A few weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a 19-year-old woman traveled from Memphis to Chicago seeking an abortion. But medical providers at a local clinic told her the procedure would require hospital care due to scarring from a previous cesarean section.

       The unexpected complication added travel days and lodging costs the patient hadn’t planned for, according to officials with the Chicago Abortion Fund, who scrambled to help the young woman find an abortion appointment a few days later at a Chicago hospital. The local nonprofit covered the cost of a hotel room, food and other necessities.

       Advertisement

       “I took her shopping. We went to Target together,” Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, said in a recent interview. “We got clothes, underwear, food for her hotel room, snacks, water, just to make sure she sustained herself over the much longer time period that she was going to be here.”