USA – More “navigators” are helping women travel to have abortions

By Lillian Mongeau Hughes
January 30, 2024

Chloe Bell is a case manager at the National Abortion Federation. She spends her days helping people cover the cost of an abortion and, increasingly, the interstate travel many of them need to get the procedure.

"What price did they quote you?" Bell asked a woman from New Jersey who had called the organization's hotline seeking money to pay for an abortion. Her appointment was the next day.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/abortion-travel-navigators/

30.01.2024

Commentary

abortion funds

abortion support networks

Brittany Fonteno

Chloe Bell

Melissa Fowler

National Abortion Federation

patient navigators

Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette

Access to abortion pills has grown since Dobbs

How activists, clinicians, and businesses are getting abortion medication to all 50 states.

By Rachel M. Cohen
Dec 27, 2023

Eighteen months after the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, and with a new Supreme Court challenge pending against the abortion medication mifepristone, confusion abounds about access to reproductive health care in America.

Since the June 2022 decision, abortion rates in states with restrictions have plummeted, and researchers estimated last month that the Dobbs decision led to “approximately 32,000 additional annual births resulting from bans.” Journalists profiled women who carried to term since Dobbs because they couldn’t afford to travel out of their restrictive state.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/policy/2023/12/27/24015092/abortion-pills-mifepristone-roe-reproductive-misoprostol

27.12.2023

Commentary

Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine

abortion pills

abortion support networks

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Elisa Wells

Expanding Medication Abortion Access

Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project

medication abortion

mifepristone

misoprostol

misoprostol only abortions

National Abortion Federation

Plan C

Red State Access

Reproductive Health Initiative for Telehealth Equity and Solutions

self-managed abortion

shield laws

Society of Family Planning

telehealth abortion

telemedicine abortion

Inside the secretive network of pro-choice activists on the US-Mexico border

Restrictions on abortion are harsh in northern Mexico. But an ‘underground railroad’ is filling the gap in services

Dánae Vílchez, Verónica Martínez
21 November 2023

Alma (not her real name), a young Mexican woman, became pregnant unexpectedly in June 2021. She already had a child and had no plans to have another. But living in the northern border state of Sonora, she thought she had limited options. Abortion in Sonora is only permitted in cases of rape or if the life of the pregnant person is at risk – neither of which applied to Alma – and people can be imprisoned for up to six years.

Then, a friend told her a closely guarded secret. An ‘underground railroad’ of pro-choice activists could help Alma find a safe way to terminate her pregnancy in Hermosillo, the state capital.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/mexico-us-feminist-women-human-rights-abortion/

‘Rage giving’ prompted by the end of Roe has dropped off, abortion access groups say

The windfall of donations that abortion access groups received following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade one year ago hasn't lasted

By THALIA BEATY and GLENN GAMBOA, Associated Press
June 24, 2023

The “ rage giving ” did not last. Abortion access groups who received a windfall of donations following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade one year ago say those emergency grants have ended and individual and foundation giving has dropped off.

After the Dobbs decision, some major funders of abortion access also have ended or shifted funding from organizations working in states where abortion is now banned, said Naa Amissah-Hammond, senior director of grantmaking with Groundswell Fund, which funds grassroots groups organizing for reproductive justice.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/rage-giving-prompted-end-roe-dropped-off-abortion-100352292

USA – Inside the Secretive Network of Abortion Pill Vigilantes

Since the fall of Roe, a covert chain of activists have banded together to provide abortion medication to those in red states—and they’re risking everything in the process.

Decca Muldowney
May 23, 2023

Denny spends many of their days sitting on their bed packing small pills into plastic ziplock bags, and then into brown envelopes, ready to be mailed out to people seeking abortion medications in states like Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio.

The pills are mifepristone and misoprostol—two medications that are the subject of intense political and legal debate. Every package of pills Denny mails out puts them in danger. But they won’t stop doing it.

Continued: https://www.thedailybeast.com/abortion-pill-vigilantes-are-operating-a-covert-network-from-mexico-to-republican-states

As abortions become harder to access, groups in Kentucky and Indiana raise money to help people get them

Louisville Public Media | By Morgan Watkins
Published May 21, 2023

Organizations across the country provide financial and other assistance to people seeking an abortion. And for a lot of people, it became much harder – and more expensive – to get an abortion after the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right to abortion last summer.

Kentucky outlawed nearly all abortions last year. So now Kentuckians have to go to clinics in other states, like Illinois, Indiana and Virginia, to legally access abortion.

Continued: https://www.wvxu.org/health/2023-05-21/as-abortions-become-harder-to-access-groups-in-kentucky-and-indiana-raise-money-to-help-people-get-them

21.05.2023

News

Abortion Support Fund

abortion support networks

All-Options

Hoosier Abortion Fund

Jessica Marchbank

Kentucky Health Justice Network

National Abortion Access Fund-a-Thon

Burner phones, aliases, code words: The secret networks that women use to circumvent Honduras’ abortion ban

MAY 20, 2023
Associated Press

Inside a little wooden house among the pine and oak forests of western Honduras' coffee-growing mountains, a woman opened a tiny package of pills, delivered to a nearby town. She didn't know it, but the medication had more than likely entered the country hidden in an activist's suitcase, from Mexico.

The woman, 27, was confident in her decision to have an abortion, but in the moment, she panicked. She knew she was breaking national law banning all abortions and could be prosecuted. Even more, she feared medical complications, or her religious family finding out.

Continued: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/burner-phones-aliases-code-words-how-secret-networks-help-women-circumvent-honduras-abortion-ban/

How feminist groups in Mexico are aiding abortion seekers in the U.S.

“Getting abortion pills into the U.S. is not as much of a challenge as being safe online,” say abortion companions.

By LORENA RÍOS and DANIELA DIB
8 MAY 2023

Over the past 11 months, some members of Tijuana-based feminist organization Colectiva Bloodys y Projects have reported an increase in demand for their services. The organization provides information on at-home medical abortions and how to access medical abortion pills through platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Crystal P. Lira, an abortion assistant at Colectiva Bloodys y Projects, told Rest of World that the recent surge in demand, to a great extent, has come from people based in the U.S.

According to abortion assistants at organizations like Colectiva Bloodys, this uptick coincides with the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade last June, which had ended previous protections on abortion rights at the federal level. In 2021, Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to punish abortion as a crime. Verónica Cruz, director of abortion assistance organization Las Libres, told Rest of World her group was now dealing with 200 to 300 calls from the U.S. every day.

Continued: https://restofworld.org/2023/mexican-women-help-us-abortion-seekers/

The Supreme Court Can’t Stop Underground Abortion Networks. And They’re Thriving.

“No matter what laws and bans are out there, people are going to find a way to get access to the care that they need.”

By Carter Sherman
April 21, 2023

A common, safe, and effective abortion pill could be yanked from the market or placed under restrictions by midnight Friday, depending on the outcome of the first major abortion case to hit the Supreme Court since Roe v. Wade was overturned last year. Abortion clinics across the country have spent weeks bracing for this moment, consulting with lawyers and rapidly recalculating if and how they will perform abortions if they’re forced to change how they use the drug, mifepristone.

But regardless of any ruling from the Supreme Court on the fate of mifepristone, the nation’s highest court can only control the legal market for the drug. It has no real ability to dictate what happens within the thriving world of underground abortion networks—where mifepristone has continued to flow and where demand for the drug will likely skyrocket, rather than fall, if the Supreme Court tries to cut off the U.S. health care system’s supply.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en/article/ak3g98/mifepristone-supreme-court-ruling-wont-stop-underground-abortion-pill-network

In post-Roe America, these Minnesotans are getting people to their abortion appointments

They're part of a movement to support those navigating the new abortion landscape. In some states, case managers' jobs are targeted.

By Briana Bierschbach Star Tribune
APRIL 14, 2023

Emily Mohrbacher spent all morning working through the queue, but by early afternoon, the list of people needing her assistance had climbed back up to 43.

Laptop open, earbuds in, Mohrbacher snacked on a fig newton in her Minneapolis kitchen and got back to work. She used an encrypted app to send a few questions to a woman in another state who had an abortion scheduled the next day but no way of getting to her appointment. As she waited for a response, Mohrbacher checked in with another client from Nebraska who needed to get to St. Paul for her procedure.

Continued: https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-abortion-access-navigators-help-patients-travel-to-appointments/600266744/