the abortion scramble: Buying vans to park near borders, light aircraft pilots to transport patients

[Demovictory9]

The ruling has set off a travel scramble across the country, with a growing number of states mostly banning the procedure. Clinics operators are moving, doctors are counseling crying patients, donations are pouring into nonprofits and one group is dispatching vans to administer abortion pills. Some cities — like Kansas City and St. Louis — also are drafting plans to help with the travel logistics.

Huntington has been preparing for this moment for months. Even before the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last week to end constitutional protection for abortion, the procedure had become difficult to nearly impossible to obtain in states including Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri.

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Huntington and others try to help move their appointments to clinics in Kansas, Illinois and even Colorado. If a patient is broke but has access to a reliable car, Huntington can offer gas cards. She works with nonprofits to arrange commercial flights and lodging. In recent weeks, she said, a group called Elevated Access has enlisted volunteer light aircraft pilots to transport patients to abortion appointments, sometimes departing from small rural airstrips.

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In Missouri, where abortions were already severely restricted, a new ban took effect Friday that only allows the procedure in “cases of medical emergency.” Kansas City leaders are weighing a $300 stipend to help employees travel for an abortion. And across the state, in St. Louis, elected officials are considering another measure that would use $1 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay for transportation, lodging and other logistical support for abortion seekers.

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Just the Pill, a nonprofit health organization that helps patients obtain abortion pills, is hitting the road. It has purchased two vans — one medication van and another where surgical abortions will be done — with plans to begin operating those vans by mid- to-late-July in Colorado. The idea is to be close to the borders of states that have restricted or outlawed abortion.

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Following the ruling, donations have been pouring in to abortion funds like South Dakota Access for Every Woman. Normally the group would get seven to 10 donations per month. Now they are getting 10 to 20 a day, said Evelyn Griesse, a co-founder of the group. The money goes straight to the abortion providers.

“If the woman says she’s using some of her own personal money to pay for the abortion, we say use that money to do your travel expenses," Griesse said.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/clinics-scramble-to-divert-patients-as-states-ban-abortion/ar-AAYYF9g

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

1. An organized women's and LGBT+ "underground railroad"

is a great idea, and may become a necessity.