Hurricane Helene’s Devastating Impact on Abortion Seekers

On September 27, Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc on western North Carolina, leaving more than 100 people dead and thousands more stranded as historic flooding washed away homes and roads. In some cases, the storm leveled entire towns. While recovery efforts are underway, it’ll be months before there’s some sense of normalcy in the region. Accessing basic needs, including food and water, remains a struggle for many people, while there are still widespread power outages and very little phone service. So what does a person do if they are pregnant and need an abortion? The only provider in western North Carolina has temporarily closed following the storm. The state also has a 12-week ban and requires patients to make two in-person clinic visits with a 72-hour waiting period in between. These constraints mean that abortion seekers dealing with Helene’s catastrophic aftermath are both racing against time and facing serious logistical hurdles. I spoke with Lauren O., a board member at the Carolina Abortion Fund, which supports patients who either reside in the Carolinas or are traveling to them for care, about the storm’s impact and how people can support patients in the coming days.

Were you or other members of CAF impacted by Helene?

A good number of volunteers and several of our board members are based in western North Carolina. The first few days, we decided to focus on trying to make contact with all of our folks and see if we could help meet their needs. Their community is in survival mode right now, and it’s hard for those of us in the central part of the state to watch them go through such immense devastation and to feel powerless. This is a beautiful and vibrant region of our state that’s historically been given so few resources.

Were abortion seekers and clinics you’re working with affected? I saw that Planned Parenthood’s Asheville clinic, for example, has had to temporarily close because of the impact from the storm. 

You can’t go to a health-care appointment when your house has been washed away. It’s still gonna take people a little bit before they can go, Oh, okay, now I need to deal with this. On top of that, the Asheville Planned Parenthood was the only abortion provider in western North Carolina. With it being closed, there is essentially no access to abortion care in the region.

There are also a lot more logistical barriers for patients who are going to be trying to travel from out of state to access care in North Carolina. We are thinking about the patients from Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee who’d be traveling to Asheville but now must go further into our state. With roads in western North Carolina decimated and the Asheville Planned Parenthood closed, our callers from eastern Tennessee and northeastern Georgia are going to have hours upon hours added to their travel time. This will obviously be costly in gas, but also in missed work opportunities, lodging expenses, and child-care expenses. It spreads already thin resources even thinner.

Have you had to help patients find new appointments? 

Our helpline has been closed and re-opened on Monday. We are seeing an overwhelming need already. We had over 100 voicemails by noon.

How has the funding crisis that abortion funds have been experiencing affected CAF? Will it impact how you’re able to take care of patients affected by the storm?

We have worked to secure some extra funding to increase our practical support budget. We’re going to do our best to cover the procedure costs for folks affected by Helene at 100 percent this month. But our helpline has been closing earlier and earlier every month. After the big budget cuts that happened at the National Abortion Federation and Planned Parenthood’s Justice Fund this summer, we increased our typical pledge amount from 50 percent to 70 percent to try to cover the gap. That’s been extremely taxing, but we’re okay right now.

What other steps are you taking to support patients in the region?

We are partnering with Elevated Access — an organization that helps transport people who are seeking abortion here from state to state via plane — to do air drops into Asheville, Bristol, and hopefully a couple of other smaller communities. It’ll be a very broad range of supplies, including food and water, clothing, and comfort items for children, as well as emergency contraception and safe-sex supplies. We’re focusing on postpartum, breastfeeding, and other infant-feeding supplies. We’re working hard to try to get a lot of postpartum underwear, disposable breast pads, and breast milk storage bags. We have drop-off boxes in Winston-Salem and Durham. We also are partnering with Triangle Abortion Access Coalition, which is hosting pop up drop-off sites at abortion clinics in Raleigh and Chapel Hill. These are all things that we’re hearing from the community are needs that are going unmet. An OB/GYN had to be airlifted by a state trooper chopper on Thursday to assist in a birth that was happening on Black Mountain. The community needs all of the things that you would traditionally want somebody who is pregnant or postpartum to have and then so much more, because they’re without power.

What’s the best way that people can help out at this moment?

People can coordinate to donate supplies in person, and Triangle Abortion Access also has an Amazon wish list. We are doing an annual campaign called 40 Days for CAF to counter 40 Days for Life. [Editor’s note: 40 Days for Life is a global anti-abortion campaign in which protesters pray and fast outside of clinics in what providers say amounts to harassment.] We partner with local clinics to count the number of protesters outside, and you can calculate your donation amount based on that figure. The need is not gonna be apparent for a couple of weeks. But we expect that it is going to be overwhelming, and that people are gonna need a lot of extra support.

This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

The Cut offers an online tool you can use to search by Zip Code for professional providers, including clinics, hospitals, and independent OB/GYNs, as well as for abortion funds, transportation options, and information for remote resources like receiving the abortion pill by mail. For legal guidance, contact Repro Legal Helpline at 844-868-2812 or the Abortion Defense Network.