Ohio group helps women travel to nearby states for abortions
Faith Choice Ohio has arranged reproductive care for women since Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade
(A protestor in Ohio holds a sign that was held in response to a recent bill limiting abortions once a fetal heartbeat was detected.)
Ohio had a heartbeat bill take effect recently that limited abortions once a pulse is detected in the developing fetus. Activists throughout the state have organized to protest the state legislature’s antiabortion activities. They’ve also helped women without reliable transportation who were in need of reproductive care.
The Rev. Terry Williams is an ordained minister at the Orchard Hill United Church of Christ in Chillicothe, Ohio. He is also a leader within Faith Choice Ohio, which helps women travel out of state to get abortions. The organization also engages in other forms of advocacy at the grassroots level. He carries on a tradition within his church that at one-time included membership in the Clergy Consultation Service.
“It's like we get up every single morning and we've been hit by a new round of tornadoes,” Williams said. “It's like a tornado natural disaster every single day that we wake up because we just have this continuous struggle of trying to find ways to get people hundreds of miles to the care they used to only have to go 50 or 60 miles to get.”
The manner in which it works is patients at reproductive health clinics get referred to Faith Choice Ohio, which then assigns a member to counsel the woman before arranging for a method to get them to an abortion clinic elsewhere. Wait times in nearby states have been lengthier than they were before the Dobbs decision. So sometimes the situation calls for lodging in the cities with abortion care.
The women he’s helped have traveled to Pittsburgh and Erie in Pennsylvania for abortions. As with many other areas, it’s far more expensive to help women in rural areas than those who live in cities with buses as an available option. Most have been near or below the federal poverty guideline. Many are people of color.
In Ohio, nearly 20,000 abortions are performed a year. Roughly half are African-American.
The legislature is considering a total ban on abortion, with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the mother. They may also prevent women from getting the abortion pill. It will be difficult to flip the state legislature into Democratic hands because it has been so gerrymandered in favor of Republicans. That’s a problem seen nationwide. Even though the majority of state residents support abortion access, there is nearly impossible to get liberalized abortion laws or to prevent abortion restrictions because the deck is stacked against them.
Faith Choice Ohio hasn’t had issues with funding, but staffing has been something that has been a major challenge. Williams called for a regional network of people who crossed state lines to help those who needed reproductive care. He doesn’t think that abortion rights groups should be limited to one commonwealth. They need to communicate and collaborate.
“We are all in the same flood right now,” Williams said. “Just like floodwaters don't stop at the edge of the Allegheny the flood of need for abortion care is not going to stop at state borders. It's going to pour over it's going to bind us together.”