Three years ago, in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority enabled states to severely restrict abortion or ban it outright. Since then, 17 states have enacted such limits; infant and maternal mortality have risen in many of them. But the impact of overturning Roe v. Wade extends far beyond medical catastrophes. It also appears in the quieter struggles—a myriad of small, compounding barriers that stand between individuals and their access to health care. Here are some of the stories of people who have stepped up to do what they can to provide care, and some of the women who found themselves trapped in a system increasingly difficult to navigate.
I wanted to learn about abortion access because I thought that pilots like me might be able to fly people to places where they could access care. For several months I did my homework, volunteering at an abortion access organization, talking to experts in volunteer flying, and trying to figure out how it could work.
Another pilot had reached out to some of those same experts. That other pilot and I pooled our money to get the initial legal expenses covered. We published our website, and then things started to go viral in May 2022 after the Dobbs decision leaked.
That September, with so much momentum in partners, volunteers, and donations, I made the switch to full-time. We’ve flown over 1.4 million miles to support more than 2,500 people needing abortion and gender-affirming health care.
Pilots have minimum fly-time requirements to stay proficient. It’s always more fun and engaging to have a reason to fly, as opposed to, “I gotta go out and practice.” If I can take somebody on a trip to get healthcare, that’s an even better reason.
There was an uptick in volunteer sign-ups after the election. About 500 pilots have been through our vetting process. Around 150 or 200 have done at least one flight for someone.
The aviation community is known for being made up of conservative, older, white men. Our volunteer roster skews towards white men, too, but we have much higher percentages of women and people of color than most other pilot organizations. Sometimes people sign up because they’ve had an abortion themselves and want to help people facing barriers. We even get some conservative pilots who feel that the government shouldn’t be telling people what to do with their bodies.
When we connect pilots and passengers, all they exchange is a first name and a phone number. The passenger can use an alias. We can help people who don’t have a driver’s license so they can’t go through airport security. Or maybe someone is in a domestic violence situation, can’t tell anyone they were pregnant, and can’t be away from home very long. We’ve also been figuring out what we can do to support people who need perinatal care. A lot of people are losing access to obstetric care and other forms of pregnancy support.
The vast majority who fly with us have never been on an airplane before. On one of our very first flights, a [patient’s] daughter jumped out of the plane and told the pilot, “That was freaking awesome!”
—Mike Bonanza, executive director, Elevated Access
