The Underground Abortion Railroad

[TBF]

Together, these organizations create a type of underground abortion railroad for women facing life altering events if they can't come up with the money for a standard, safe medical procedure.

With only 10 abortion clinics left in Texas and no government assistance for women looking to have the procedure, a network of small volunteer groups have created a system to help women get abortions—$50 bucks and a bus voucher at a time.

Riding the Rails of the Underground Abortion Railroad from Texas to New Mexico
by Taylor Prewitt
Feb 6, 2016

Four weeks after Isabel, a 22-year-old unemployed student, missed her last period, she tried to induce a miscarriage. Going off a instructions she found on the internet, Isabel took 500 mg of vitamin C once every hour alongside varying amounts of dong quai, black cohosh, and blue cohosh once every four hours, plus the occasional parsley tea, and a handful of organic sprigs of parsley fit snugly near her cervix. It seemed like a long shot but with no savings and no means to come up with an extra $610 to pay for an abortion at the Dallas Planned Parenthood, she kept the herbs and tincture routine for 20 days. When they failed to work, she resorted to working odd jobs, selling her guitar, and donating plasma. Twice a week, throughout the majority of her pregnancy, she lied to the plasma donation center about her condition to secure $40 bucks toward her own personal abortion fund. The process wasn't painful, but it did leave her extra nauseated. By the time Isabel was able to secure the $610 needed for the procedure, too much time had gone by. Her pregnancy had advanced to 19 weeks, pushing to the $2,500 dollar mark.

"I knew that if I couldn't afford to have an abortion in time, I would be forced to continue to be pregnant and to give birth when I never want to do either of those things," she told me over email. "I know I would have wanted to kill myself."

If Isabel lived in Massachusetts or California, she could have enrolled in Medicaid, making her eligible for state funding and making an abortion financially feasible well before the 12 week period when costs begin to increase exponentially. But Isabel lives in Texas. A state where more than 2.4 million women live in poverty and as many live without health insurance, Isabel's experiences are hardly atypical. In addition to legislation that has left just 10 abortion clinics within a 268,820 square mile region, Texas is one of 32 states that does not allow state Medicaid insurance to fund abortion procedures ...

Much more here: https://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/riding-the-rails-of-the-underground-abortion-railroad-from-texas-to-new-mexico

TEA Fund: http://www.teafund.org/
Lilith Fund: https://www.lilithfund.org/
West Fund: http://www.westfund.org/