September Newsletter from Elevated Access

Say their names: Amber Nicole Thurman. Candi Miller

A Message from Mike

We're helping people every day to travel across the country to get them to life-saving healthcare like abortion and gender-affirming care. Being in the thick of it means we sometimes hear their stories of trying to navigate life in places where the government works to control people's bodies. Last week, stories like those again entered the national consciousness through the news of Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller.

Amber and Candi lived in Georgia where abortion bans kept them from getting care that would have saved their lives. Amber's doctors were frightened into not providing her with care because it could result in revocation of their medical license or even land them in jail. Candi was afraid to seek local care after a rare complication from medication abortion put her in danger. 

I would be lying if I said it was easy to listen to these stories, to think about the pain and fear that Amber, Candi, and so many others have suffered. Knowing these stories makes every single flight we facilitate an important one. At some level, it could be saving a life. On another level, it could be helping them to know that there are people who care about them, even random strangers.

That's something we all need right now as both care-seekers and the people who help them. It's something I felt from partners and allies at an independent abortion provider conference last week. The number of people we've flown is a definitive metric to measure the impact of our work, but the hope and joy that we bring to passengers but also to the movement is impossible to quantify. From doctors to clinic directors to funds to practical support organizations, there was a lot of love for the work we do. Thank you for being in community with us on this work.

Thank you,
-Mike B (he/they)
Executive Director
 

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...
Rewire News Group published this article last week about all the grand ideas that arose to help people access abortion post-Dobbs. The article talks about the outcomes of ideas like off-shore boats as well as solutions like ours to use volunteers flying people in small aircraft. From the article:

Bonanza had been working on the idea of creating a volunteer pilot network to connect people with abortion care since Texas SB 8 went into effect in 2021. The organization launched a few months prior to Dobbs, and following the decision, interest from pilots exploded.

In other media coverage of our work, keep an eye on PBS NewsHour in the coming week.

MAKE SURE YOU'RE REGISTERED!
As a 501(c)3 non-profit, we're not going to tell you how we think you should cast your ballot for this November's elections. Elections matter from President all the way to your local school board. Abortion itself is on the ballot in Florida, New York, Maryland, Missouri, South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, Colorado, Arizona, and Nevada. Extremist groups throughout the country continue to try to put their candidates into local races. Elections alone won't fix the problems we see today, but they can set the path that we take. Learn more about voting at vote.gov to make sure you're registered and know how and where to vote.

And we just recruited eight more pilots at the Latino Pilots Association conference in Orlando!