How has the Work of Abortion Funds Changed Post-Roe?

Patients needed abortion funds even before the fall of Roe v. Wade in order to access care, but those needs have skyrocketed after Dobbs and as the abortion access landscape becomes more fractured. Tyler Barbarin, Director of Grants and Development for the Louisiana Abortion Fund, sits down to talk with us about how abortion funds are working overtime to help people access the care they need in the United States. 

An abortion fund acts as mutual aid, facilitating and providing access to logistical help for those seeking abortion care. Before the fall of Roe, abortion was still incredibly difficult to access in multiple regions of the country. Abortion funds coordinated logistics, organized travel, scheduled appointments, counseled patients before and after medical visits, and fundraised for access costs. In the current legal environment, abortion funds and their ability to assist patients varies from state-to-state. In Louisiana, for example, abortion is illegal, so abortion funds in the state may look like coordinating travel to and care in states where abortion access is still possible. The logistical, informational, and financial barriers that people now face are astronomically larger due to multi-state travel being introduced to the abortion access landscape.

Many—particularly cisgendered, straight white women—will have the resources and support to access an abortion even in environments that make it increasingly difficult to do so. Those who are most impacted by abortion-restrictive registration are BIPOC folks, those with limited or low incomes, and those who are already parents. And, despite abortion fund’s best efforts to assist, some barriers to abortion care will now be completely insurmountable to some, especially those who are most marginalized.

Links from this episode

Louisiana Abortion Fund
Louisiana Abortion Fund on Twitter
Louisiana Abortion Fund on Facebook
The South Has the Answers
Louisiana Abortion Fund’s 2022 Annual Report
Plan C
Abortionfinder.org
Ineedana.com
Repro Legal Helpline
Repro Legal Defense Fund
Digital Defense Fund

Take Action

Transcript

Jennie: Welcome to RePROs Fight Back, a podcast on all things related to sexual and reproductive health rights and justice. [music intro]

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Hi RePROs! How's everybody doing? I'm your host Jennie Wetter and my pronouns are she/her. And y'all, I have to say as I am recording this, my two cats are both laying here just, like, looking utterly exhausted and sleeping and just, like, utterly sacked out because apparently, they've had a very hard day watching me work. It's such a rough life for them. Anywho, I kind of feel how they're feeling. It's been a lot. It is that time of year where Congress is trying to pass all of their funding bills for next year. The fiscal year ends at the end of September, and if they don't pass all of these funding bills, the government will shut down on October 1st. So, there's just a lot happening and lots of appropriations bills moving and all of them, or so many of them, contain anti-SRHR provisions. Like, it's just bad, y'all. Just off the top of my head, there are bills that would eliminate funding for Title X, that would eliminate funding for the teen pregnancy prevention program, that would slash funding for international family planning and defund the United Nations Population Fund and the World Health Organization, and would reinstate the terrible Trump-expanded Global Gag Rule, that would prevent the military and the VA from covering gender affirming care, that would prevent them from implementing their new program that would allow soldiers to take time off of work and cover travel for soldiers who need to travel out of state to get abortion. It's just on and on and on. There are so many anti-SRHR provisions happening and it's just a lot to keep track of. And there are more than I talked about, but those are the ones that, like, just sitting here are coming to me at this moment and it's just bad. And so, we're really hoping that the Senate is going to do their part and block all of those terrible things and that we get funding bills that aren't terrible for next year. It's really important that we are funding all of these programs and making sure that people are able to access the healthcare they need. It just, y'all, it just feels so basic that I, yeah, we're having to fight this again and again and again. So, that's been what I've been up to the last couple weeks is focusing on appropriations. It's August now, so I'm hoping that things can slow down a little bit and be a little quieter and I'm trying to get through a bunch of reading in my inbox, like, reports I need to catch up on or books I want to read so I can have the authors on the podcast. So, that's all the work-related things, right? And then I plan to just like have a quiet August and try to enjoy some fun personal reading and some time to just, like, take a step back and relax, maybe go out and do some stuff with friends and just hopefully have a pretty quiet August. Yeah. It's just been a lot this year and August traditionally, working in policy, it's a little quieter ‘cause Congress is on recess, so usually can get a little bit more done and can just, like, take a step back from things. So, I'm hoping that is actually the case this year. So, we'll see. I think those are like the main things going on right now. Been doing some fun reading, saw some great recommendations for a book I just finished called Fourth Wing. And y'all, I stayed up until two o'clock one night before work trying to finish it, not trying to, I finished it because I could not put it down and I needed to know what happened and I was a little tired the next day, but I have no regrets unless you count the regret of like not reading it sooner. Yeah. So, that's what's been going on with me. I think let's turn to this week's episode. I'm really excited. I have Tyler Barbarin with the Louisiana Abortion Fund here to talk to us about abortion funds and what's going on post-Dobbs and it was a great conversation, and I am so excited for y'all to hear it. So, let's turn to my interview with Tyler.

Jennie: Hi Tyler. Thank you so much for being here today!

Tyler: Thanks for having me.

Jennie: So, before we get started, do you wanna take a quick second and introduce yourself and include your pronouns?

Tyler: Yeah. I'm Tyler Barbarin, she/they pronouns, and I am the Director of Grants and Development for the Louisiana Abortion Fund.

Jennie: I am so excited to have you here. And while I assume most of our audience is familiar with abortion funds, maybe we should just take a second and take a step back and talk about: what is an abortion fund?

Tyler: Yeah, so an abortion fund is an organization that lowers the economic and logistical barriers to receiving abortion care. What that looks like in this current landscape varies from state to state. As you know, things are illegal currently in the state of Louisiana, and so what our work looks like is helping people to coordinate travel and care in states where abortion access is still possible.

Jennie: That's so important and I'm so glad that we're gonna talk about it. And maybe we should start a little bit before the fall of Dobbs just so people can see how it has changed. So, okay. Let's talk a little bit about abortion funds before Dobbs.

Tyler: What people actually don't know is that abortion access was never a real thing for a lot of people in the United States, even before the Dobbs decision. So, in Louisiana, previously we had three clinics to service the entire state. They had varying degrees of barriers for access to care because of waiting periods, counseling requirements, ultrasound requirements, et cetera. And so, before the Dobbs decision, our work looked like still coordinating logistics and travel for people, helping to get people in to meet their appointment dates, helping to kind of coach people through or counsel them about what the process itself was depending on if they called us before having their initial visit or after. And also, what a lot of people didn't realize is that because of Texas experiencing the repeal of abortion access prior to Dobbs, we were already coordinating interstate travel for a lot of people in the Gulf South that couldn't access care even within their own state before 2022.

Jennie: Yeah, I think this is such an important thing to talk about. It's something we definitely talked about on the podcast before, but you know, it's not like everybody was magically able to access care and then all of a sudden with Dobbs, they weren't, right? Like, things were already in a really bad place through much of the country before Dobbs and there were abortion funds already on the ground, already doing the really important hard work.

Tyler: Yeah, absolutely. We view abortion funding as mutual aid. We view it as an investment in our communities that has been necessary for quite some time.

Jennie: Okay. So, now all of a sudden, Dobbs happens. So, what has changed?

Tyler: Yeah. So, unfortunately the logistical and financial barriers that our people are facing are just astronomically larger. The reality is that what used to be something that may have been as simple as a car ride or you know, an afternoon is now a multi-day multi-state travel experience for people. And what people don't really think about is, although travel is somewhat easy in today's day and age—you know, you can get on a plane and get to New York in three hours from Louisiana—there are a lot of like cultural and knowledge gaps, I guess that sometimes people have to face now that previously wasn't an an issue. We're very big about talking about how the South is its own unique place and the people here are their own unique people, and our cities look differently than cities in the North or the West or whatever. And so, people are not only navigating like a large barrier financially to go to another place and stay and receive treatment but they're also having to navigate things like public transit, which looks completely different in New York City than it does in New Orleans, Louisiana. And yeah, that's just some of what people are facing. I also think it's just a very scary time. People are very, very unsure of what is and isn't legal and that's intentional. Unfortunately, we have people in power that are trying to kind of obfuscate the truth and keep covered up what is still a constitutionally protected right to travel. And so, it's just the fear, the misinformation, and the uncertainty are also things that need to be navigated in a new way that wasn't the same pre-Dobbs.

Jennie: I was also just thinking as you were talking just, like, the information barriers, right? Like, we're highly involved in this movement, so, like, we know all of the things, but if you just hear Roe is overturned, you might think you can't travel to access abortion or you may not know abortion funds exist to help you pay for an abortion or help facilitate some of this stuff. So, I just have to assume, like, the information barriers are so large.

Tyler: Absolutely. And it's difficult because, you know, you would hope in a world where technology is at our fingertips that the answers would always be clear and at our fingertips as well. But there are a lot of entities out there and people that are kind of spreading and increasing misinformation. So, as much as we try to advertise, like, we are here to help, we exist, we're here for community, we're here operating out of a lens of you say you need help and we're here to give it to you, there is a lot of misinformation out there on the internet.

Jennie: And then the other thing that it really has me thinking is, like, people needed abortion funds to help pay for accessing care before they had to worry about, "oh wait, now I have to get from Louisiana to, like, Illinois or New York or somewhere that is quite far. It means I have to take time off of work. It means I have to work on how I'm gonna get there." That may mean it's gonna delay their ability to access care, which means the abortion's gonna cost more. Like, this has all just gotten infinitely more complicated.

Tyler: Absolutely. And I think that people- so we call it practical support and that's the portion of the money that we're able to give that kind of helps with the logistical questions, but people don't think about the fact that that means, you know, maybe a day of childcare, maybe that means, you know, food and hotel stipends, maybe that means gas, flights. The average pledge to folks like you said, has gone up because the time that they're able- the gestational stage that they're able to access care at is later in some cases due to these, you know, kind of complex and unnecessary barriers and burdens that people are facing.

Jennie: And I can only imagine that makes it so much harder for y'all, right? Like, I feel like I've seen, you know, huge influxes of money went to abortion funds, like, in the immediate aftermath, but this isn't a permanent solution, right? To get people to access care. You're not always gonna be getting like a huge spike because there was a, like, big decision. So, I can only assume that, like, this has just gotten so much harder to help the same number of people access care.

Tyler: So, yes, it has, I definitely don't wanna ever downplay the impact and the severity of the Dobbs decision, but I also want to uplift the fact that this is- we operate out of the reproductive justice framework and that's a framework coined by Black women that has been operating for some time that says, you know, we believe in people's right to have kids, right not to have kids, but also healthy and sustainable communities. And so, we've been building and we continue to build in hopes of creating, like, ecosystems of care which means that we're able to call on and tap on people who work in various realms of, you know, the world—transportation, housing, what have you—in order to support our clients. And so yeah, it's much more complex. People are not necessarily activated the same way they were in 2022, but our ability to, like, dig deep and to support our community, I think has also grown. And yeah, I mean always here to say: donate, donate, donate, stay engaged, stay supportive. But do think that we've got really brilliant people on our side and we, you know, are centering joy and happiness and community while we do this really difficult stuff. So, I'm still optimistic.

Jennie: I say this is the part that gives me all of the hope, right? Is all of the people on the ground who are like making it happen in any way they can. And like that has given me hope from, like, day one.

Tyler: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jennie: Okay. You kind of touched on a little bit, but it's definitely worth, like, really being explicit about is: who is being impacted by this, right? There are people who have money generally, probably white people, cis straight white women, are able to find the money they need to travel to access the care they need. And it is disproportionately impacting particularly Black women. And I think that is also something that is important to lift up and talk about.

Tyler: I would draw attention to our annual report. So, we try not to ask too many burdensome questions or unnecessary questions, but we do demographic info that is important to us just so that we know who is being impacted by legislation like this. And so, we know that a large percentage, a majority of our callers are Black. A majority of our callers—two-thirds—are already parents. We know that people who reach out to us tend to not have other means of pulling together, you know, the 200, 300, 400 extra dollars, but that's also, you know, most Americans can't pull together $400 for an emergency. So, it is impacting our communities and we live in the South and our people are really experiencing a lot of intersecting crises simultaneously. And so, that's why doing this work, particularly for me, is really important in Louisiana, in the Gulf South because South people down here are, you know, operating in the 48th worst education system. They're operating at the epicenter of the maternal mortality crisis. They're operating at, I believe, one of the last lowest states in women and child outcomes. And so, regardless of race like that is kind of the context that people are operating in. And then we know when you add in race as a factor, as a consideration, the crises multiply. And so yeah, it's definitely hard work but it's also life changing and life-affirming and radical for that exact reason. We are helping without, you know, requiring people to bear their trauma or to kind of cry to us and explain why they need help. We're just giving money out in a really radical way to people who say they need it because we believe them and we believe that they're worthy and deserving just by being alive.

Jennie: I think that, like, that part right there is so important because there's so much like abortion stigma in the ether, right? Even as we try to affirm its healthcare and a basic human right and all of those things, there's just still so much of the anti bleh everywhere and, and so to have a place to go when you are probably in a bad place if you're pregnant and don't have the money to cover it. And so, you're calling an abortion fund to then be affirmed and uplifted and, like, given as much support as you can. Like, that is huge.

Tyler: I also think that we oftentimes, like, want or need to say that it's a difficult decision or that it's, like, not easy...giving moral weight to the decision to have an abortion. But the reality is that- I think that a lot of times the opposition or, like, antis require us to prove why someone deserved to or needed to have an abortion. And the reality is that like a decision, a desire to no longer be pregnant is enough. Like, that is enough of a reason for anyone at any time to have an abortion. And we firmly believe that. And so yeah, I just think that unfortunately that there's so much anti kind of propaganda and, like, talk about why a person didn't deserve to make the healthcare choice that was right for them. But the reality is that, like, we're just here to help people do what's right for them.

Jennie: That was not my- when I said in a difficult place, I was thinking more of wanting to be pregnant and not being able to afford to not be pregnant. But I'm really glad you brought that up because I think that is a really important point of, like, so often people are being made to justify why they got it or this like thing in the ether where there's, like, good abortions and bad abortions. No, there's health care that you are accessing and that is that.

Tyler: Exactly. Exactly. And I think- I always love when people who are, like, clearly aligned have these types of conversations because I do think, like, we have to get to the root of, like, the unlearning that we have to do as people. And I think that, you know, it's easier to support something when you believe it's like a downtrodden, sad person that just can't pull it together without your help instead of just thinking of something as routine as a root canal. Like, they just deserve to have a root canal. Let's remove all of the rest of the moral stuff about children and family and all of that because it's a healthcare procedure, it's a decision that a person gets to make because they have bodily autonomy. And I think that unlearning and, like, getting to the root of it will all be better for having, like, candid conversations like this.

Jennie: Absolutely. And, like, the language matters, right? How we talk about it-

Tyler: Absolutely.

Jennie: -what we say—it matters. It matters to the people who are impacted. You know, we've had conversations on the podcast before about, like, why it's important to talk about pregnant people instead of focusing on women. Like, just little things that seem little to you and like nitpicky but they are huge to the people that they impact. So, it is really important to continue to learn and, I don't know, to me that just seems like a- that is part of life. You just, like, continue to learn and grow and become a better advocate, become a better speaker talking about these things and I see that as a good thing and something I'm always happy and willing to do.

Tyler: Absolutely.

Jennie: Okay, I think the next piece that we should talk about is: what do abortion funds need or what needs to happen to make sure that you are able to get as many people to access care as possible?

Tyler: Yeah, so I think this question is critical and also twofold. First, I wanna say that despite our best efforts, the barriers that are placed in front of people now will be insurmountable for some people. People are going to be circumstanced into having children, expanding their families in ways that they did not consent to and that they did not want. And so, I always wanna emphasize—and there are a number of abortion funds that are thinking holistically about reproductive justice—I wanna emphasize that we're gonna have to go beyond abortion and start thinking about making healthy and sustainable communities because there's gonna be a whole host of young human beings that are brought into this world in conditions that they didn't deserve. And so, first and foremost, wanted to lay that out, but also abortion funds I think just need support. I think donation is great. I think time is great. I think, you know, lending capacity—a number of abortion funds are actually fully volunteer run, which I think people don't recognize. And I think listening to the leadership that is on the ground that's been doing this work for some time. The Louisiana Abortion Fund has its own podcast that I would recommend to folks, The South Has The Answers, and we wholeheartedly believe that the South has the answers. And yeah, I think this is a moment in which people are super activated and passionate about abortion, but this is not the end-all be-all of the conversation of reproductive justice and we've been doing this, we've been in this fight for quite some time and so join in is how I would like to frame it.

Jennie: Yeah, and I think there are so many ways you can get involved, right? You can donate, you can donate your time, you can, you know, get involved at the state level and find out, like, what laws need to be changed and how you can support those changes.

Tyler: Yeah.

Jennie: Election season is coming up. You can, you know, make sure you go out and vote and encourage others to vote. Like, there are so many different ways you can engage.

Tyler: And I would say also, like, amplifying the voices and the work that's being done. I think sometimes we think the opposition is louder than us because it's, you know, an echo chamber. But I think sometimes if we can be more vocal about our wins, our joy, our resilience I think that would be a great way to kind of turn the tides, too.

Jennie: And check who you're following and who's voices you're raising. Like, it's really important. It's not just the big national organizations—that you are focusing on groups like state abortion funds and lifting up those voices because they are the ones on the ground, they are the ones that know what that particular area needs at that particular moment.

Tyler: Absolutely.

Jennie: Okay. I feel like that's like all the big things we had to talk about. Is there anything else you wanna raise?

Tyler: No, I think that's all for me.

Jennie: Okay. Then we'll just wrap up in my usual, like, what can my audience do right now in this moment to help?

Tyler: I would say definitely make sure you're following the Louisiana Abortion Fund on all social media platforms. Tune in. If you're in the Gulf South, then come, you know, we host block parties, we host events that are joy centered. We'd love to see more faces out there. And of course, always donate. As a Director of Grants and Development, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that. Yeah, and keep being passionate and being locked into issues like this.

Jennie: And if you can donate, if you can be a monthly donor, it goes a long way. It's a consistent amount of money that they know they can count on every month and it really does make a huge difference. You can give the same amount you are going to give but spread it out over the months. It seems like such a small thing but it really is important.

Tyler: Absolutely.

Jennie: Well, Tyler, I had so much fun talking to you also. I guess one more time before we leave, make sure to check out the podcast that Tyler talked about, The South Has The Answers.

Tyler: Yes, please tune in.

Jennie: Alright.

Tyler: Thank you.

Jennie: Okay, y'all, I hope you enjoyed my interview with Tyler and that you get to take some quiet time this August and I will see you all in two weeks. [music outro] If you have any questions, comments, or topics you would like us to cover, always feel free to shoot me an email. You can reach me at jennie@reprosfightback.com or you can find us on social media. We're at @RePROsFightBack on Facebook and Twitter or @reprosfb on Instagram. If you love our podcast and wanna make sure more people find it, take the time to rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. Or if you wanna make sure to support the podcast, you can also donate on our website at reprofightback.com. Thanks all!