Some states, cities spending tens of millions on abortion entry, report finds : NPR

Abortion rights supporters display outdoors the U.S. Supreme Courtroom on June 24, 2022, in response to its choice in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group.

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Abortion rights supporters display outdoors the U.S. Supreme Courtroom on June 24, 2022, in response to its choice in Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group.

Brandon Bell/Getty Photos

As a rising variety of states prohibit abortion, different states and a few native municipalities are considerably rising funding for abortion and different reproductive well being providers.

At the least 15 municipal and 6 state governments allotted practically $208 million to pay for contraception, abortion and help providers for folks in search of abortions within the yr because the U.S. Supreme Courtroom overturned Roe v. Wade, in keeping with knowledge offered to NPR by the Nationwide Institute for Reproductive Well being.

That is way over the roughly $55 million spent on comparable providers within the three years earlier than the Dobbs v. Jackson Girls’s Well being Group choice final June allowed abortion restrictions to take impact across the nation.

“We have seen unmatched motion throughout states and localities on the municipal stage to bolster entry to reproductive healthcare, and particularly round abortion, as a very speedy and direct response,” NIRH President Andrea Miller mentioned in an interview with NPR.

Cash has been put aside for a wide range of functions, Miller mentioned, together with allocations for abortion funds and help networks that present monetary help to folks struggling to pay for procedures, journey and different related prices. California, for instance, put aside $20 million to assist out-of-state sufferers journey there for abortions; Chicago’s public well being division allotted $500,000 to be cut up between Deliberate Parenthood of Illinois and the Chicago Abortion Fund.

Miller mentioned she hopes to see these sorts of organizations turn out to be much less depending on non-public donations.

“We’re listening to from abortion funds and sensible help networks that the requests they’re getting are astronomical, and they’re thus far past what they’ve ever been earlier than,” she mentioned.

Throughout a current name with reporters, Oriaku Njoku, government director of the Nationwide Community of Abortion Funds, mentioned organizations within the community are “fielding extra calls than ever and supporting extra folks than ever” whereas going through more and more complicated logistics as extra states enact restrictions. Njoku mentioned extra callers report they’re delaying abortions due to difficulties with entry.

Along with serving to sufferers journey and pay for abortion, some states have funded efforts to broaden their capability to supply abortions for folks touring from states with bans.

“These are states the place abortion stays authorized and largely accessible, and the place the demand is rising exponentially,” Miller mentioned.

New Mexico’s Democratic governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham, has pledged $10 million to assist construct a brand new reproductive well being clinic within the state. New Jersey is offering $6 million in state loans to broaden ladies’s well being clinics.

NIRH additionally tracks laws designed to guard sufferers who journey throughout state traces, healthcare suppliers and others who help them, from potential lawsuits or prosecution. Because the Dobbs choice, at the very least 11 states have handed what are often called “protect legal guidelines” designed to protect towards out-of-state authorized motion.