The Quickie: U.S. Senators Introduce Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act
For Immediate Release: Dec. 9, 2022
Welcome to “The Quickie” — Planned Parenthood Action Fund’s daily tipsheet on the top health care & reproductive rights stories of the day. You can read “The Quickie'' online here.
In today’s Quickie: U.S. Senators introduce bill to aid with abortion-related travel costs and abortion care navigators help out-of-state patients access abortion care.
SENATORS BALDWIN AND MURRAY INTRODUCE REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH TRAVEL FUND ACT: Yesterday, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (WI) and Patty Murray (WA) introduced the Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act to provide grants to organizations that aid pregnant people with travel-costs associated with reproductive health services. The Reproductive Health Travel Fund Act sets up a grant program of $350 million per year from FY23 through FY27, which would be distributed by the Treasury Department to eligible organizations to fund individuals’ abortion-related travel costs and other logistical expenses, such as childcare, lodging, meals, doula care, and translation services.
“As a physician in Wisconsin, I have seen firsthand the detrimental impact the Dobbs decision has had on my patients’ ability to access health care. Abortion bans are forcing women to travel sometimes hundreds of miles across state lines or remain pregnant against their will,” Dr. Allie Linton, Associate Medical Director of Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin, said. “As a result, pregnant patients are confronted with multiple obstacles that can prevent them from accessing the health care they need including increased costs for travel, hotel stays and childcare. I am incredibly thankful for Senators Baldwin and Murray and for introducing the Reproductive Health Travel Act to help assist my patients and patients around the country access the healthcare they need.”
Read more in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Hill. Read the bill here.
ABORTION CARE NAVIGATORS HELP OUT-OF-STATE PATIENTS ACCESS CARE: This week, WXXI News highlighted the work of abortion care navigators at Planned Parenthood of Central and Western New York (PPCWNY). Abortion care navigators help patients arrange logistics and resources, such as finances, transportation, lodging, insurance, and more. Navigators’ work has become even more important since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, forcing many pregnant people to leave their home states to seek abortions in access-point states like New York.
“I probably never imagined in my lifetime this was going to be an issue again,” Pam Rotsky, a PPCWNY abortion care navigator said. “But it is, and I felt like I needed to get back to the work… Makes me feel a little blue sometimes, when I see patients who are already going through a lot now have to go through even more to get the care that they need.”
PPCWNY has seen a significant rise in out-of-state patients. In 2021, from July through November, PPCWNY saw 56 out-of-state patients, but during the same period this year there was an almost three-fold increase of 161 patients.
“We've seen a big increase in people coming from out of state for abortion care, but also some other types of care,” PPCWNY CEO and president Michelle Casey said. “We're trying a bunch of different things to really help the most people that we can.”
Read more at WXXI.