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.
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, here are some suggestions:
- 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
For those seeking an abortion:
- 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/
- 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/
For those seeking educational resources:
- 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.