NAMPA, Idaho– Waiting in a long line at the post office with the latest shipment of “post-abortion care kits,” Kimra Luna received a message. A woman who had taken abortion pills three weeks earlier was worried about bleeding – and about revealing the cause to a doctor.
“Bleeding doesn’t mean you need to go in,” Luna responded on the encrypted messaging app Signal. “Some people bleed on and off for a month.”
It was a typically busy afternoon for Luna, a doula and reproductive care activist in a state with some of the strictest abortion laws in the country. These laws make work a constant battle, the 38-year-old said, but they draw strength from others in a makeshift national network of helpers — clinic navigators, abortion fund leaders and individual volunteers who have become a supporting cast for people in need. restrictive conditions. States seeking abortions.
“This is the underground,” said Jerad Martindale, an activist in Boise.
Abortion rights advocates worry that Idaho is a harbinger of the direction more states may take. Here, abortion is prohibited with very limited exceptions at all stages of pregnancy, and a law signed by the governor but temporarily blocked prohibits adults from helping minors leave the state for abortions without parental consent. Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about enforcing Idaho’s hospital emergency room abortion ban.
Carol Tobias, president of the National Committee for the Right to Life, said such laws protect unborn children. While she doesn’t know if anything can be done to stop people from helping others get abortions, she said, “I certainly wish they wouldn’t do that.”
But Luna and others consider their mutual aid work essential to the community.
“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just acted out of fear and didn’t do the things I do,” said the single mother of three boys, who uses the pronoun they. “I know I was put here to do this.”
Luna helps run Idaho Abortion Rights, launched in 2022 with extra bail money that was raised after they were arrested at a protest. Longtime activists, they strongly believe that abortion pills should be affordable and once took some to the state Capitol to prove that residents could still get them online. They recently got a face tattoo of a mailbox with abortion pills falling out.
Luna is a full-spectrum doula, assisting with both births and abortions. Most abortion work is remote, providing support, counseling, answering questions, and referrals to resources like abortion funds.
“We always find a way to make sure people get help, no matter what that help is,” Luna said of the group.
This also includes caring for people after an abortion. One April morning, Luna assembled aftercare kits on the couch, pink and purple braids falling in front of their faces as they filled packages with supplies like sanitary pads, Advil, over-the-counter stomach medicine and red raspberry leaf tea.
In places where abortion is legal, clinic navigators provide the same kind of logistical help. Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains has three navigators for its 21 clinics, one of which is virtual, in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada. They field about 1,000 calls a month — some from out-of-state patients who drive up to 17 hours for care, said Adrienne Mansanares, the organization’s president and CEO.
Abortion opponents try to steer people away from terminating pregnancies and toward centers that they say also provide support such as pregnancy-related information, parenting classes, and baby supplies.
For someone “who isn’t sure how they’re going to move forward and is trying to figure out what resources are available to them if they want to carry their pregnancy to term, there is support” in about 3,000 locations across the country, said Tobias of the Law Committee of Life. “That’s definitely the best way forward.”
Some people facing an unplanned pregnancy find answers online, like DakotaRei Belladonna Frausto, a 19-year-old student at San Antonio College in Texas. They sought an abortion a few years ago and found a Facebook group and eventually decided to start their own private Facebook group where people can share resources and experiences about abortion.
In April, about two dozen people gathered at a Boise community center to help Luna assemble boxes containing emergency contraceptives, condoms and information about abortion access.
Stephanie Vaughan, 39, said she had an abortion at age 17, when a baby could have prevented her from going to college and getting a good job.
Martindale recalled how a girlfriend managed to get an abortion when they were teenagers. He and his wife, Jen, now dedicate much of their free time to abortion rights in Idaho; they keep thousands of packages of emergency contraceptives on hand to donate.
“It’s a community responsibility,” said Jen Martindale, 48.
The next morning, the Martindales took reproductive health supplies to local stores that offer them for free. The first stop was at Purple Lotus, a clothing and accessories store.
Worker Taylor Castillo immediately opened a box: “Pregnancy tests? Oh, that’s good,” she said. “Those were flying!”
Castillo said he’s happy to help. When she suffered a miscarriage in 2021, her doctor prescribed the same pills used for a medical abortion. She wonders what would happen if she needed them today.
“Now everything is on fire,” she said. “The good thing is that there are mutual aid programs that are willing to stand up for us.” ___
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