Virginia abortion funds strain as state becomes ‘central access point’ for procedure in the South, advocates say

Once again, abortion providers in Virginia are preparing for an influx of patients, this time in response to a series of new restrictions on the procedure enacted in other Southern states, according to abortion rights advocates.

“Virginia is now serving as a central access point for abortion in the South, while also currently facing its own barriers to care,” said Tarina Keene, executive director of REPRO Rising in an emailed statement.

This demand has also strained funds that help pay for those seeking abortion to travel to states like Virginia and get the procedure done, according to several abortion rights groups representatives.

“Abortion funds in states where more and more are being forced to travel in particular, including Virginia, are shouldering the need while experiencing a steady decline in donations a few months after the Dobbs decision,” said Oriaku Njoku, the executive director of the National Network of Abortion Funds. “In order to ensure that abortions are accessible and available, it is critical that individuals and philanthropic entities invest in abortion funds for the long-term to ensure they have the support they need to strengthen and sustain the power to navigate the rapidly shrinking landscape of abortion access.”

Funds across the state are working together but running out of money they can allot out early in the week, according to Sara Blachman, intake coordinator at the Hampton Roads Reproductive Justice League. The volunteer organization is smaller compared to other larger funds across the state. It mostly helps women in the Tidewater area obtain abortions because they don’t have the capacity to help those with larger expenses such as traveling across states to get abortions, according to Blachman. She said the funds, most of which work on weekly budgets, work together as best they can to help women.

“All of us are running out of money on the first or second day of the week and we are actually trying to coordinate like how we can stagger things so we can not all run out of money at the same time (of the week) but that’s because the need is so high,” Blachman said. “I would say in May, for like the last three or four weeks, almost every fund has run out of money before weeks end because the demand is so high and that’s been pretty consistent all month.”

For example, women from deep South states such as Florida, Georgia and Alabama have gotten abortions in Richmond while others from states such as Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia have gone to facilities in Roanoke, according to Jill Abbey, administrator of the Richmond Medical Center for Women. The organization also has branches in Newport News and Roanoke.

“We are finding ourselves booked much further out than we ever have before, which we hate,” Abbey said. “We hate not being able to take care of somebody.”

She said in the past they used to be able to get someone in within a couple of days and now its taking about two weeks to schedule and sometimes, not often, the women have to be connected with another facility.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a bill Thursday banning most abortions after six weeks which took effect once signed, according to the bill. South Carolina allows abortions up to 22 weeks currently, and like North Carolina and Virginia, only allows Medicaid use in very limited situations. A six-week abortion ban in South Carolina in the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade was previously struck down by the state’s Supreme Court as it was found to violate the state’s constitution, according to The State, a Columbia, South Carolina-based newspaper. The bill has already been challenged by a lawsuit launched by abortion rights groups. There were 5,300 abortions in South Carolina in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Republicans in North Carolina passed a 12-week abortion ban by overturning a veto by the Democratic governor last week. The ban and some other parts of the law go into effect on July 1. There were 31,850 abortions in North Carolina in 2020, according to the Guttmacher Institute. In the state, abortion is banned at 20 weeks and after. Additionally, those seeking abortions must get counseling 72 hours before an abortion, though it doesn’t have to be in person, also according to the Guttmacher Institute.

There were 18,740 abortions in Virginia in 2020 and abortion is banned after the beginning of the third trimester. Like North Carolina, use of Medicaid for abortions in Virginia is banned except in very limited situations and parental consent or notice is required for a minor to get an abortion, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Complications to getting an abortion in North Carolina, such as a requirement to have an in-person doctor’s visit 72 hours before the procedure, make it difficult to estimate how many more people will seek an abortion in Virginia, according to Abbey and RaeAnn Pickett, spokesperson for Virginia League for Planned Parenthood and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia. However, those groups estimate it will be thousands, according to Pickett.

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“That’s an awful long time for somebody who is coming from out of state if they were to have any out of state folks,” Abbey said.

However, the status of Virginia as a place where abortions can be gotten by residents of other states has its opponents, such as Olivia Gans Turner, president of the Virginia Society for Human Life.

“Virginians don’t want this this state to become a destination place, nor do they want their tax dollars paying for it, nor do they want to see our teenage daughters, or teenagers from any part of the country for that matter being exploited and brought into this state to get an abortion with or without their parents’ knowledge,” she said. “That’s a scary thought.”

Ian Munro, 757-447-4097, ian.munro@virginiamedia.com