Achebe, the decision to terminate a wanted pregnancy was fraught, and the procedure emotionally traumatic and complicated. Achebe, who lives with her husband and 14-year-old son in Rockford, Ill., was told her baby had severe fetal abnormalities. “The whole place had a vibe that you could pull one of the books off the shelf and curl up,” said Ms.
TIME OUT DOLLS FULL
The two-bedroom apartment was cozy, full of books on the shelves and art on the walls. Others are forced to travel out-of-state to pick up the pills for medication abortions, turning a 15-minute trip to the pharmacy into a two-day odyssey. Many are arriving at clinics later in their pregnancies, leading to longer procedures. People seeking abortions are now traveling greater distances, in increasingly difficult circumstances. This July, they served 200, with most traveling from Indiana and Texas. In the month of July 2020, the Chicago organization served 40 clients, mostly from Indiana. The Supreme Court decision and its ripple effect have increased demand. The Midwest Access Coalition in Chicago and the Haven Coalition in New York have spent years building out a network of vetted volunteers that they can call upon at a moment’s notice. Some longtime activists bristled at offers that they saw as misguided and potentially dangerous virtue signaling from people who were not in any real position to open their homes to strangers at a moment when people needed accurate and useful information. In the days after the decision, abortion-rights activists made coded offers of housing, suggesting on social media platforms that abortion seekers “come camping” or “kayaking” in their state. Once abortion was legalized, those whisper networks disappeared, and formalized nonprofit organizations took up the work. Home stays have roots in a pre-Roe America, where women frequently traveled long distances for abortions, often relying on clandestine groups for help. Wade cast a light on a longtime practice, as several states banned abortion and others continue to move to dismantle abortion rights. The Supreme Court decision that struck down Roe v. But the Midwest Access Coalition in Chicago and the Haven Coalition in New York are two organizations that have long used a different model: home. They mostly turn to hotels for lodging for the women who need the financial assistance and some hand-holding to navigate state and federal rules that complicate abortion access. “I just felt for her.”įor decades, nonprofits, often tiny groups existing on shoestring budgets, have been paying for airfare, taxis, babysitters, meals and lodging to help women get to clinics. “It’s awkward as you might think it would be, having a total stranger stay in your home,” said Jill, who asked to use only her first name out of concern that abortion opponents might harass her. Maybe she could have offered the woman her own bedroom, with an en suite bathroom.
Jill spent much of the visit second-guessing her hosting choices: Had she done enough to make her guest comfortable? Perhaps she should have thought to have anti-nausea medicine on hand, or crackers.
TIME OUT DOLLS WINDOWS
These were the things Jill knew about the woman: her first name, her phone number and that someone would pick her up in the morning and drive her to a nearby clinic for an abortion.įor the next two nights, the woman hunkered down in Jill’s spare bedroom, a small, sparsely decorated space with a daybed with a blue-and-white floral comforter, exposed brick walls and windows overlooking a neighbor’s deck.
Her bus had been delayed for hours, and she was exhausted and nauseated, clutching a plastic bag with a container of Jell-O and a Powerade. The woman arrived at Jill’s Chicago apartment at around 10 at night.
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