People are wondering how they can help support abortion care and access now that abortion care is being restricted or banned in many states. While the reproductive health and rights community has long been expecting this outcome and trying to mobilize, the impact remains dire. Our region in particular is expected to see a flood of patients from Ohio, West Virginia, and Indiana who will not be able to access abortion in their states.
Local abortion service delivery organizations are creating new teleabortion protocols and trying to expand their pool of providers, while legal advocacy organizations are expanding judicial bypass services for minors, advancing workable teleabortion regulations, and challenging the constitutionality of abortion restrictions. There are also burgeoning groups that are trying to coordinate patient navigation, transportation, and funding. Our center is working on implementing data collection strategies to inform immediate harm reduction strategies and longer-term policy efforts.
- For those seeking an abortion
-
- Información en español sobre cómo acceder a un aborto en los Estados Unidos (Information in Spanish about accessing abortion in the United States): https://www.abortoeneeuu.com/
- Check to see what access looks like in your state: https://reproductiverights.org/maps/what-if-roe-fell/
- Find pills online through Plan C: https://www.plancpills.org/find-pills
- Find pills internationally through AidAccess: https://aidaccess.org/en/
- Self-Managed Abortion; Safe and Supported: https://abortionpillinfo.org/
- Self-Managed Abortion educational materials: https://www.reproductiveaccess.org/abortion/sma/
- Locate a clinic through Abortion Finder: https://www.abortionfinder.org/
- Locate a clinic through the National Abortion Federation: https://prochoice.org/patients/find-a-provider/
- Locate a clinic through I Need An Abortion: https://www.ineedana.com/
- Find an Abortion Doula: https://www.wearedopo.com/
- Keep yourself safe with cyber-security information from the Digital Defense Fund: https://digitaldefensefund.org/learn
- Keep yourself safe by being aware of fake clinics (also known as Crisis Pregnancy Centers): https://www.exposefakeclinicspgh.com/
- Get answers to legal questions: https://www.reprolegalhelpline.org/
- Receive counseling from All Options: https://www.all-options.org/
- Get emotional support from Reprocare Healthline: https://reprocare.com/
- Receive emotional support after an abortion: https://exhaleprovoice.org/
- A talk line to discuss abortion experiences with people trained to listen and provide unbiased support and encouragement of self-care: https://www.connectandbreathe.org/
- FAQ: Post-Abortion Care and Recovery: https://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/faq-post-abortion-care-and-recovery
- Find information on your right to access care and have it covered by your insurance or other health care coverage if you have it, where to go if you don’t have coverage, and how to get information if you don’t know: https://reproductiverights.gov/
- New Voices for Reproductive Justice's #SAYHERNAME Justice Fund will help to cover sudden expenses associated with sudden/tragic loss, Black women and their families who have been impacted by gun violence and gender-based violence, and assisting folx who have been impacted by abortion restrictions due to state-sanctioned and patriarchal violence: https://newvoicesrj.org/sayhernamejusticefund/
- For those seeking educational resources
-
- Abortion is currently legal in Pennsylvania (PA), but remains highly inaccessible to many. The workers at the Abortion Liberation Fund of PA have put together a Toolkit on Abortion in Pennsylvania to help individuals and communities practice informed pregnancy options and mobilize for reproductive justice.
- Do you not know the meaning of certain terms used in discussing abortion restrictions and protections and related legal terms? The Center for Reproductive Rights built a glossary to help familiarize you with terms related to abortion bans, restrictions, and protections.
- Confronting Pregnancy Criminalization: A Practical Guide for Healthcare Providers, Lawyers, Medical Examiners, Child Welfare Workers and Policymakers is a guide made by the National Advocates for Pregnant Women to educate and provide practical tools for law enforcement, defense attorneys, child welfare workers, healthcare providers, medical examiners, and legislators to stop the criminalization of pregnancy.
- RRHJ Technical Assistance Guide is a working and growing list of organizations made by The Frontier Project dedicated to providing assistance to reproductive health, rights, and justice organizations, as well as their clients/patients.
- A.bortion is a list of resources for every community.
- These maps from Guttmacher Institute and Center for Reproductive Rights show the updated lay of the land for abortion rights and access in the United States.
- Justifications for Crisis Pregnancy Centers DEBUNKED is a guide by Pro Truth on having tough conversations with supporters of anti-abortion pregnancy centers.
- SCOTUS Decision on Roe and Casey Toolkit provides graphics, the Black Reproductive Justice Pledge toolkit, and the SCOTUS toolkit from In Our Own Voice.
- HHS Issued Guidance to Protect Patient Privacy in Wake of Supreme Court Decision on Roe. Health care providers do not work for cops and complying in advance is against their moral imperative to provide care.
- NHeLP has released a two part blog series, Health Care Refusals & How They Undermine Standards of Care. Part I of the blog series is a very topline review of the topics covered in the original Health Care Refusals report. Part II of the blog series explores the impact of health care refusals, discrimination, and mistreatment on LGBTQ patients and their families.
- A Community-Informed Approach to Understanding Youth’s Perspectives on Abortion Access was collaboratively made by URGE, Advocates for Youth, and If/When/How to build an intergenerational youth-led, national movement for youth abortion access that dismantles parental involvement and judicial bypass laws through policy work, culture shift, and movement-building, in conjunction with local, state, and national partners.
- Instead of “rehabilitating” people in prison (physically, mentally, or otherwise), or at the very least, serving as a de facto health system for people failed by other parts of the U.S. social safety net, data from the most recent national Survey of Prison Inmates show that state prisons are full of ill and neglected people. Paired with the fact that almost all of these individuals are eventually released, bad prison policy is an issue for all of us — not just those who are behind bars.
- To bring a large body of research to a larger audience, the Society for Family Planning developed a video resource for people seeking care, A safe abortion that works for you. This video presents the several abortion options that pregnant people can safely choose from– from self-managed abortion to clinic-based care– as underscored by science.
- Physicians for Reproductive Health created a factsheet on ectopic pregnancy and induced abortions to help address some of the misinformation/disinformation in the media.
- The extremely unsafe, unsanitary situation for pregnant people in prisons and jails is about to get worse with the Roe reversal.
- The long-term decline in abortions in the United States that started 30 years ago has reversed—underscoring that the need for abortion care in the United States is growing just as the US Supreme Court has overturned Roe.
- Maternal morbidity and fetal outcomes among pregnant women at 22 weeks’ gestation or less with complications in 2 Texas hospitals after legislation on abortion.
- Are you under 18 and looking to obtain an abortion in Pennsylvania? Read Women's Law Project's Guide to the Judicial Bypass in Pennsylvania.
- The Constitutional Right to Reproductive Autonomy: Realizing the Promise of the 14th Amendment delves into constitutional rights and guarantees in U.S. law that undergird the right to reproductive autonomy—and how those principles, along with related jurisprudence, can strengthen reproductive rights going forward.
- Threats on All Fronts: How Lack of Access to Abortion, Health Care, and Workplace Supports Compound to Harm Women and Families, National Partnership for Women & Families identifies key policy metrics that are necessary to help pregnant and parenting people thrive including access to abortion care, Medicaid expansion, 12-month postpartum Medicaid coverage, paid family and medical leave, paid sick days, pregnancy discrimination protections, fair pay, increased minimum wage, and flexible scheduling.
- The Influence of Environmental Toxicity, Inequity, and Capitalism on Reproductive Health covers the environmental effects of capitalism and how low-wealth communities and people of color are experiencing drastically poorer reproductive health outcomes and higher rates of harm. This disparity is exacerbated by systemic inequalities that often prevent less privileged communities from accessing safer resources like organic foods, air conditioning, and comprehensive healthcare.
- State Abortion Bans Could Harm More than 1.3 Million Asian American and Pacific Islander Women shows that even with a lack of data to show a detailed picture across AAPI communities, the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum notes abortion is difficult to access for many AAPI communities for myriad reasons including "language barriers, cultural stigma, and low rates of insurance coverage." These barriers – which vary across AAPI communities – have been exacerbated by abortion bans that have been or are likely to be enacted in the wake of the Dobbs ruling.
- Drawing on a few decades of research, The Cost of Banning Abortion in Pennsylvania shows that banning abortion would severely harm women in the state, especially women of color and women with low incomes and concludes that the combined direct and indirect effects of a total ban on abortion in Pennsylvania would likely reduce wages in the state by $10 billion a year.
- For providers interested in prescribing medication abortions
-
- CONVERGE faculty and staff have put together a how-to guide on becoming a medication abortion provider in Pennsylvania.
- The Access, Delivered Provider Toolkit offers a step-by-step guide for initiating a modern medication abortion service within your primary care practice. It provides information on setting up the service, patient-centered standards of care, and resources for understanding federal and state regulations on abortion services.
- Training in Early Abortion for Comprehensive Healthcare (TEACH) has put together an online training where providers can learn evidence-based ways to: (1) Evaluate patients prior to provision of mifepristone for early abortion or miscarriage management, (2) Effectively counsel patients regarding medication abortion, and (3) Discuss criteria to determine the need for additional clinical services after use of mifepristone.
- Protocol for providing medication abortion care to patients remotely.
- This workflow provides guidance on how to provide medication abortion to patients remotely, either via phone or computer.
- Providers are now able to order and wear the a-ok. pin, which allows the wearer to send a polysemantic message: abortion is healthcare, it is ok to have an abortion, I support your right to an abortion, and I am a safe person to talk to about abortion. Abortion is ok.
- For those interested in volunteering
-
- SCAN (Steel City Access Network) is a new group focusing on providing transportation for folks seeking reproductive healthcare in southwest PA. We are just getting off the ground as an off-shoot from a local pro-choice repro clinic escort group, but will be looking for volunteer drivers in the near future. Fill out the form here to learn more and to get involved.
- For those who would like to donate to local efforts
-
- Allegheny Reproductive Health: Center Western PA Fund for Choice: https://www.wpafundforchoice.org/
- Planned Parenthood of Western PA: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-western-pennsylvania/get-involved/donate
- Planned Parenthood of Western PA Vivian Campbell Fund: https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-western-pennsylvania/get-involved/donate/vivian-campbell-fund
- Women’s Law Project: https://www.womenslawproject.org/donate/
- New Voices for Reproductive Justice: https://newvoicesrj.org
- Family Planning Patient Care Fund: https://donorbox.org/family-planning-patient-care
- You can support abortion providers and patients directly by ordering needed items from their wish lists: https://www.exposefakeclinics.com/supportrealclinics