If you’re anything like us, you’re outraged at the news in the Dobbs v. Jackson case last Friday.
I’m horrified at the reality that every woman and pregnancy-capable person I know has been demoted to second-class citizen status, their right to make the most basic choices about their own bodies no longer protected under the law.
I’m also scared at what rights we may all stand to lose in the future, with Justice Clarence Thomas openly suggesting that the Supreme Court next review the rulings that led to legalized same-sex marriage, the overturning of homophobic anti-sodomy laws, and the right to privacy itself.
If you’re still reeling, I understand, because I have tried to figure out for several days what the most helpful possible course of action might be for me to take.
The first step? Providing resources on how pregnant people can seek abortions if they live in a state that bans it.
It is admittedly a bit up in the air what states are enforcing abortion bans, as at least two states with trigger laws — Utah and Louisiana — have had judges issue injunctions on those bans, and there are other states with murky situations. To make a long story very very short, many of these states have multiple conflicting abortion bans, i.e. they left their pre-Roe ban in place and passed one or more new trigger bans to take effect after the Supreme Court struck down Roe, making it very difficult to figure out what the law actually is at the moment. All of that is to say, check the law in your given state.
The first thing to note is that even medication abortions (that is, using mifepristone, also known as the abortion pill) are illegal in states with abortion bans. Even if you are able to get an abortion pill mailed to you in, say, Texas, it would still be illegal to use. Now, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said that states cannot ban mifepristone, but we’re still very early in all of this and it’s hard to say what you could face prosecution for right now. So if you are able to find a telehealth provider (or even a friend) that will mail you mifepristone, know that you will be breaking the law and could be putting yourself at risk.
However, there currently are no prohibitions on traveling from a state where abortion is illegal to seek abortion care in a state where it is legal.
This map from prochoice.org is a decent resource for finding abortion care. However, it appears to still list providers in states that have banned abortion in the last few days and now includes a notice telling patients to contact providers to double check if they are still operating. I would recommend, if you’ve checked the news and you know that your state is not offering abortions, just finding the closest provider in a state that you know is offering them still. For example, if you live in Arizona, where Planned Parenthood paused abortions amid uncertainty about the law but you are just one state away from legal abortion care in California, Nevada and New Mexico, you may just want to find the closest abortion provider in, say, San Diego and go from there.
Obviously, cost is going to be an issue for many people, and our site is directed at people of color and low-income people, who already had enough difficulty accessing abortion care pre-Dobbs. Abortionfunds.org recommends calling abortion providers to find the most inexpensive one, scheduling an appointment (even if you don’t know yet how you’ll pay for it — you can reschedule) and then contacting an abortion fund, which they list here.
Now, are you putting yourself at risk for searching for this information? Once again, it’s still perfectly legal to travel to seek abortion care in a state where it is legal. That doesn’t mean it will be legal in the future, or that anyone helping you won’t be prosecuted, since Texas and Oklahoma passed laws that allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a pregnant person seek an abortion. So, to be honest, we recommend being very careful, even at this early stage in post-Roe America. Delete your search history, including evidence that you read this blog post. Start using a VPN, use a secure browser like Firefox or Safari in incognito mode and a private search engine such as DuckDuckGo. Furthermore, you should delete any period tracking apps if you live in a state with an abortion ban, pay cash for pregnancy tests, and if you’re contacting abortion providers by email, we think you should use a throwaway account used specifically for that purpose.
That’s all for now. Stay safe, everyone.