Statement on Medication Abortion Funding
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 26, 2022
CONTACT: naf@berlinrosen.com
Statement from Veronica Jones, Chief Operating Officer at the National Abortion Federation:
The National Abortion Federation is committed to helping as many patients as possible access abortion care. Let us be clear—any restrictions or bans on access to essential abortion care are the result of the Supreme Court’s devastating decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and cruel, anti-abortion extremists around the country who are determined to control our bodies and strip away our reproductive freedoms.
The current landscape puts abortion providers in the impossible position of simultaneously navigating patient care, complex and unjust legal constraints, and moral obligations. In this post-Roe world, clinics are closing, patients are forced to travel hundreds of miles for health care, and providers are experiencing an alarming rise in anti-abortion violence. Though we have been bracing for this moment, the cruelty of this reality is not lost on us.
Failing to incorporate our new post-Roe reality into our decision-making would put our staff and our entire operation at risk, ultimately leaving hundreds of thousands of people without access to care. With equity as our guiding principle, we base our decisions on the need to ensure the Hotline remains available for all, especially the most underserved and marginalized communities across the country. Those are the people who most need our support to access care, and we need to be here for them—today, tomorrow, and the next day.
As more states enact draconian abortion bans, our Hotline has become an even more vital part of the infrastructure of abortion care in the country, connecting people seeking abortions with the funding, travel logistics and guidance they need to receive safe, timely care.
Our Hotline’s recently updated funding guidelines for medication abortion ensure that as many people as possible can continue accessing care, and support providers and patients in the process. Under the guidelines, the Hotline funds medication abortions where the provider affirms that the patient either took the medication onsite at the facility or certified that they would take it in the same state as the facility or in another state that permits abortion at the point in pregnancy at which they accessed care.
The NAF Hotline is also ready and able to provide additional travel assistance to patients who may need it under these guidelines. Simultaneously, NAF continues to offer our member providers a range of resources that bolster their ability to provide science-backed, evidence-based care, even while complying with draconian laws designed to halt access to this essential care altogether.
Just since the fall of Roe, the NAF Hotline has provided financial support for more than 10,700 abortion procedures. To date in 2022, NAF has funded more than 70,000 abortion procedures, compared to more than 63,000 in the same period last year.
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