Improving Abortion Access, Bringing Health Care Home
August 15, 2013Each time I take a road trip down California’s magnificent highways, I can’t help but think of the dozens of people who have stayed in my home while in the Bay Area for an abortion. I pass the road signs indicating the off-ramps for Modesto, Los Banos, and Humboldt thinking fondly of the friends I made, but sad about how far they had to travel for their abortions.
For over a year, I have served as a Practical Support Volunteer for ACCESS Women’s Health Justice; I house, prepare dinners for, and give rides to people staying in the Bay Area for an abortion procedure. They come by bus, train, and sometimes car, traveling for four-to-five hours at a time, because access to abortion procedures near their hometown is lacking. They come because they didn’t realize they were pregnant until it was past the gestational limit and the clinic nearest to them couldn’t perform the abortion. They come because the time they took to thoughtfully consider all their pregnancy options meant their procedure would cost more.