostly or completely illegal. The good news is that national and local organizations—especially reproductive justice groups—have been on the ground for decades preparing for this possibility. They were doing the heavy lifting on reproductive rights and access issues while most of the privileged population of America was content to believe that abortion was a “settled issue” and Roe would never be overturned.
Rather than replicate efforts, look first to these groups and find out how you can best support those who already have their networks in place.
The National Network of Abortion Funds (NNAF) is an organization that spreads across nearly every state in the nation, helping to fund-raise for those who need abortions but cannot afford them. Because of their locations and reach, as well as their work with individual abortion clinics and funds in states, NNAF has become not just a fund-raising organization but also a political action network, fighting against abortion-funding bans and other restrictions that make it more difficult for pregnant people to access legal abortion care. They also work to center the needs of people of color and other marginalized communities in their advocacy, since those are the groups in the most need and who face the greatest risks if they cannot access care.
NNAF has endorsed a number of regional funds and affiliates, and that information will be available later in this chapter, but unlike other organizations in the book, NNAF also offers a personal membership option as well. By becoming an individual member, you are not just providing financial support to the network but you will also receive monthly news updates about abortion access, including actions that you may be able to participate in and networking opportunities with your regional fund. NNAF is joining together funders, providers, those who have had abortions, and their allies to create a strong advocacy circle that will promote racial, economic, and reproductive justice, and by becoming an individual member you will be an integral part of that network.
You can join NNAF as an individual member at https://nnaf.formstack.com/forms/membership, or call 617-267-7161.
NARAL Pro-Choice America existed before Roe, and it will probably be there long after Roe is gone. As one of the first organizations to publicly lobby for abortion law reform and repeal, NARAL networks across the country to keep abortion legal. The national NARAL group can be reached at:
NARAL Pro-Choice America
1156 15th St. NW, Suite 700. Washington, DC 20005
202-973-3000
https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/
The following states have local branches where you can assist in on-the-ground work like funding, canvassing, lobbying, and more.
ARIZONA
Pro-Choice Arizona
4141 N. 32nd St., Suite 105, Phoenix, AZ 85018
602-258-4091
http://www.prochoicearizona.org/
info@prochoicearizona.org
CALIFORNIA
NARAL Pro-Choice California
335 S. Van Ness Ave., San Francisco, CA 94103
415-890-1020
https://prochoicecalifornia.org/
info@prochoicecalifornia.org
COLORADO
NARAL Pro-Choice Colorado
PO Box 22485, Denver, CO 80222
303-394-1973
https://prochoicecolorado.org
choice@prochoicecolorado.org
NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut
1 Main St., Suite T4, Hartford, CT 06106
203-787-8763
https://www.prochoicect.org
info@prochoicect.org
GEORGIA
NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia
202-973-3000
https://prochoicegeorgia.org/
georgia@prochoiceamerica.org
ILLINOIS
Illinois Choice Action Team
1333 W. Devon Ave. #253, Chicago, IL 60660
312-458-9169
https://www.ilchoiceactionteam.org/
info@ilchoiceactionteam.org
IOWA
NARAL Pro-Choice Iowa
https://prochoiceiowa.org/
iowa@prochoiceamerica.org
MARYLAND
NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland
8905 Fairview Rd., Suite 401, Silver Spring, MD 20910
301-565-4154
https://prochoicemd.org/
info@prochoicemd.org
NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts
15 Court Sq., Suite 900, Boston, MA 02108-2524
617-556-8800
https://prochoicemass.org/
choice@prochoicemass.org
MINNESOTA
NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota
2300 Myrtle Ave., Suite 120, Saint Paul, MN 55114
651-602-765
https://prochoiceminnesota.org/
info@prochoiceminnesota.org
MISSOURI
NARAL Pro-Choice Missouri
1210 S. Vandeventer Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110
314-531-8616
https://prochoicemissouri.org/
naral@prochoicemissouri.org
MONTANA
NARAL Pro-Choice Montana
PO Box 279, Helena, MT 59624
406-813-1680
https://www.prochoicemontana.org/
npmtinterim@gmail.com
NEVADA
NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada
702-751-4219
https://prochoicenevada.org/
nevada@prochoiceamerica.org
NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina
4711 Hope Valley Rd., Suite 4F-509, Durham, NC 27702
919-908-9321
https://prochoicenc.org/
info@prochoicenc.org
OHIO
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio
12000 Shaker Blvd., Cleveland, OH 44120
216-283-2180
https://prochoiceohio.org/
OREGON
NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon
PO Box 40472, Portland, OR 97240
503-223-4510
https://prochoiceoregon.org/
nfo@prochoiceoregon.org
SOUTH DAKOTA
NARAL Pro-Choice South Dakota
605-334-5065
https://www.prochoicesd.org/
info@prochoicesd.org
TEXAS
NARAL Pro-Choice Texas
PO Box 684602, Austin, TX 78768
512-462-1661
http://prochoicetexas.org/
info@prochoicetexas.org
NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia
PO Box 1204, Alexandria, VA 22313-1204
571-970-2536
https://naralva.org/
info@naralva.org
WASHINGTON
NARAL Pro-Choice Washington
811 First Ave., Suite 675, Seattle, WA 98104
206-624-1990
https://prochoicewashington.org/
info@prochoicewashington.org
WISCONSIN
NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin
612 W. Main St. #200, Madison, WI 53703
608-287-0016
info@prochoicewisconsin.org
WYOMING
NARAL Pro-Choice Wyoming
PO Box 271, Laramie, WY 82073
307-742-9189
https://prochoicewyoming.org/
naralprochoicewy@netscape.net
As the state and federal governments increase their attacks not just on abortion but on birth control access, too, Planned Parenthood Federation of America has increased its own action fund to organize against political attacks. In some states, like Missouri or South Dakota, Planned Parenthood is the only remaining abortion clinic left, and a number of states have Planned Parenthood health care centers as their primary source of contraception and STI testing and treatment for those who are uninsured or underinsured. If you are looking for a direct way to politically support Planned Parenthood by lobbying or otherwise doing advocacy in your state, contact the national Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPFA), and they will get you connected to your local affiliate. The individual state action funds are also listed in the “State Resources” section of the Resource Guide.
PPAF’s national offices are located in DC and New York City:
1110 Vermont Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20005
Phone: 202-973-4800
123 William St., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10038
Phone: 212-541-7800
Founded by comedienne Lizz Winstead, LPJ battles the right wing with humor. LPJ undertakes state and local campaigns to increase voter outreach, support local independent clinics with practical and financial support for special projects, and perform awareness-raising activities across the nation.
https://ladypartsjusticeleague.com/
https://ladypartsjustice.com/contact-us/
Donations: https://ladypartsjusticeleague.com/donate/
info@ladypartsjusticeleague.com
One in four people who can get pregnant will have an abortion at some point in their lives, and yet our society remains solidly afraid of talking candidly and explicitly about real abortion experiences. For decades anti-abortion activists speaking out about their regrets have been the only ones to publicly talk about abortion.
Storytelling projects are breaking down the stigma surrounding abortion, helping people better understand that there aren’t “good” abortions or “bad” abortions, that every abortion is an individual experience and just as valid as anyone else’s.
National Network of Abortion Funds’s “We Testify,” the “Shout Your Abortion” campaign, and Abortion Conversation Project all use different tactics to break down the silence and stigma around abortion, from empowering storytellers to talk to lawmakers, to engaging social media users to talk about their own experiences in more public ways, to funding projects meant to end the silence and shame society wraps around the procedure and the people who obtain it.
https://shoutyourabortion.com/
ShoutYourAbortion@gmail.com
http://www.abortionconversationproject.org/
abortionconversation@gmail.com
Art, too, has become a means of breaking down abortion stigma and is especially important in a landscape where there isn’t one clear symbol that is universally recognized as an icon of the pro-choice movement. Artists like Heather Ault of 4000 Years for Choice and Megan Smith of Repeal Hyde Art Project are working to change that by introducing new visual images that better represent the history, diversity, complexity, and strength that comes with embracing bodily autonomy.
The Right may love to call us “pro-abortion,” but let’s be clear, we are “pro-abortion” only in the fact that we believe anyone who wants an abortion to be able to access one safely and easily without hurdles, roadblocks, or waits. But the last thing we want is for a person who really wants to stay pregnant and give birth to find themselves seeking out an abortion because they don’t feel they have the resources they need to make it through the pregnancy.
Pregnancy centers do serve an important role in our society, offering financial, material, and governmental support to people who want to give birth and don’t have everything they need. Unfortunately, pregnancy centers are almost exclusively a tool of abortion opponents seeking to convince someone not to end a pregnancy, and as such offer medically biased and sometimes outright false information. Anti-abortion pregnancy centers will try to trick or coerce people into giving birth when they do decide they want an abortion, imposing their choice on the person who is pregnant. And then, in many cases, they rip that assistance away shortly after the birth, or within a few months, claiming they are trying to help that person not develop a “cycle of dependency” on outside help.22
But pregnancy centers don’t have to be coercive, or political. In Indiana, All-Options Pregnancy Center offers counseling to those who are truly conflicted about their unplanned pregnancy. They advise on the pros and cons of abortion, birth, parenting, and adoption, holding no choice as more valid than another and offering resources and support for each option if the person wants it. They recognize that the person who is pregnant and considering an abortion today may be a person who already gave birth, or who will give birth in the future under different circumstances, or someone who had an abortion in the past and wants to consider different options this time. They believe people who give birth and people who have abortions are all the same people, just at different stages of their lives.
To learn more about All Options Pregnancy Resource Center, go to https://alloptionsprc.org/, or call 812-558-0089.
They also have a wish list of items that can be easily sent to their location:
Gifts and donations can be sent to their physical address at 1014 Walnut St., Bloomington, IN 47401.
We need more of these nonjudgmental, secular resources outside the bounds and rules of the religious Right. Supporting All Options is just the first step in getting there.
Pre- or post-Roe, with legal abortion in every state or without it, funding abortions is going to be the absolute most important thing you can do to keep the procedure accessible. Luckily, it’s also one of the easiest things you can do.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, as of 2014 about 75 percent of those who seek abortions are low-income, making abortion costs a major hardship financially—one that many are unable to cover without outside assistance.23 Because such a large proportion of those who are low-income are also people of color, the inability to obtain an abortion because of financial needs isn’t just an economics issue but a racial justice issue, too.
When it comes to making sure that people can afford the procedure, a good first stop is the NNAF. NNAF funding can be used in every state in the nation, and donating to NNAF offers the most flexibility when it comes to supporting a variety of patients across the country.
You can donate straight to NNAF on their website at https://nnaf.formstack.com/forms/donate.
If you prefer to do it by check, you can fill out a form that can be found at https://abortionfunds.org/cms/assets/uploads/2017/03/NNAF-Donation-Form_fillable_041117.pdf.
And send your check to:
National Network of Abortion Funds, PO Box 22457, Philadelphia, PA 19110
If you want to speak directly to someone about other means of donating, such as monthly donations, matching gifts, or stock designations, call 617-267-7161, ext. 2.
But maybe you want to fund something more local? Or you want to make sure that the people in areas where legal abortion is likely to disappear can get to whatever clinics remain for help? There are also regional abortion funds, state-based funds, and even funds for those who need to travel for late-second- or third-trimester abortions.
When Roe is overturned, there is a very strong possibility that Florida will be the only state in the Southeast with legal abortion care. For many people seeking abortions, that will likely mean a plane ticket to a city that offers care somewhere in the northern part of the country, an additional expense on top of the abortion itself.
To specifically help those in the South, consider donating to NNAF’s “Parker Fund,” named after Dr. Willie Parker, who provides abortions primarily in Mississippi and Alabama, where restrictions have already made it extremely difficult to terminate a pregnancy. “I have made providing abortions in the South my life’s work because I believe that all women deserve access to safe, legal abortion care,” Dr. Parker told Glamour magazine in 2018. “That includes women living in the South, women of color, and women with low incomes. When laws like [abortion restrictions] go into effect, these women are at the greatest risk of going without the care they need and facing the harmful consequences that accompany such a void.”24
If you want to provide more support for those with late second- and third-trimester pregnancies, those who are terminating with medical complications, or those who have extreme circumstances to overcome like incarceration or trying to obtain a termination without notifying a partner or parents, you should consider donating to the Tiller Fund, started in memory of the late Dr. George Tiller, assassinated in his own church for his work in providing abortions.
Both funds can be reached at this URL, and you can designate the fund recipient there: https://nnaf.formstack.com/forms/fundabortion.
Funding abortions can also start literally at your front door. There are funds in nearly every state that help provide either for those having an abortion at a clinic in the state, or for those from that state who need to travel elsewhere for care.
Not all funds function in the same way. Some funds are places patients should contact directly to get assistance, and the fund will work with the clinic. Other funds are ones where the patient contacts the clinic, and the clinic will then contact the fund. Some funds will also provide financial support for costs related to obtaining the abortion, or arrange for additional needs like lodging or travel, providing practical support aspects, too, but not all funds do both. Patients should be sure to understand what the fund can and can’t provide and who will initiate the contact with the fund—the patient or the clinic. All funds are in desperate need of more financial support from donors and more volunteers to work their hotlines.
Check the state-based resources section in the back of the book to find state abortion funds to support.
If you have a chunk of change you want to donate, go right ahead and do it—every fund would be more than grateful for the support. But while one donation is a huge help, recurring donations are even better since they help these organizations plan for expenses coming down the road, too, and let them know that even if the fund goes dry in August, September means a fresh start.
If you have the financial ability, consider becoming a monthly donor. A five- or ten-dollar-a-month donation may hardly be noticeable in your account, but being able to rely on it doesn’t just help organizers plan ahead, it saves them the resources needed to fund-raise if they run out of money down the road. As one activist on Twitter suggested just after Justice Kennedy announced his retirement, if churches can rely on people to give 10 percent of their income in tithes, shouldn’t those who support reproductive rights and have the financial means consider doing something similar for abortion funds?
Gas cards are one of the best items to donate to any group that assists abortion patients. While abortion funds tend to help primarily with payment for the procedure itself (often working directly with a clinic to ensure the procedure is paid for), there are a large number of incidentals that may not end up in the initial cost that can still create barriers to getting the abortion itself.
Cards to gas stations can be especially useful, as they not only can be used to close the gap in travel expenses (especially for patients who are forced to drive to a clinic twice due to mandatory in-person waiting periods of twenty-four to seventy-two hours, or those who need to leave the state in order to get an appointment at all), but they can also be used to purchase food, drink, painkillers, sanitary pads, and other necessities while a patient is away from home.
“We like to do gas card drives,” explained Meg Stern, a reproductive justice activist and support fund director at Kentucky Health Justice Network. “We ask donors to buy Kroger cards, or prepaid credit cards when they shop. It’s an easy way for them to make an impact, especially if they accumulate points for buying cards.”
If you want to put more effort just into being sure that the person getting an abortion and any support people they bring with them are actually eating, you can also purchase restaurant gift cards to give to local groups for the patients they are assisting. Ask whichever organization you are supporting which restaurants are closest to the clinics or the hotels where patients may be staying, and especially focus on places that offer delivery so an abortion patient doesn’t need to put any more effort into traveling than necessary.
Cards for gas, restaurants, even hotels can all be obtained at discounts if you use customer loyalty programs, and also if you transfer credit card points to purchase them. If you are looking for the best way to use these loyalty or rewards programs to benefit someone trying to access abortion, contact a fund or your local reproductive rights or reproductive justice organization and ask them exactly what they need (food cards, gas cards, hotel rooms), then address those specific requests.
Of course, some people will be traveling from other states, or from rural areas, and in their cases a Holiday gas card or a certificate to Domino’s for a delivery doesn’t do much good because those vendors aren’t out there. In those cases, Stern says, her group offers Visa cards instead.
Some advocates may feel somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of essentially offering straight cash to a patient, but Stern feels such concerns are unjustified. She says these cards provide the biggest flexibility for a patient, allowing them to pay a sitter or family member who is watching their children or maybe pay a bill they had to put off for a month to have enough money to pay for the procedure, among other things. “We aren’t trying to be gatekeepers,” Stern said. “The more power we can put into the patients’ hands, the better.”
Stern notes, however, that because Visa cards have a surcharge attached, their group is more likely to purchase other cards.
At this point, there isn’t really an easy way to donate airline miles in order to help a person fly to a clinic for an abortion. Every airline has its own specific frequent flier program, and while some do offer ways to pool miles (either various people into one pool, or various airlines into one pool for one individual), the actual transfer of miles tends to be an expensive process. If you want to dedicate miles, consider contacting your local abortion fund or practical support group for suggestions.
Hotel points and loyalty programs for lodging also come with the same roadblocks when it comes to donations. If you are still invested in finding a way to give hotel points to people who may need to stay overnight near a clinic, again, talk to a local fund, a practical support group, or a local reproductive justice or rights group about which hotels are most likely to be used and how you can directly assist.
There is a distinct difference between an abortion fund and a practical support group, although there are a number of funding groups that provide practical support as well as part of their case management.
For the most part, abortion funds exist to help those who need an abortion find the financial resources to cover the expenses (the procedure, gas, hotel if necessary, and so on). Some work directly with the clinics to find funding, others directly with the patients to meet their needs.
A practical support group, on the other hand, may do abortion funding, but much of their mission is to handle the nonprocedural needs of patients, such as providing transportation to a clinic or a place to stay if the patient needs to remain in town overnight, or making sure meals are delivered to the patient’s hotel or home so the patient can rest, or even finding childcare so the patient can make it to a multihour appointment. Practical support groups are also a lifeline for patients with language barriers or disabilities, providing translation services and additional physical support, and ensuring that those who need accessible clinic entrances or transportation can get them. Practical support is also a necessary part of aiding minors navigating the abortion process, from helping them get to clinics to handling judicial bypass in parental-notification-and-consent states.
While abortion funding already exists in many states, the practical support networks needed to help patients overcome the additional roadblocks besides just paying for an abortion aren’t nearly as prevalent. Practical support networks were thrust into the media more prominently starting in 2014 as the Texas Omnibus Abortion Bill was put into effect, at one point closing more than half the clinics in the state and leaving the remainder located in just five large urban areas. The Cicada Collective, which had formed in April 2013, began the very public work of arranging travel for Texas patients trying to get to the closest clinic for care, a job that conservative media derisively called “abortion vacations,” as if Texans were jaunting off for a weekend on the beach.
Since then, practical support groups have spread across the country, arranging travel, meals, and places for patients to stay when they need to cross long distances for care. Some of the most public abortion practical support groups are below, organized geographically, and all of them need donations and volunteers.
(If you are calling one in order to obtain support for your own abortion, always leave your name, a phone number to be reached at, where you live, what clinic you will be using, and the date of your appointment.)
p.o.w.e.r. house (montgomery, alabama)
Run by the Montgomery Area Reproductive Justice Coalition, the P.O.W.E.R. House can be used by the patients of Reproductive Health Services of Montgomery and their companions. It offers shelter, a night’s stay with enough notice, and a place for a patient’s support person to wait with children if they have been brought to town for the appointment.
https://montgomeryareareproductivejusticecoalition.wordpress.com/
montgomeryareareprojustice@gmail.com
ACCESS REPRODUCTIVE CARE SOUTHEAST (ARC SOUTHEAST)
Serving patients in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee, ARC can help arrange rides to clinics, escorts to an appointment, or lodging near abortion clinics throughout the Southeast.
855-227-2475
https://www.arc-southeast.org/
Or contact them via their support request page at https://www.arc-southeast.org/assistance-form.
AASN is able to provide limited rides to the state’s abortion providers in Little Rock and Fayetteville.
501-712-0671
https://www.arabortionsupport.org
This organization helps cover transportation and lodging expenses for those who need to travel to access an abortion in Texas or for Texans accessing care outside the state. This includes bus and airplane tickets as well as hotel rooms and other necessities. This group serves all of Texas.
844-900-8908
https://fundtexaschoice.org/
Bridge provides transportation and lodging specifically for patients using Austin-area clinics. Lodging is often provided in the homes of their volunteers. Volunteers have all been trained and vetted by the group to ensure safety.
512-524-9822
https://thebridgecollective.org/STANDinfo
This group provides practical support such as lodging, transportation, and abortion doulas to North Texas abortion clinics.
940-441-3337
http://www.cicadacollective.org/ntx-abortion-support-network-ntx-asn.htmlntx.asn@gmail.com
Like the others, CASN provides practical support like rides and overnight lodging for patients coming to Houston-area abortion clinics.
281-947-2276
http://clinicaccess.org/index.html
The Frontera Fund specifically assists those in the Rio Grande Valley, either those seeking an abortion in the valley or those trying to travel from the valley to other clinics. The group primarily provides financial support to cover hotel costs for these patients.
956-307-9330
https://lafronterafund.org/
Home to one of only a few third-trimester providers in the country, the city of Albuquerque often sees many out-of-state patients. The New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice provides food, lodging, and transportation to those in need of services to make that trip a little easier.
http://nmrcrc.org/if-you-are-pregnant/financial-assistance/officeassistant@nmrcrc.org
(Note: please attempt to use the secure request form found on the financial assistance page before trying to contact the group via e-mail.)
Set up specifically for those in the Pacific Northwest, NWAAF’s travel support program will help arrange transportation and patient stays in local homes to help make an abortion more accessible. NWAAF funds those in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska.
866-692-2310, ext. 3
https://nwaafund.org/travelhelp/
Located in Oregon, this group provides abortion doulas for support during procedures, as well as transportation to clinics in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.
Access will provide transportation and lodging for those who may need to travel within California in order to access an abortion clinic.
800-376-4636 (English); 888-442-2237 (Spanish)
https://accesswhj.org/how-access-can-help
This Louisville organization coordinates support needs for those heading into Kentucky from neighboring states or those who may need to leave the state in order to access care.
Located in Chicago, MAC offers travel coordination and funding, lodging, food, medicine, and emotional support for those seeking a termination in the Midwest, or Midwesterners who need to leave the region to get an abortion.
Haven Coalition offers lodging and personal escorts to and from abortion clinics in all five boroughs of New York City.
Brigid is an abortion travel support group that is in the process of expanding services. They provide practical support like travel, meals, and childcare for those seeking later-second-trimester care at Choices Women’s Medical Center, ParkMed NYC, and Planned Parenthood NYC. These providers all provide pregnancy terminations up to twenty-six weeks in. They are also working to expand their network beyond the New York area, and they connect patients seeking third-trimester care with providers that offer it.
Self-managed abortion at this point isn’t legal in the United States, but that hasn’t stopped those who either cannot or choose not to access a clinic from inducing their own abortions. To help address those who are already determined to self-induce, Women Help Women launched Self-Managed Abortion: Safe and Supported, an informational website on World Health Organization protocols for self-induction and a help line for those who may be considering self-managed care, staffed by English- and Spanish-speaking advocates from overseas.
One of the biggest battles in abortion rights has been fought in the courts over the last five decades, and whether or not Roe is overturned, that will continue to be the case. We need lawyers to stop future restrictions, we need lawyers to protect the access that remains, and we need lawyers to defend the new bills we will be passing strip bad laws off the books when we eventually expand access again.
Also, unfortunately, we are going to need a lot of lawyers to defend those who are arrested for managing their own abortions in states where abortion is made illegal, or who assist those people in determining their own reproductive future.
There are already a number of groups that are training lawyers, or that have legal staff who are assisting those already attempting to access abortion care in an age where abortion is often legal in name only. You can support them financially or with your volunteer hours. Here is where to reach out.
Established in Texas in 2001, JDP connects pregnant minors with legal representation to help them navigate the parental consent process or seek judicial bypass or emancipation if they wish to abort, or address pregnancy discrimination issues in school or work if they choose to remain pregnant.
24-7 hotline: 866-999-5263; Administrative line: 512-444-7891
8 a.m.–11 p.m. text: 866-999-5263
https://janesdueprocess.org/
https://janesdueprocess.org/donate/
SIA offers information on rights a person has if they choose to manage their own abortion outside a clinical setting. The team can be contacted on its legal help line if a person is being questioned by police over a miscarriage.
Legal helpline: 844-868-2812; Signal secure phone or message: 707-827-9528
https://www.sialegalteam.org/
Send an encrypted message from ProtonMail Account to sialegalteam@protonmail.com
Formerly Law Students for Reproductive Justice, If/When/How is a national nonprofit that trains, networks, and mobilizes law students and legal professionals to “work within and beyond the legal system to champion reproductive justice.” The group also has a Supporting and Centering People of Color Initiative to ensure more marginalized communities have their voices uplifted and brought to the forefront of the legal movement.
1730 Franklin St., Suite 212, Oakland, CA 94612
510-622-8134
https://www.ifwhenhow.org/
info@ifwhenhow.org
Donations online: https://www.ifwhenhow.org/give/
Donations by mail:
ATTN: Development
1730 Franklin St., Suite 212, Oakland, CA 94612
The Center for Reproductive Rights has been the legal representation for many people in the state and federal reproductive rights cases in the country, and will continue to be even if Roe is overturned.
Center for Reproductive Rights
New York Headquarters. 199 Water St., New York, NY 10038
Main phone: 917-637-3600
Main fax: 917-637-3666
https://www.reproductiverights.org/
Donations online: https://www.reproductiverights.org/about-us/donate
Donations by phone: 917-637-3619
Donations by mail or fax: https://www.reproductiverights.org/sites/crr.civicactions.net/files/page_uploads/crr_donate-mail_fax_form.pdf
The ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project is the reproductive rights arm of the American Civil Liberties Union, and supports legal challenges against state-based legal restrictions.
125 Broad St., 18th Floor, New York NY 10004
212-549-2500
https://www.aclu.org/issues/reproductive-freedom
Donate online: https://www.aclu.org/donate-aclu?ms=web_horiz_nav_hp
Of course, it doesn’t do any good to fight to keep abortion legal if there is no one to actually provide the care. Training new abortion providers is imperative to maintaining abortion access, but more medical schools are either allowing students to opt out, moving abortion training programs off-site to make them more difficult to access, or just eliminating them altogether.
“More than a third of ob-gyn residency programs don’t offer routine abortion training,” writes Dr. Jody Steinhauer, the founder of Medical Students for Choice, in the New York Times. “Some programs offer training only on treating someone who is managing a miscarriage, so those residents do not gain skills in counseling and caring for women who want to end their pregnancies. Most family medicine residency programs still have no abortion training at all, even though family physicians are critical for providing high-quality family planning within primary care services.”25
The lack of abortion training in ob-gyn practices endangers all people who can get pregnant. After all, despite the claims from abortion opponents, there really is such a thing as a medically necessary abortion, and simply waiting on an induced labor rather than actively providing medical care is the surest way to put a patient’s life at risk.
To encourage more medical schools to provide full-spectrum training, contact your local colleges and universities and ask them if they currently offer abortion training on site. If not, demand to know why they choose to limit their students’ medical training. Consider directly contacting the college or school board to advocate for abortion training, especially if you are an alumnus or donor. Also ask if they support any of the programs listed below, and consider gathering other alumni to petition them if they say they do not. The more noise we make, the more likely they are to listen.
PO Box 40935, Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-625-0800
Fax: 215-625-4848
students@msfc.org
https://www.msfc.org/
Donate: https://www.msfc.org/about-us/giving-to-msfc/
PO Box 410164
Cambridge, MA 02141
617-661-1161
https://www.providecare.org
https://www.providecare.org/contact/
Donations: https://www.providecare.org/donate/
For almost as long as there have been clinic protesters, there have been clinic escorts. Escorts serve as a safe contact for patients outside a clinic, assisting them in navigating past those who may be trying to block their path or who continue to interact physically or verbally with them or their companions even after being told to stop.
While the escorts may not be directly associated with or connected to the clinic they are escorting at, clinic escorts are always there with the acknowledgment and consent of the clinic. Note: coming to a clinic without the permission or knowledge of that clinic is not helping patients—it is no different from what abortion opponents do.
The biggest issues to remember as an escort is that you are there for a patient, and your presence must balance out any harm that comes from you being on the sidewalk. To a patient trying to access care, all people in front of the building add to the already often stressful experience of trying to enter an abortion clinic. Escorts are there to de-escalate that stress as much they can.
An escort is not a counterprotester. They should never have signs or make political statements. They are there to tell the patient that they don’t have to speak to protesters or “counselors” if they choose not to, and to move them quickly and safely into the clinic. They should never interact with those who oppose abortion when they are in front of the clinic, whether there is a patient present or not. That can cause confusion for a potential patient who may be coming in or leaving, and it can also escalate tensions in front of the clinic.
An escort reflects on the clinic. Regardless of whether your group is directly organized by the clinic or is an independent venture, your actions will reflect on the clinic itself and how the community views it.
Escorting is not just a physical commitment but also an intense emotional one. You must be caring, empathetic, and also able to control your temper when abortion opponents not only attack you with violent and incendiary rhetoric—even in some cases physically engage—but also attack the patients and their companions. In some cases protesters are at the clinics specifically to try to provoke a reaction from patients, escorts, and staff that they can then use to sue the clinics, the volunteers, or even the local police force if it gets involved. They will often use sexist and racist attacks, telling people of color they are participating in their own genocide or telling male-presenting companions to “be a man and rescue your baby,” and the escort must not only not respond but attempt to deescalate the situation if the patient or companion interacts. You must assume that there is a camera on you at every moment and you must be able to remain completely composed at all times.
It is far more difficult than it sounds, and not something everyone is capable of doing. If you know this doesn’t suit your temperament but you still want to directly support clinic escorts, consider donating to the Clinic Vest Project, which provides escort vests for free to groups across the country. Because abortion opponents often try to purchase vests in the same colors as the escorts’, many escort groups find themselves forced to rotate vests frequently to prevent confusion for the patients.
You can contact the Clinic Vest Project at http://www.clinicvestproject.org/and
donate at https://www.mightycause.com/organization/Clinic-Vest-Project.
Or you can send a check to:
2735 N. Clark St. #181, Chicago, IL 60614
So you’ve thought it through, and you really do believe you are ready to help directly assist pregnant people at the clinics and do so in a way that is safe for the patient, the clinic, and yourself. How exactly do you get involved?
1) Contact your local clinic. Want to escort at a nearby clinic? Just contact them directly and ask them if there is an escort group. They’ll likely be more than happy to tell you who to contact to get involved. Remember, though, many clinics do not use escorts—to minimize activity in front of a clinic, because they feel escorts aren’t needed there, or for other reasons. If you ask them and they say they do not use escorts, absolutely do not under any circumstances go to the clinic and attempt to escort anyway.
2) Contact your local abortion fund. Your fund is likely to know the clinics better than anyone and can probably tell you what sort of opportunities there are to volunteer—either at the clinic or with the fund itself. There are many face-to-face volunteer opportunities beyond escorting, and a fund can redirect you if your skills are a better fit somewhere else, or make the introduction if escorting is your calling.
3) Check social media. Try googling “clinic escorting” or “clinic defense” and your target city name, or searching on Twitter. Both should provide you with nearby groups to contact.
Some clinic groups that are open to more volunteers are listed in the “State Resources” section of the Resource Guide.
As patients are forced to travel longer distances to get to legal clinics, it will be imperative that they have places to stay in order to make it to their appointments. If all of the South bans abortion, as some expect, pregnant people could be traveling as many as eight hours in one direction just to receive care. That will mean a minimum of one night’s stay, maybe more, adding at least a hundred dollars onto a basic first-trimester abortion cost.
There are already programs out there looking at a way to lodge patients with people near the clinic on a case-by-case basis. In Madison, Wisconsin, NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin launched a sleepover program to offer rooms hosted by vetted supporters, allowing patients to spend a night in town at no cost if necessary.
As abortion access disappears, there is no doubt that these sorts of programs will become even more necessary, but the reality is that they are also extremely resource-heavy from a nonprofit or volunteer point of view. Not only does the practical support group sponsoring the program have to vet sponsors, but it also has to coordinate calendars, openings, and other moving parts, making such programs rather labor intensive.
Some reproductive rights activists suggest that the effort and financial backing needed for vetted overnight stays would be better spent on simply providing volunteers and money to the support groups themselves in order to allow them to more easily streamline the work and keep it all under one roof, as well as to better ensure the comfort and privacy of the patient through a hotel or other arrangement. But there are practical support groups who do this sort of work and find it extremely helpful for patients in need.
If you are interested in offering your room or home to a person needing an overnight stay in order to get an abortion, contact your state NARAL affiliate or abortion funds affiliate to discuss the possibility. But before doing so, here are a few things to consider:
If you have concerns about any of the above, consider a different way to help, including renting out the space now and giving the proceeds to a local support group to allow them to rent hotel rooms more easily.
Of course, in an ideal world, we could put the infrastructure in place to offer all sorts of assistance to people who need to travel for abortion care. Much as abortion opponents have purchased properties adjacent to abortion clinics in order to set up their crisis pregnancy centers, with enough financial backing practical support groups could purchase buildings that are strategically placed for maximum impact—perhaps even former abortion clinics themselves.
These “abortion hostels” would offer office space for the organization to work out of, as well as a few bedrooms to be used by patients in need. Patients could leave their children in an open common area to be watched by volunteers while they are at the clinics. Finally, a kitchen area would offer a centralized place to prepare meals for patients either staying in the hostel or nearby to help them reduce extraneous costs associated with the procedure.
“Abortion hostels” could also exist in cities where there is no clinic to serve as a gathering point for patients out in the vast landscape of states that will no longer have legal abortion. A hostel in Little Rock, for example, could act as a place for those in surrounding areas to join up and commute together to a clinic in Illinois, with the hostel hosting a passenger van or bus for patients, reducing travel costs like gas or bus tickets and providing the opportunity for patients to travel through the night in order to be at the clinic early for a procedure.
Even faster, obviously, would be airlifts for those who need to cross a large number of states to access care—especially those reaching later gestations or with medical complications. The idea of privately flying patients may seem extreme, but it’s not completely without precedent. Already there are groups like Air Care Alliance (http://www.aircarealliance.org/directory-groups) that organize volunteer pilots who have their own personal aircrafts and are willing to donate their time to transport people who require medical care. There is no reason not to believe there are pilots who would be happy to help abortion patients in need if someone just reached out to them.
Obviously vans, charter buses, hostels, airlifts, and the like are major expenses (and in some cases probably outright pipe dreams) and would require massive fund-raising and a large amount of coordination between local and national volunteers. But it is a network that has to exist in a post-Roe era, and it is our job to do everything we can to be sure that those already building this network have the resources they need to complete it.
Of course, there may be some people who want to give their support to these causes but are concerned about privacy. Maybe they are worried that a partner or family member will see a donation on a credit card statement or a canceled check, or they may have other reasons to try to keep their support as anonymous as possible, especially in hostile red states. For that reason I have tried to include physical addresses whenever possible so financial donations, gift cards, and other assistance can be sent directly to organizations. I have also included phone numbers for those without mailing addresses, with the hopes that potential donors who don’t want to donate online can call directly to get an address if it is unlisted.