Given Trump’s win, should Europeans help Americans travel for abortions?

Every time there’s news about abortion in the US, my notifications start pinging. In 2017 – “Will you start sending money to people in Texas who need abortions?” In 2019 – “Will you start helping people from Alabama travel for abortions?” When both the leak and the actual overturn of Roe v Wade happened, and when Donald Trump was elected – “Should we set up pathways for people from the US to travel to Europe for abortions?”

The people asking mean well. Like me, they want a world where anyone who needs an abortion can have one, preferably without having to cross state or international lines. Unlike me, most of these people haven’t spent over 20 years helping people failed by states, laws and healthcare systems have abortions.

Since Roe fell, some but not all states have made abortion virtually impossible. It is still much easier to travel within the US for abortion care than to cross the Atlantic. If a national abortion ban passes, Mexico and Canada are closer, easier, and far less expensive than Europe. Mexico and Canada have the same drawback as Europe: more than 60% of Americans do not have passports. This percentage likely increases amongst people who are marginalized or oppressed. Most women who have abortions already have at least one born child (fun fact: many US clinics provide childcare for patients) and transatlantic travel would require additional hours or days of childcare. The people who will be most impacted by Project 2025 are least likely to have the ability to travel to Europe.

The US also has something else Europe lacks: existing mutual aid networks and organizations working at grassroots levels to provide funding and practical support to people who face obstacles in accessing abortions. Roe was the floor of what was required for abortion access; when I left the US in 2005, 87% of US counties had no abortion provider and five states had only one clinic. Some of these activist groups predate the passage of Roe and they are powered by some of the fiercest, creative, passionate activists on earth. Over 100 of these groups are part of the well-funded National Network of Abortion Funds. If they need or want Europe’s help, they will call us.

I am proud to say I started the first abortion fund in Europe in 2009, and started a second one in 2022. This is the part that Europeans find most surprising. Abortion access in Europe is not good. The recent news from Norway means that as of January seven out of fifty European countries will permit abortion on request after the first trimester (16 weeks in France, 18 in Sweden, Denmark and Norway, 22 in Iceland, 24 in the UK and Netherlands). And then there’s the difference between legal and possible.

For instance, the law in the UK is abortion on request up to 24 weeks. But only England has providers that go to 24 weeks. People in Scotland, Wales and even Northern Ireland, where abortion was decriminalized, often travel to England to get their abortions. For people outside of the UK and Ireland, a passport is needed to come to England. The Netherlands goes to 24 weeks, but only for residents. Non residents are cut off at 21 weeks 6 days. Know where Europeans who need abortions after 24 weeks go? To the US or to Mexico. Yes, even now.

Some countries have completely integrated abortion into their national health services. Which is wonderful until someone who is undocumented, or an international student, or an American on a foreign naval base needs to access an abortion. This is shocking to Americans – that there are places in Europe where money can’t buy healthcare. Another thing we have in Europe are our very own home-grown right wing politicians and political parties. While there have been a few European abortion victories of late – France putting abortion into its constitution, Denmark and Norway extending abortion on request from 12 to 18 weeks – we have also seen Poland, Hungary, Russia, Romania, Italy and Croatia make abortions harder to access. And every European country protects a provider’s right to object to performing an abortion over a woman’s right to have one.

But all is not despair, on either side of the Atlantic. Unlike when I started helping people cross state lines to have abortions, abortion pills exist and are widely used and widely available. They can be used safely and effectively into the second trimester and beyond. Abortion pills came not from a Northern pharma company but from feminist collectives in Brazil. There are networks across the world (including the Abortion Without Borders initiative which I am one of the founders of) helping people self manage their own abortions. The abortion funds movement in Europe is small – but growing.

We know people are freaking out about the US election results but we need to tend to our own yards as well. More than 30 million women live in parts of Europe where they can’t access abortions. This will get worse before it gets better because anti-abortion activists are emboldened by the fall of Roe and Trump’s victory.

Stand in solidarity with our American sisters, but also with our European ones. And donate to your local abortion fund.