When SCOTUS allowed Texas’ SB8 to stand last month, a wave of media attention and rage giving quickly followed. There was less coverage when, on September 24, Texas’ governor signed SB 4, which bans providers both inside and outside of Texas from prescribing, or mailing, abortion pills to or within the state.
While SB8 is the subject of ongoing court battles, SBs 4 and 8, combined with other restrictive laws already in place in Texas, effectively deny abortion care to the vast majority of Texans. SB8 has increased the average distance pregnant Texans must travel to access care by 14 times, from 17 to 247 miles each way. As a result, the costs of accessing care have also increased dramatically, with higher costs incurred to drive or fly, stay in hotels, find childcare, and take time off work.
Options for Donors
One way donors can ensure as many Texans as possible can access abortion care is to give to the state’s abortion funds. Our first action brief on the topic details how to provide money to 10 Texas funds with a single donation.
Abortion funds in nearby states also need donations. The vast majority of the more than 50,000 pregnant Texans who need abortion care annnually will have to go out of state. Providers in Oklahoma are already feeling the pressure; Colorado providers, who cared for pregnant Texans during the government’s brief ban on clinics operating in the state because of the COVID-19 pandemic, started preparing for a flood of Texans as soon as SB8 was passed. And since the staff of at least one chain of women’s health clinics has been advised not even to refer pregnant Texans out of state to avoid being sued, desperate state residents may increasingly have to turn to out-of-state providers for basic information as well as for help accessing care. Donors wanting to assist pregnant Texans, and in-state residents who also need care, should consider giving to the funds below.
Plan C: Plan C is a nationwide organization that provides a comprehensive guide to legally accessing self-managed abortion care, a highly safe and effective method of care. It’s not hard to imagine that, with the adoption of SB4, Texans may well travel to stay with relatives or friends in other states in order to access abortion medication by mail.
New Mexico: New Mexico is the only state bordering Texas that has protected the right to abortion care in state law, and New Mexican abortion providers were already being inundated with calls from desperate Texans. Donors can contribute to the following abortion funds: New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice; Indigenous Women Rising; and Mariposa Fund.
Kansas: Kansas has its issues, including requiring an ultrasound and “counseling,” but more people reached out for help from funds in Kansas than Oklahoma (or Arkansas, another highly restrictive state) during the extremist Texas governor’s executive order last year. Donors can support two abortion funds that work in Kansas: Midwest Access Coalition and Kansas Abortion Fund.
Oklahoma: As noted, Oklahoma providers are under pressure; this means the state’s abortion funds are being stretched, as well. The Roe Fund is there to help.
Colorado: Abortion funds in Colorado that may well receive calls from Texans in need, as well as their own residents and can use donor support include: Reproductive Equality Fund of The Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center and Cobalt Abortion Fund.
Arkansas: In this state, donors can support Arkansas Abortion Support Network
Giving to the National Network of Abortion Funds: Donors looking go give more broadly to support access to abortion can support the National Network of Abortion Funds, which provides money to funds across the country. Given that abortion care is still expensive even in states with greater access, investing in these funds will help ensure that poor and middle-class people are able to get the care they need wherever they live.