The day after Roe fell, Sofia* called Allegheny Reproductive Health Center (ARHC). It wasn’t to make an appointment—it was to bring over food. “I’m Italian and I’m a mom so, you know, I love feeding people,” Sofia tells Pittsburgh City Paper. (*Several sources requested that City Paper use only their first names to protect anonymity).
Pittsburgh’s abortion organizing network is intergenerational and community-led — it consists of old and young volunteers, advocates, parents, educators, and artists. These supporters relieve some of the burdens for abortion clinic staff and allow them to focus on patient care.
Cooking was a way Sofia found she could support clinics. She’d occasionally drop off soup and even taught her Girl Scout troop how to bake homemade bread for the staff. “It doesn’t have to be a big, glamorous way that you help out — every little thing that people do is helping,” she says.
But during this particular call, the Director of Abortion Care told Sofia they needed volunteers. ARHC, one of only two abortion clinics in the region, was facing an influx of patients from across Pennsylvania and surrounding states. They asked for help to answer phones. Sofia contacted a group she had met at a recent protest — the Abortion Defense Committee.
The first few weeks were chaos as they tried to meet the clinic’s needs. “We started organizing volunteers, and it was just all these moving parts,” she says. Eventually, they were able to find a rhythm, arrange shifts, and create a process for community members who wanted to volunteer.
Her food delivery didn’t stop, either — over the past year and a half, she’s asked local cafes and restaurants to donate coffee and lunches to ARHC and Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania. Sofia says that food is a way to care for people and a type of volunteering that means a lot to her.
“It’s a little highlight in someone’s day,” Sofia says. “We were already talking, before Roe fell, about sustainability as activists, and it’s really important that we are doing volunteer work that we can actually sustain, and that is healthy for us, so that we can stay in it.”
That looks different for everyone. Beth, a local writer and artist, also got involved with Abortion Defense Committee the weekend that Roe fell. “One of my neighbors, an ADC member, recruited me to volunteer answering phones, and I’ve been at the clinic since,” Beth tells CP.
At first, Beth just took down names and numbers as fast as possible to provide relief to intake staff. But as the amount of calls slowed, she had more moments to connect with the people calling.
“Now, I take more time with people who call with questions about abortion or want to tell their story,” she says. “Even if a call lasts just a few minutes, it’s a sojourn, a chance for the caller to have nonjudgmental listening.”
Beth enjoys this kind of work so much that, over the summer, Beth started volunteering with a talkline for people struggling with pregnancy, abortion, adoption, and parenting. “Now I work as an advocate on that line as well as at the clinic,” she shares.
Abortion Defense Committee formed in late 2021 to canvass neighborhoods and spread awareness about crisis pregnancy centers, which they call “fake abortion clinics.” Soon after, they focused on the Dobbs v. Jackson case and began a demonstration movement to fight for Roe and reproductive justice for Black and brown people.
The committee has planned rallies, healing circles, and storytelling events for individuals to share their experiences with abortion, family planning, assault, and other issues. Sofia says that storytelling is a beautiful aspect of reproductive advocacy.
“If you’re ready to tell your story, it will help somebody,” she says. “Something that storytelling brought up was that I always feel that I’m either too much or that I’m not enough. And I think a lot of people who’ve been through trauma have this in common.”
ADC collaborates with other local organizations such as Food Not Bombs and the Black Liberation Autonomous Collective to provide mutual aid. They also partner with Radical Reuse to sell wearable pro-abortion art that benefits regional abortion funds.
Since the Dobbs decision, the group has become part of a larger organizing network supporting abortion access. Planned Parenthood Generation Action, a group of University of Pittsburgh students, makes care packages for patients and abortion providers. Steel City Access Network works with clinics to provide rides to appointments, and Western PA Fund for Choice collects donations to cover the costs of abortion.
Some of the younger members of ADC have gone on to form the Pittsburgh Abortion Access Network, dedicated to helping college students access reproductive care by directly providing contraception and local resources. Katie Emmert, a PAAN co-founder and junior at the University of Pittsburgh, says the group is necessary because most college students are new to navigating healthcare on their own.
“PAAN hopes to make the process of connecting to providers much easier, and to empower students with the tools they need to comfortably seek services themselves,” she tells CP.
Local clinic staff say they’ve been overwhelmed by the community’s efforts. “The outpouring of support since Dobbs has been incredible,” Allegheny Reproductive employee Noah Thompson tells CP.
Thompson describes the past year and a half as “unpredictable.” “Since the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, multiple states have fallen in and out of abortion limbo,” they share. “As a result, our patient load is constantly changing.”
Most of the clinic’s volunteers field phone calls, some help with medical intake, and others sit with post-procedure patients. “Many of us are physically and emotionally exhausted, but we are committed to providing the best care we can in this tumultuous time — it’s more important now than ever,” Thompson says.
Although Thompson calls Pittsburgh a “reproductive haven” compared to other cities, they argue that there are still significant barriers to access, citing misinformation and CPCs, LGBTQIA+ care, and Black maternal mortality rates. “Pittsburgh certainly has a lot of work to do when it comes to reproductive justice.”
Sofia agrees that there is more to be done, and believes it can be achieved by working together. She says organizing networks not only show up for clinics and patients — they show up for each other. When Sofia had surgery, friends from ADC checked in and even sent her Doordash. “The relationships you form as an organizer are amazing, and I’m so grateful for this community,” she says. “We’re in it for the long haul.”
To volunteer at a clinic, email abortiondefensepgh@protonmail.com. You can also donate to the WPA Fund for Choice here.
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2023.
