This year was recorded as the most restrictive year for abortion access in the United States. More laws that shortened legal abortion periods, allowed lawsuits against abortion providers and restricted insurance use for the procedure have been passed in state legislatures in 2021 than in any other year before, according to research done by the Guttmacher Institute.
Texas, in particular, has dominated headlines. On September 1, a near-total ban on abortion signed by Gov. Greg Abbott went into effect, raising alarms over threats to reproductive rights in the state and its implications for the rest of the country.
Recently, in response to the wave of backlash from Texas’ decision, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would codify abortion rights in the country, giving the power to the federal government. In a 218-211 decision, largely split along party lines, the House passed the Women’s Health Protection Act, which Democrats believe is a way to try and protect abortions rights and restrict states like Mississippi and Texas from having the ultimate power to decide on these matters.
NPR reports that the act protects a person’s ability to decide to continue to end a pregnancy and would protect a health care provider’s ability to offer abortion services under select circumstances. However, the bill was largely seen as a symbolic move, as it is unlikely to gain majority support in the Senate, where 60 senators are needed to beat the filibuster.
But the bill is one of many moves in an attempt to try and protect other states from passing bills like Texas Senate Bill 8, which allows people to sue abortion providers, as well as anyone involved in providing an abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected.
Texas Equal Access (TEA) Fund Executive Director Kamyon Conner is on the frontlines of the fight for abortion access in Texas. Through her work, Conner has seen how these new laws are affecting people who experience pregnancy. Conner has been with the TEA Fund, an organization that helps fund abortions for individuals in Texas since its founding in 2005. The organization was founded by a group of Conner’s college friends and in 2006, she joined as a volunteer at TEA’s Help Line.
“We are trying to support everyone that calls us and connect them to a clinic that they can go to or helping them pay for an abortion at a very early gestation period,” Conner said.
Conner is currently the first Black woman to serve as executive director of the organization. Conner said with all eyes on Texas and the threat that the state’s new law poses to the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade, she feels a lot of pressure in her role.
“It’s a lot of stress,” Conner said. “It’s a lot of microaggressions, microassaults, and a lot of that stuff also happens especially with fundraising, even when interacting with elected officials and anti-abortion laws and stigmas.”
The work the TEA Fund is doing serves as a resource for many in Texas, especially since 2017 when Texas passed legislation that no longer allows abortions to be covered by insurance companies.
“At TEA Fund we provide financial support to folks in the north, east and west regions of Texas,” Conner said. “In 2017, our state legislator decided that Blue Cross, Blue Shield, Aetna, or whatever you have can’t cover abortions anymore.”
The Texas law ruled that abortions after 6-weeks of gestation are illegal, but many people don’t know that they are pregnant until after that period. Conner said this makes TEA Fund’s resources and ability to connect people with clinics and resources even more critical.
“At TEA Fund we say that abortions are magical because they give people the futures they dreamed of,” she said.
Texas’ ban is one of many “heartbeat bills” being decided on in courts and state legislatures across the country. In Mississippi which is ranked among one of the 13 states with the most restrictive abortion laws in the country, there is only one licensed abortion clinic in the entire state. The state’s current law banning abortions after 15 weeks will be contested by the Supreme Court on December. 1.
Since the historic decision in Roe ruled abortions legal across the United States, many anti-abortion efforts have attempted to try and overturn that decision. This year, these efforts seem to be closer than ever.
“[I’m] not surprised,” Conner said. “We have seen for quite a while that access to abortions are not just about legality, they are also about dignity and our humanity.”
Despite the current situation in Texas, organizations like the TEA Fund are continuing to provide services and have also reached out to neighboring states for assistance.
Efforts to raise awareness of ongoing threats to abortion can be found on USC’s campus, too. The Student Assembly for Gender and Empowerment (SAGE) has been involved in raising awareness regarding current threats to abortion access throughout the country.
Co-Executive Director Celia Bartel said the organization has hosted events and educational programs this semester where they have had conversations about the new Texas abortion law
“Our mission is just to create programming and educational programming for people who are affected by gender-based harm,” Bartel said. “We’ve been encouraging folks to research the reproductive justice movement.”
Bartel and Conner both emphasized that the fight for reproductive rights is often commonly associated with abortion rights, but that there are many other issues that should also be discussed.
“We’ve been talking about is just that it’s important to note that reproductive rights and justice don’t just stop at abortion,” Bartel said. “Abortion bans that we’re seeing are just one of the many issues that are direct attacks on women and other vulnerable communities affected by gender-based harm.”