More great reporting from Texas Public Radio about the brave and creative ways that people in Texas are finding to help others get the health care they need outside the state.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Texas made obtaining an abortion virtually impossible. For a state as large as Texas, getting to where abortion is legal can be the challenge.
But volunteer pilots are giving flight to women in need of abortion care.
Bart — not his real name — rolls back the hanger door where his plane sits.
“This is the girl,” he said. “So for confidentiality reasons this is Susan.”
TPR also needed to change his pet name for his airplane because Bart and Susan are partners in an active underground effort — flying people to access abortion care when they live in states where abortions are outlawed.
Susan is a single engine tight four-seater, built more than 60 years ago.
“But it’s got the range to make it to a couple of states out of here, and it’s pretty fast,” he said.
Bart is able to ferry someone in need of an abortion to another state where abortion is legal without too much time and trouble. All on the down-low.
Even though what he’s doing is completely legal, he asked that his identity be kept secret due to concerns of harassment from zealous anti-abortion activists.
“You know, there’s a group of people out there that are really gung ho to get on computers and dox people,” he said.
Bart is one of hundreds of volunteers with Elevated Access — an organization that coordinates small plane pilots with people in need of an abortion. The match-ups are done online. Elevated Access embraces anonymity. The pilots don’t even know the names of their passengers.
“I don’t know what they were going up there for. I didn’t ask, they didn’t tell,” he said. “It was just a coordinated request to go get somebody some medical care.”
As you can see from the Elevated Access website, their services are available for abortion and gender affirming care. Who knows what else they might be needed for in the future if things don’t change. I greatly admire the courage and the compassion that it takes to do this work, for free and at non-trivial levels of personal risk, even if the activity is currently legal. I also get, as a child of the 80s, an uncomfortably strong vibe of stories I used to read about brave dissidents behind the Iron Curtain seeking out ways to evade the government for forbidden books or movies or music, in the name of freedom and personal expression and what have you. It wouldn’t take a whole lot of editing to recast this story as one from that context. Anyway, read on and see what you think.