LEXINGTON, Ky. — Though Kentucky’s trigger law has been blocked for nearly a month and abortion has remained legal, one of the country’s largest providers of financial aid for individual abortions only this week resumed its donations to the state.
In a July 25 email from the National Abortion Federation to the Kentucky Health Justice Network provided to the Lexington Herald-Leader, NAF said it would resume individually funding abortions beginning Tuesday for pregnant people in Kentucky who cannot foot the full cost of the procedure themselves.
The cost of an abortion in Kentucky begins at about $700. For those who qualify, NAF often provides a few hundred dollars for the actual abortion, and covers tertiary costs, if needed, such as travel expenses.
A NAF spokesperson confirmed in a Tuesday morning email to the Herald-Leader that the organization was once again helping pay for abortions in the state. The national organization halted its funding stream after the state’s trigger law initially took effect in late June, following the fall of Roe v. Wade.
Kentucky’s trigger law bans all abortions except when the life of a pregnant person is at risk.
The state’s two remaining abortion providers — EMW Women’s Surgical Center and Planned Parenthood — promptly sued, arguing that Kentucky’s Constitution protects a right to privacy and, by extension, the right to an abortion.
Abortion was banned in the commonwealth for about a week before a Louisville judge issued a restraining order late last month allowing abortion care to lawfully resume. But only after Jefferson Circuit Judge Mitch Perry issued an injunction July 22, blocking the trigger law for even longer, did NAF move to resume its funding of abortion services in Kentucky.
The Friday ruling prohibits state agencies from enforcing the trigger law while a lawsuit brought by EMW and Planned Parenthood challenging its merits works its way through the court system.
The abrupt toggle between legal, illegal and back to legal not only created logistical snarls for abortion providers, but it poses legal and resource allocation challenges for organizations that fund abortion services. In a state like Kentucky, whose trigger law criminalizes abortion providers, groups that pay for those services are proceeding with caution as they consider their legal liability.
University of Kentucky political science professor Stephen Voss said it’s understandable why groups that have historically funneled money into states that now have trigger laws would reconsider resource divvying in a post-Roe world.
For instance, even though abortion is presently legal in Kentucky, that reality is potentially only temporary.
“We’ve got the uncertainty surrounding how legal liability might play out,” Voss said. “You don’t want to have assisted in behavior that later on is declared criminal.”
More so, these snares serve as a reminder of the far-reaching, nuanced impacts of abortion bans on the most vulnerable, Voss explained.
“Even though the trigger law has been suspended, don’t think that has meant resumption of normal circumstances,” he said. “Don’t assume that means that poor women are able to obtain these services again while we’re in limbo.”
Each of “these sources of friction” when it comes to abortion access, he said, “has failed to put things back to normal — these funds that have been available for awhile weren’t actually available. It took time to get the restoration of the resources on which women were relying.”
Revoking financial aid for abortion care has only compounded the impact of statewide bans on low-income residents, said Ashley Jacobs, operations director at KHJN, a Louisville-based nonprofit that provides abortion care support services.
Jacobs said NAF informed her of its donation pause shortly after Roe fell. A few days after that, heartened by the June 30 restraining order that restored access, she emailed NAF again, asking about funding.
“I am so happy to hear this,” the staffer wrote in her response to Jacobs, which she shared with the Herald-Leader. “Unfortunately, NAF is still unable to provide funding at (EMW Women’s Surgical Center) at this time. I will update if anything changes.”
The national group did not explain why it halted its donations to Kentucky for a month. In an emailed statement to the Herald-Leader in mid-July, NAF Chief Operating Officer Veronica Jones said her organization “remains committed to helping as many patients as possible access abortion care.”
“We’re not able to discuss the details of our decision-making in each state, but the impact has been that in some states, at different points in time, we’ve not been able to fund care. And of course that’s incredibly difficult for patients that need this care,” Jones said, adding that NAF had, at the time, provided funding for nearly 3,000 people since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe in late June.
When someone can’t pay for an abortion, they can call NAF’s Hotline Fund and ask for help. Historically, NAF has reliably provided the bulk of money to pregnant Kentuckians wanting an abortion.
Groups like KHJN regularly refer financially strapped patients to the hotline fund, providing their own smaller donation along the way.
KHJN operates its own financial assistance hotline whose volunteers in any given week field roughly 40 calls from Kentuckians who need help paying for their abortion. Since insurance doesn’t pay for the medical procedure in Kentucky, the full cost must be paid out-of-pocket.
Jacobs directed a hotline caller to NAF in mid-June. The Louisville woman was in her late 20s, six weeks along in her pregnancy and said she could only afford to pay $300 of her medical abortion, which cost $700.
“Have you contacted the National Abortion Federation, yet?” Jacobs asked. “They’re going to give you the largest portion of funding if you qualify.”
The Louisville organization, which gets most of its money through donations, pledges $150 for callers fewer than 10 weeks along in their pregnancy, and $200 for those 11 weeks along or later. Jacobs successfully petitioned KHJN this month to increase its individual donations in direct response to the funding hole left by NAF. Other regional groups, like A Fund Inc., the Chicago Abortion Fund and the Hoosier Abortion Fund have also stepped in to fill that deficit.
But at a time when abortion access hangs in the balance in Kentucky, losing any funding stream, even temporarily, is a hit, Jacobs said.
“It’s definitely disorienting and frustrating to say the least, because we have callers that are facing so many barriers, and they already have only so many options for abortion in Kentucky,” Jacobs said Tuesday. “So, when you take away one of those major funding opportunities for people, it’s really frustrating.”
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