Abortion funds run short of money as demand soars and donations fall

Olivia Goldhill
Jan. 23, 2024

The head of the Abortion Fund of Ohio had a sinking feeling as she looked at its end-of-year finances last month. The fund had paid out $1.5 million in 2023 to help close to 4,400 patients get abortions — up from 1,175 the year before — and the pace wasn’t sustainable. If the fund didn’t take a pause for a few weeks, she feared it would run out of money and have to close for good.

The nonprofit stopped taking calls on Dec. 19, and made the “very very difficult decision” to suspend operations until Feb. 1, said Taren Holliman, the organization’s program manager. It’s among a handful of abortion funds that have had to temporarily halt operations as demand outstripped donations. Both the Utah Abortion Fund and Indigenous Women Rising paused for a month last summer after exceeding their budgets, and many more are reevaluating their funding policies and tightening purses.

Continued: https://www.statnews.com/2024/01/23/abortion-fund-warning-demand-up-donations-down/

A year after Tennessee’s abortion ban, 14,000 people have faced limited choices, devastating consequences

Organizations nationwide pull together to offer options for unwanted pregnancies

by Sono Motoyama
August 24, 2023

In the year since Tennessee’s abortion ban went into effect on Aug. 25, 2022, about 14,000 pregnant people in the state have been forced to find other solutions for their unwanted pregnancies.

Some have driven hours to out-of-state clinics for abortions. Others have ordered and taken FDA-approved pills, with possible risk of prosecution. Still others, unable to obtain an abortion in Tennessee, have carried their pregnancies to term. Some have even turned to unsafe and ineffective methods, such as taking herbs, large amounts of alcohol or medications unintended for pregnancy termination.

Continued: https://mlk50.com/2023/08/24/a-year-after-tennessees-abortion-ban-14000-people-have-faced-limited-choices-devastating-consequences/

How one quiet Illinois college town became the symbol of abortion rights in America

Chris Kenning, USA TODAY
Jun. 4, 2023

CARBONDALE, Ill. – The 26-year-old had never heard of the distant southern Illinois town, but it had become the closest option.

So she cobbled together money. Found child care. Asked her brother for a ride. And set off early one morning to drive north across state lines to 22,000-person Carbondale.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/investigations/2023/06/04/carbondale-illinois-abortion-clinics/70180040007/

USA – Volunteer pilots fly patients seeking abortions to states where it’s legal

March 27, 2023
By Rose Conlon, NPR for Wichita

The pilot, clad in a blue windbreaker, recently pulled his single-engine, four-seater prop plane onto the tarmac of a small municipal airport.

The airport sits in a state where abortion is now banned in virtually all cases. But a short flight away in Kansas, abortion remains legal. That has launched a wave of travel from across the South and Midwest in pursuit of pills and procedures that used to be legal all across the U.S..

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/27/1166262892/volunteer-pilots-fly-patients-seeking-abortions-to-states-where-its-legal

27.03.2023

Midwest Action Coalition

‘We need to dream bigger’: As Roe v Wade marks 50th anniversary, advocates push further

Christine Fernando, USA TODAY
Jan 19, 2023

Each year since 1973, abortion rights activists have gathered on Jan. 22 for “Roe v. Wade Day” to celebrate the Supreme Court decision that granted a constitutional right to abortion.

But now, 50 years after the decision, Roe v. Wade Day will be different: Sunday will also mark the first anniversary of Roe since the ruling was overturned.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/01/19/roe-v-wade-50th-anniversary-abortion-access-womens-march/11030965002/

America’s abortion access divide is reshaping blue-state border towns

New or expanded health care clinics are starting to bring more people into small towns after the fall of Roe v. Wade.

By SHIA KAPOS
01/11/2023

A Tennessee-based health care provider announced plans in May — just one week after POLITICO published the draft Supreme Court opinion that foreshadowed the end of federal abortion protections — to open a clinic in Carbondale, Ill.

The provider, Choices, is seeing a steady stream of abortion patients from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas since it set up space in a shuttered dermatology office last fall, its only location outside Memphis.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/11/abortion-access-blue-state-border-towns-00077367

Boats, planes and automobiles: Projects aim to travel around restrictive state abortion laws

It’s not illegal to get an abortion off the Gulf coast or in a van in Colorado, critics and lawyers seem to agree. But other challenges remain.

By OLIVIA OLANDER
08/12/2022

In Colorado, abortion medication comes from a van parked near the state border. In Illinois, an organization is recruiting pilots to fly patients out of restrictive states. And in the Gulf of Mexico, an OB-GYN envisions a clinic at sea.

These headline-grabbing projects for abortion access are among the more audacious ways abortion-rights supporters are attempting to skirt state restrictions, and while they may be legal, they won’t be easy to set up or sustain.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/08/12/restrictive-state-abortion-laws-workaround-access-00051373

Abortion clinics see increased demand amid coronavirus: ‘The calls … are frantic’

Abortion clinics see increased demand amid coronavirus: 'The calls ... are frantic'

David Crary, Associated Press
Apr 14, 2020

NEW YORK – The coronavirus outbreak has fueled attempts to ban abortions in some states, but providers where the procedure remains available report increased demand, often from women distraught over economic stress and health concerns linked to the pandemic.

“The calls we’ve been getting are frantic,” said Julie Burkhart, who manages clinics in Wichita, Kansas, and Oklahoma City. “We’ve seen more women coming sooner than they would have because they’re scared they won’t be able to access the services later.”

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/04/13/abortion-clinics-see-high-demand-more-phone-calls-amid-coronavirus/2982538001/

USA – Indie Abortion Clinics Can’t Be Replaced, but They’re Dying Out

Indie Abortion Clinics Can’t Be Replaced, but They’re Dying Out
Abortion clinics that aren't connected to large national organizations like Planned Parenthood provide more than half of all abortions.

by Marie Solis
Dec 23 2019

Laurent Delli-Bovi is used to operating her Brookline, Massachusetts, abortion clinic in a state of financial precarity. Women's Health Services, which has been around for almost 28 years, has been in the red for the last 13 of them.

Delli-Bovi, the clinic's medical director, said those years have mostly consisted of "robbing Peter to pay Paul": putting off paying some bills in favor of more urgent ones. The independent clinic runs on a "day-to-day" basis, its future never guaranteed.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qjdp4x/independent-abortion-clinics-are-closing-thanks-to-abortion-restrictions

USA – As clinics close, more women go out of state for abortions

As clinics close, more women go out of state for abortions

By Christina A. Cassidy, The Associated Press
on September 8, 2019

ATLANTA — At a routine ultrasound when she was five months pregnant, Hevan Lunsford began to panic when the technician took longer than normal, then told her she would need to see a specialist.

Lunsford, a nurse in Alabama, knew it was serious and begged for an appointment the next day.

Continued: https://www.canadianinquirer.net/2019/09/08/as-clinics-close-more-women-go-out-of-state-for-abortions/