This Week in Abortion: Getting and Keeping Access to Abortion

A collection of good reads, events from the week, and policy insights on abortion and reproductive health.

Welcome back to This Week in Abortion - Your weekly Substack roundup of good reads, news updates, and policy insights on abortion access.

This week I’m really excited to share my one-on-one interview with Sarah Garza-Resnick, CEO of Personal PAC, Illinois's pioneering abortion rights organization! Sarah’s insights apply wherever you happen to live, and they are critical for those of us in Illinois.

There were also plenty of moves on the federal level this week, so don’t forget to check out the news updates at the end.

I’m planning to take the next couple of weeks off, so bring this one to the beach or a patio, and dig in.

Getting and Keeping Access to Abortion

A Conversation with Personal PAC's Sarah Garza-Resnick

I recently connected with Sarah Garza-Resnick, CEO of Personal PAC. Based in Illinois, Personal PAC was until recently the only statewide political action committee in the country dedicated solely to protecting access to abortion. They were at work long before the Dobbs decision overturned Roe v. Wade.

The results are striking. Sarah notes, "In 2024, 25% of the people that were forced to flee their states and become medical refugees came to Illinois," to get an abortion. She paints a sobering picture of reproductive freedom under attack while maintaining fierce determination for the work ahead. "We are always one election a cycle away from losing all of our rights," she says, but, "the most radical revolutionary thing that we can be doing right now is being loud and proud about our stories."

Read the full interview below. And, check out PersonalPAC.org to learn more about their work in Illinois, find out about events, and donate.

Tell me a bit about Personal PAC’s work. How has it evolved since Dobbs?

When Personal PAC’s founders gathered around a kitchen table in the late 80s, Illinois was one of the most anti-abortion states in the country. They knew that we couldn’t rely on the federal government to protect us and that Roe would eventually be overturned. So, a small team worked systematically to win a couple of legislative seats in our state legislature every single cycle.

And we do that in a really simple way. We raise money. Then we send out questionnaires to everyone running for office and make endorsements based on their responses. We do it from the library board of trustees all the way up to the governor. We have become the place where pro-choice voters go to get information.

We are a state PAC, meaning we only focus on state-level races in Illinois - nothing federal. In 2017, we passed HB 40, which eliminated Illinois’ trigger law and allowed state Medicaid to cover abortion. In 2019, we passed the Reproductive Health Act, which enshrined abortion as a fundamental right in Illinois law. And then, in 2021, we repealed parental notification of abortion. In the post-Dobbs world, we’ve continued protecting patients and providers by passing a shield law, making birth control and medication abortion available on public college and university campuses, and ensuring people experiencing medical emergencies will get care at a hospital.

Illinois, because of all of this work, is the linchpin in abortion care in this country right now. In 2024, 25% of the people who were forced to flee their states and become medical refugees came to Illinois. We are able to open up our doors and to take people in so that they don't have to face forced parenthood or frankly dying, or having really severe medical things that happen.

Even with all the work we’ve done. We are always one election a cycle away from losing all of our rights. There's a lot of bias towards women and our own health care systems and the anti-choice movement has been masterful at creating this unconscious bias in many of us. The reason why our state is the way it is, is that every single election cycle there are a small handful of very dedicated people doing this work for Illinois.

What are you prioritizing in the coming years for Illinois?

2026 is going to be a huge political year in Illinois. There are going to be a lot of people running which is great. We need more people to use their voices in state and local government and to move up federally. Those are sometimes the best, brightest voices in DC because they have actual experience on the ground.

There's going to be a lot of open state legislative seats. It's really important that at every level of government, we have pro-choice champions to protect policies like age-appropriate sexual health education and robust birth control access and to push for health directives to be honored. You know, all of the things that women and families need to protect their own safety and health in this world.

I really think we're at a crossroads right now. We have to think about long-term strategy, exactly what Personal PAC does. We're not like one ballot referendum and then we go away. We're not one election. We are in this every single day doing this work. And that is what is necessary.

How important is it to work with Republicans, people of faith, and other communities who aren’t typically associated with support for abortion access?

I always start when I get a question like this with a reframe, that the overwhelming majority of Americans, almost 81% of people, want abortion to be safe, legal, and accessible with no government interference. So people are really, really frustrated.

Also, not all religious people think that abortion is bad. I like to point out that as a Jewish person, I know that abortion is a Jewish value.

Long before Roe many clergy members provided abortions or helped people connect to providers. The Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion was a network of clergy, particularly of Protestant denominations and some Jewish rabbis that helped women access abortion pre-Roe. Catholics for Choice is an amazing organization that puts out tremendous public policy, looking at it from a theological lens.

This is not a partisan issue either. We are a nonpartisan PAC. Our founder is a republican woman. At one point in Illinois, there were 14 Republican members of the General Assembly whom we endorsed every single election cycle.

This is an access to health care and a freedom issue. And so I will always be trying to get Republicans to come on board with us because that's a value of our organization and one that I wholeheartedly, even as a Democrat, wholeheartedly agree with.

We've talked a lot about the work ahead for Illinois. What are you most hopeful about?

For a long time we, especially the people at a national level, have accepted crumbs. Roe was never enough. It was always the basement. If we only have rights, but we don't have equitable access to those rights. Do we actually have any rights?

States were enacting dozens of restrictions under the "protections of Roe." Places like Missouri, Texas, Georgia, and Ohio were all effectively banning abortion by making it inaccessible there. In 2019, almost 20,000 people were forced to travel to IL for abortion care. In 2015, it was about 3,000.

60% of people who have abortions are already parents. They're people like me, a single mom with two children. I have nothing left to give. It is too expensive and we are so under-resourced. Some people don't have any paid sick time off. We have no care economy in this country and we're exhausted.

So, I'm hopeful that we can finally stop having ridiculous conversations where it's like, we just want the right. No, we think that women's health care should not be siloed anymore. That we should be integrated into mainstream health care, and abortion should be viewed within the continuum of maternal health care which is where it belongs. The reproductive rights movement needs to stop accepting the bare minimum and start talking about the people who are most hurt and marginalized by policies and make policies with them in mind.

Also, I am so excited to hear people starting to use more plain language to talk about this. Say the word abortion if that's what you mean. Nobody calls a doctor and says, I need a reproductive freedom appointment. They just don't. It's not what it is. It's an abortion and that's not a dirty word and we should just be saying it.

So I'm hopeful that while I don't take lightly the pain that's being inflicted on people right now, I do think that we can take this pain and this moment to tell stories, to end the stigma that's been caused by the anti-choice movement and to really move us away from just rights to talk about equitable access to those rights.

So if someone wants to get involved in this. What can they do? What's the best way to get involved?

So obviously be politically involved. And get your friends involved. But honestly, the most radical revolutionary thing that we can be doing right now is being loud and proud about our stories. Even if you don't have an abortion story yourself, you probably know people who do. One in four women have abortions, during their lifetime in this country.

Have more conversations. It's hard to know what sources to trust, be the abortion expert in your friend group, share this interview, this newsletter, and other solid sources with your friends!

But it's not just about abortion. Share how hard it is for you to navigate getting birth control. If you've birthed children, how hard it is to birth children, how we don't get listened to in that arena either. How hard it is to get access to health care, how hard it is to breastfeed if that was your choice.

I'm a perimenopausal woman. I talk about it all the time. And in my mom's generation, they didn't. They suffered in silence. I don't believe that most people are bad people. I think they just haven't been exposed to our stories, and our stories are powerful. It's always been what has changed things in our society.

It doesn’t have to be broadcast online. Just being honest with your family and with your friends is hugely powerful. Hugely powerful. And I've told my children my own abortion story. And I did go get a children's book to help me do it and to help explain it. But they know what it is. It's not anything to be embarrassed about.

I also think there's so much work to be done at the local level. Crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs), which are fake clinics that lie to people and trick people, are prolific in this country. Even in Illinois, we are outnumbered by CPCs three to one to open abortion clinics.

They're everywhere. So one thing people can do is, in your local community, find out if a high school student in your community goes to the high school with a pregnancy concern, where do they send them? Too often they send young people to the crisis pregnancy center. If that’s the case, make your school board change that policy.

These are not places providing diapers and strollers and helping people who want to become parents. That is not what they are. That's what they hold themselves out to be.

And if your elected officials do good things. Make sure you say thank you to them. It's hard right now. Make sure you tell them whichever way they're going, I am a pro-choice voter and I appreciate that you did this or I'm really angry at you for doing that. We have to be loud.

And then obviously vote, get engaged, vote in every single election. If you're in Illinois. Every election cycle, we put out a very comprehensive list of who has passed our criteria. Check out our website before you vote. Educate yourself about candidates and see where they stand on issues that are important to you!

Federal

• 👎Trump administration revokes guidance requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions [Associated Press]

• 👎Trump-appointed FDA chief to launch unnecessary review of abortion pill [MSNBC]. In response, Four States Ask F.D.A. to Lift Special Restrictions on Abortion Pill [NYTimes]

• 👎After CDC cuts, doctors fear women will lose access to contraception research [NPR]

• 👎Group pressures GOP senators to defund Planned Parenthood [The Hill]

• 👍America might finally make childbirth free [Vox]

• 👍Washington state man charged with supplying chemicals used in California fertility clinic bombing, authorities say [CNN]

The States (and territories)

Kansas

• 👍Kansans challenge constitutionality of state law nullifying end-of-life choices of pregnant women [Kansas Reflector]

Kentucky

• 👎Lawsuit challenging Kentucky’s near-total ban on abortions is withdrawn [Associated Press]

Louisiana

• 👎Louisiana lawmakers reject adding exceptions for some rape cases to abortion ban [Associatied Press]

Maine

• 👍Maine will let abortion-pill prescribers keep their names off labels [Washington-Post]

New York

• 👍Federal appeals court rejects challenge to New York abortion law [The Center Square]

Texas

• 👍Texas hospital that discharged woman with doomed pregnancy violated the law, a federal inquiry finds [Associated Press]

Vermont

• 👍Anti-abortion advocates drop federal lawsuit against Vermont after lawmakers nix language targeting crisis pregnancy centers [vtdigger]

West Virginia

• 👎Morrisey celebrates signing of three bills at Beckley church [West Virginia Watch]