Abortion is a Human Right

At Middle Church, we believe abortion is healthcare and access is a basic right. We also believe abortion isn’t just essential healthcare. It’s also essential religious liberty. The Supreme court decisions to overturn Roe v. Wade is grotesque and violent and a continued attack on bodily autonomy. Religious organizations have orchestrated a decades-long attempt to legislate their religious beliefs—turning people’s personhood into a battleground for political warfare. The war on abortion is about race, sexuality and gender. This attack on our bodies is intersectional and demands truth, justice and liberation as a collective action. People deserve to decide whether they create a new human. No state should be able to pass laws restricting that right.

As a part of this collective action, Middle is committed to caring for our members and community across this country. If you live in a state that’s banning abortion and need one, send us a message and we will do everything in our power to get you the care you need.

What action can we take together as a collective?

The Guttmacher Institute predicts that abortion will be explicitly or effectively outlawed in at least 26 states.  According to one estimate, 41 percent of women of childbearing age, mostly across the South and Midwest, will lose access to their nearest clinic, potentially increasing their average travel time by hundreds of miles.

The best thing you can do right now is donate to an abortion fund: an on-the-ground organization that helps arrange and pay for abortion care for patients who need it. 

Mississippi: Mississippi Reproductive Freedom FundAccess Reproductive Care-Southeast
Mississippi has just one abortion clinic left, and 91 percent of women in the state live in counties with no provider. The state has a pre-Roe ban, a post-Roe trigger ban, and a six-week abortion ban that’s currently blocked from taking effect.

Texas: Fund Texas ChoiceWest FundTexas Equal Access FundStigma Relief FundClinic Access Support NetworkLilith FundSYS (Support your Sistah)The Bridge CollectiveJane’s Due ProcessBuckle Bunnies Fund
In 2021, Texas enacted a trigger ban, intended to prohibit abortion in almost all situations, and a six-week ban which allows private individuals to sue abortion providers or helpers in Texas courts.

West Virginia: Women’s Health Center of West Virginia Choice FundHoller Health Justice
West Virginia has just one abortion clinic, and 90 percent of women in the state live in counties with no provider. West Virginia never removed its pre-Roe ban from the books, but in 2018, passed an amendment to the state constitution barring protection for abortion rights.

Kentucky: Kentucky Health Justice NetworkA Fund, Inc.
The Kentucky legislature effectively ended abortion services throughout the state in April, but already, 82 percent of women in the state lived in counties with no provider. In 2019, it enacted a trigger ban that would prohibit abortion if Roe were overturned.

Missouri: Missouri Abortion Fund
Missouri has just one abortion provider, and 78 percent of Missouri women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Missouri has a trigger ban intended to prohibit all abortion as well as an eight-week abortion ban that’s currently blocked from taking effect.

Arkansas: Arkansas Abortion Support Network
77 percent of Arkansas women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Arkansas passed a trigger ban intended to prohibit abortion in 2019.

South Dakota: South Dakota Access for Every Woman
South Dakota has one open abortion provider, and 76 percent of South Dakota women live in counties with no abortion clinic. The state enacted a near-total trigger ban in 2005, which would go into effect as soon as states are allowed to ban abortion.

LouisianaNew Orleans Abortion Fund
72 percent of women live in counties with no access to an abortion provider. Among other restrictions, Louisiana has a trigger law banning abortion after Roe is reversed “in whole or in part.”

North Dakota: North Dakota Women in Need Abortion Access Fund
North Dakota has one open abortion provider, and 72 percent of North Dakota women live in counties with no abortion clinic. It enacted a near-total trigger ban in 2007, which would take effect after the legislature approves a recommendation from the state attorney general clearing the maneuver as constitutional.

Wisconsin: Women’s Medical Fund
70 percent of Wisconsin women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Wisconsin has an unenforced pre-Roe ban.

Indiana: All-Options Hoosier Abortion Fund
70 percent of Indiana women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Indiana has numerous restrictions that make abortion inaccessible and, per Guttmacher, “[pave] the way for a comprehensive ban.”

Idaho: Northwest Abortion Access Fund
67 percent of Idaho women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Idaho enacted a trigger ban in 2019 that would take effect 30 days after the Supreme Court overturns Roe.

Utah: Utah Abortion Fund
63 percent of Utah women live in counties with no abortion clinic. The state enacted a trigger ban in 2020, which would outlaw most abortions after the legislative general counsel certifies that a court ruling allows it to do so.

Alabama: Yellowhammer FundAccess Reproductive Care-Southeast
59 percent of Alabama women live in counties with no access to an abortion provider. In 2019, Alabama enacted a total ban on abortion — currently blocked from taking effect — that would criminalize providing abortion care.

GeorgiaAccess Reproductive Care-Southeast
55 percent of Georgia women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Georgia enacted a six-week abortion ban that, once it becomes enforceable, would effectively prohibit all abortion.

Ohio: Preterm Access FundWomen Have Options – Ohio
55 percent of Ohio women live in counties with no abortion clinic. In 2019, Ohio enacted a six-week ban on abortion that’s currently blocked from taking effect, but wouldn’t be if Roe fell.

Oklahoma: Roe Fund
53 percent of Oklahoma women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Oklahoma has two pre-Roe abortion bans on the books, and in April, passed a near-total ban that criminalizes abortion. It is slated to take effect in August, provided the Supreme Court overturns Roe.

Nebraska: Abortion Access Fund – Bellevue, NE
40 percent of Nebraska women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Nebraska has a ban on abortions after 20 weeks. The Guttmacher Institute deems it “likely to ban abortion as soon as possible without federal protections in place.”

Michigan: Fountain Street Church Choice FundReclaim MI WIN Fund
35 percent of Michigan women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Michigan has a pre-Roe abortion ban still in place. The current governor supports abortion rights but access in the state is incredibly restricted.

Arizona: Abortion Fund of ArizonaTuscon Abortion Support Collective 
18 percent of women live in counties with no access to an abortion provider. Arizona has a pre-Roe abortion ban, as well as severe restrictions — including a 15-week ban signed into law in March — already in place.

Wyoming: Chelsea’s Fund
96 percent of Wyoming women live in counties with no abortion clinic. In March, Wyoming passed a trigger ban that would outlaw abortion five days after the Supreme Court overturns Roe.

Tennessee: Abortion Care TennesseeAccess Reproductive Care-Southeast
Not only does Tennessee’s constitution bar protection for abortion rights, but it also has a trigger law allowing the state to ban the procedure in most cases 30 days after the Supreme Court overrules Roe “in whole or in part.”

South CarolinaCarolina Abortion FundAccess Reproductive Care-Southeast
In 2021, South Carolina’s governor signed a six-week ban into effect, which was subsequently blocked by the courts. In Roe’s absence, the law would make most abortions illegal throughout the state.

IowaIowa Abortion Access Fund
Iowa has passed legislation banning abortion as early as six weeks, with only a few narrow exceptions. A court struck down that law after the state Supreme Court issued a ruling protecting abortion rights in 2018, but Republican lawmakers are working to advance an amendment saying the state constitution does not allow those protections.

FloridaFlorida Access NetworkAccess Reproductive Care-Southeast
In 2022, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law banning abortion after 15 weeks, which does not make exceptions for cases of incest, rape, or human trafficking.

MontanaSusan Wickland Fund
Though Montana’s highest court recognized the right to “procreative autonomy” in its constitution, the state’s legislature still enacted abortion restrictions in 2021, though they are temporarily enjoined under the law.

Virginia: Richmond Reproductive Freedom ProjectBlue Ridge Abortion FundDC Abortion Fund – VAStigma Relief Fund – VA
80 percent of Virginia women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Then-Governor Ralph Northam eased abortion restrictions in 2020, but it remains uncodified in the state constitution. The current governor, Glenn Youngkin, identifies as “pro-life” and seems to support further restrictions.

Pennsylvania: Women’s Medical FundWestern Pennsylvania Fund for Choice
48 percent of Pennsylvania women live in counties with no abortion clinic. Abortion access is extremely restricted. The state does not have a trigger ban but abortion would be without legal protection if Roe were overturned, leaving patients and providers vulnerable to criminalization.

New Mexico: New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive ChoiceWest Fund NMMariposa FundIndigenous Women Rising
In early 2021, the governor signed a law overturning the state’s unenforced pre-Roe ban. Nonetheless, the constitution lacks explicit protections, even as it accepts clinic overflow from more hostile states like Texas.

New Hampshire: Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire
30 percent of New Hampshire women live in counties with no abortion clinic. New Hampshire outlaws a safe second-trimester abortion procedure with no exception to protect a woman’s health.

KansasKansas Abortion Fund
In 2019, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that the state constitution protects abortion rights — but this August, voters will weigh in on an amendment directly challenging that decision. If the amendment passes without Roe as a backdrop, a Republican supermajority will have the opportunity to pursue restrictions on par with Kansas’s conservative neighbors’.

Source, The Cut