The 1100km JOURNEY TO GET AN ABORTION

As American states introduce more and more laws restricting terminations, a network of pilots is flying people across the country to get the healthcare services they need

- marie claire

The first person Clyde* helped get an abortion was a stranger. The text came in, urgent and last-minute: one passenger, 68 kilograms, Spanish speaker. Clyde was worried. Not about helping, but about the weather. It was July and hot, meaning pockets of volatile air and pop-up thunderstorms could jeopardise everything, or at least make for a rough ride. There were more than 500 kilometres to travel, one way, in a small four-seater plane. Not necessarily dangerous, but risky. To wait would mean a missed appointment at the clinic, though. That’s the rub when you have limited options.

OK, he texted, I’ll go.

The plan was to meet the woman at a small regional airfield the next day at 5am. Clyde would fly her from her home state, where abortion was illegal, to a state where it wasn’t.

Except she didn’t show. Clyde texted, asking where she was, confirming the directions and even sending a selfie so she could recognise him, even though there was no-one else around.

Eventually, after some back and forth, two headlights appeared in the thicket of darkness. From the corner of a parking lot, a car slowly drove forward, an older woman behind the wheel, staring straight ahead. Another woman in her early twenties got out, tucking a small cloth bag under her arm. She was nervous. Clyde could see it in the way she looked at the ground while approaching him, the way she held her shoulders tight and tense.

It dawned on him that she probably wavered about getting out of the car because she was fearful it was a trap. He became emotional thinking about it, about how the woman had to meet a stranger, alone in the dark, in the desperate hope that he was there to help and not hurt her. It upset him, and got him thinking about how society had turned against so many people and made them feel unworthy. Clyde thought, Why do people want to treat women like this?