Supreme Court Abortion Pill Ruling: 'People Are Bracing For The Worst,' Says LA Abortion Fund Leader

Añadido: 2026-05-09

[00:00:02]The state of Louisiana is asking the Supreme Court to suspend the prescription of the abortion pill mifepristone via telemedicine and the delivery of these pills via mail. The Louisiana Attorney General filed a brief to this effect on Thursday and the move follows a significant legal back and forth that is creating confusion for many patients. I'm Maggie McGrath, the editor of Forbes Women, and joining us to discuss this very important issue is Chastity Matthews. She is the executive director of the Louisiana Abortion Fund.

[00:00:35]Chastity, thanks so much for being here.

[00:00:37]Thank you for having me.

[00:00:39]I'd love to start with how this last week has been for you because literally 1 week ago today the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that mifepristone could not be prescribed via telemedicine and yet a few days after that on Monday the Supreme Court put an administrative stay on that decision. It's a 1-week administrative stay, but nonetheless, I do think based on other conversations I've been having there's significant confusion. What's your experience been?

[00:01:08]Um of course it has soaked fear across the entire community. Um confusion, wondering if they can if they can access mifepristone or misoprostol at all um and what does that look like, right?

[00:01:23]Um the temporary stay while it brings some relief, I think that based on how the Supreme Court has been going um I think people are bracing themselves for the worst and fortunately because we serve a state that has a total ban, of course that means more restricted access um and so it's fear, confusion, frustration, um and a helplessness.

[00:01:46]Do you know of any patients who got caught during that Friday night, Saturday, Sunday before the the Supreme Court put the the of administrative stay onto the order. Have folks said to you, "I couldn't get the pills on Saturday, but it's Wednesday now. What should I do?"

[00:02:05]No, not directly. As a fund, we typically ask as minimal questions as possible.

[00:02:11]One for their safety and of course ours.

[00:02:13]This work is not is not the easiest.

[00:02:16]But I'm pretty sure like comparable to the Dobbs decision, when a decision like that comes down, it's world stop, right?

[00:02:24]There's immediate panic, there's immediate confusion, and people just freeze, right? And so of course we had a lot of calls just asking questions about what can they do versus what they can't.

[00:02:35]What's allowed versus what is not, and then what are their options, right? And so in this work we have to pivot quite abruptly depending on the day. So that's pretty much where we are. I was going to ask, I mean ever since the Dobbs decision effectively ended Roe v. Wade, well, Louisiana, as you mentioned, had a trigger ban, which prohibits all abortions at all stages of pregnancy without exception. Yes. So how have the last almost four years looked for your looked like for your operations? How do you operate in this environment? So the past four years have been incredibly difficult, right?

[00:03:15]Because when Dobbs passed, I would honestly say when the opinion leaked, that's when everything changed and world stopped.

[00:03:22]People pretty much braced themselves for the worst. But I wanted to highlight the fact that by us being a southern fund and by servicing the Gulf South and servicing Louisiana, prior to Dobbs, we we only had three clinics across the entire state. Right? So we were already working in a deficit. We were already working in a space where people were limited to care. Waitlists were long already. So then when Dobbs happened, world stopped overnight.

[00:03:51]Right? So people had appointments the next day. We obviously had to navigate that, getting people rescheduled, reaching out to partner funds, getting them to to different states where they needed to be. And so, in a matter of hours, every single person who needed care in Louisiana had to travel outside of the state, right? And that puts them at risk from a digital security perspective, from a cultural perspective. A lot of people have never left the state of Louisiana or ever left their homes. Um and so, now with this decision, with the state that we're in now, it puts people in that same type of fear, right? Because a lot of people saw telehealth as the loophole, as the the way that they could seek care without having to leave their homes, without having to leave their comfort.

[00:04:37]Obviously, telehealth is not a end-all-be-all or not a fix-all, but it is on that important spectrum of access.

[00:04:44]And so, it's frustrating that now in a total ban state, people are still afraid to leave the state to access care and now they're being told that mailing is not an option either.

[00:04:55]What does that mean for you as executive director? What are some tactical steps you're taking to provide the resources that the Louisiana Abortion Fund has committed to providing folks?

[00:05:06]Yeah, that's a great question.

[00:05:07]Obviously, it's changed the way we fund, right? Because now we are having to fund not only procedure, but we also have to fund travel, care, having to make sure that they have everything they need to possibly get to Illinois or New Mexico or Colorado, right? Um so, having to get them further, obviously also inflation affects how we can fund. Um we're only one resource, so that's shifted from us being able to possibly fund upwards of a thousand dollars to maybe only two hundred fifty dollars because we have to make our limited resources stretch, right? Um and so, that is a very frustrating thing to have to strategize because like I said, we have to pivot so quickly. And so that looks like shifting policy overnight. That looks like shifting our our funding capacity, right? Possibly going from being able to have funds until Friday to now only maybe through Thursday Wednesday.

[00:06:04]Um and so it really does depend on the day and that is the frustrating part about this work um because you constantly have to stay on your toes.

[00:06:13]There is no such thing as being away because it it can change at any given time.

[00:06:19]How much have you had to lean on other abortion funds? There's the Brigid Alliance, there's the Yellowhammer Fund that has existed in years past. I know economic and political realities can sometimes change the existence of these funds, but >> Yes. you you do not exist in a vacuum.

[00:06:35]You may be isolated, but have you are there partnerships that have been born out of this environment? We could not do the work that we do without solidarity pledging.

[00:06:46]Full stop, right?

[00:06:48]We have been doing solidarity pledging it for the past I want to say 7 to 10 years. And so solidarity pledging is what helps us. Us being able to say, "Hey, Arc Southeast, which is in Georgia, or Yellowhammer, we love them to pieces. Um and also our Texas funds, right? Being able to reach out to them and say, "Hey, we have this much, what can you help us with?" There's no way we could do this work with just us. And so we would never even imagine creating that narrative. We all work together and we work together really, really well.

[00:07:22]As you work together and as you work within your own fund, can you kind of contextualize how women are feeling right now? Or just the state of reproductive access? I was just talking about some of the specifics with abortion and obviously you do protect patient privacy, but if you zoom out and kind of look at the work you're doing, how would you diagnose the care for women happening in Louisiana? Oh.

[00:07:49]That's a That's a That's a really hard question for me because it's so layered, right? Um obviously, from a broad perspective, overall women are frustrated, they're confused. We're talking about maternal health. We're talking about uh infant mortality. We're talking about access to birth control. We're talking about access to um emergency contraception and then abortion care and then aftercare for that. Like, we're talking about so many things as it relates to the spectrum of access. So, there's this consensus of frustration, right? Um but then you also add the layer of being Southern and what that looks like in terms of accessing care. You're talking about a state that is 40 competing constantly 49th or 50th for worst in health care, education, sexual education. Um and so, there's this frustration, there's this helplessness. Of course, there's this fight, you know, that it's not going to go anywhere. That that hunger and that angst is not going to go anywhere. Um community is not going to go anywhere, you know, the the the concept of community is strengthened, unfortunately, under these circumstances, but overall, people are frustrated. Women are frustrated, you know, birthing people are feeling like they're not being heard and like they're not being seen or felt, right? Um a decision like this is not about patient protection, it's not about protecting lives, it's not even pro-life as as it's being um as it's being framed. It's about control. It's about control. It is about limiting access. It's about violence.

[00:09:33]It's about telling people that they that it is more important for our legislation to not feel undermined than it is about their constituents feeling cared for.

[00:09:44]Well, speaking of constituents, what is your message to lawmakers? What is the path to restoring better reproductive health care access to Louisiana residents in your view?

[00:09:56]Do better, right? Um, listen to the people that you serve because the people that you serve care about access to care. They care about access to abortion. They care about access to contraception. They care about access to to quality health care across the board.

[00:10:13]And there is not a decision that you have made that has made that clear to the people that you serve.

[00:10:20]Now, there's there's a primary election for one of Louisiana's Senate seats on May 16th. Senator Bill Cassidy is up for re-election. Do you expect abortion to be a major issue in that primary election or in the November midterms?

[00:10:33]Abortion will always be a a primary issue when we're talking about Southern Southern legislation period. Um, but in Louisiana specifically, it's definitely a a hot topic. It is always in the hot seat, even if the session is only supposed to talk about redistricting and education, abortion is going to find its way on the tongues of our legislators.

[00:10:55]So, I'm sure that it will be a primary issue.

[00:10:58]Now, recognizing that you run that you're the executive director of an abortion fund and not a lawyer, I do want to bring this back to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the legal back-and-forth. Based on the conversations you're having and just what you're hearing on the ground, what do you expect to happen next?

[00:11:13]In terms of I'm so sorry, it cut out.

[00:11:15]Oh, okay. I'll do that again. Okay.

[00:11:19]Recognizing, Chastity, that you are the executive director of the Louisiana Abortion Fund and not a a lawyer engaging with the Supreme Court on a day-to-day basis. I know you don't have a crystal ball, but we have this administrative stay on the Fifth Circuit Court ruling until Monday, May 11th.

[00:11:37]What happens after the 11th? What do you think? What have you heard?

[00:11:43]What have I heard? Nothing. But what do I expect? The same trajectory that they've set prior to this. I expect I hope not, and I want to be wrong. I've never wanted to be wrong so badly in my life. But I expect for them to side with the Fifth Circuit. I do. I don't see the same the same Supreme Court that just gutted the Voting Right the Voting Rights Act. The same Supreme Court that has made decisions that impact the lives of people in such a negative and harmful way. I don't expect them to all of a sudden have a change of heart and {quote} {unquote} do the right thing. Um and so and I and I hate to say that, but I of course in this work I have to be hopeful, but I also have to be very realistic and expect I hate to say it, but the worst. You know, I've been sort of trained in this work to expect the worst and prep for the worst. Um and be ready to go regardless of what the decision is, right? No matter what the decision is, the fund will be here. Our work does not stop.

[00:12:47]And it does not stop community from helping people seek the care that they need. And so but that's what I expect.

[00:12:53]We've covered a lot of ground. Is there anything else you want the Forbes audience to understand about your lived experience and the lived experience of birthing people in Louisiana under an abortion ban and a lot of legal back and forth?

[00:13:07]Yeah, if nothing else, I want people to understand the importance of abortion funds as a whole.

[00:13:12]Um and understand that even with telehealth possibly being on the chopping block, it is still really really important to support your local funds um because traveling for care is going to be something that we're going to have to do for years and years to come. Um And I also say get involved, right? It's very easy for people to become invested when this is a hot topic, when it's in the headlines, but it is super important for community to stay engaged even when it's not in the forefront because this work does not stop. It does not have a peak or a valley. It is constantly and it ongoing.

[00:13:49]And so I just say stay engaged with your local funds and stay aware.

[00:13:55]Chasity Matthews, executive director of the Louisiana Abortion Fund, thank you so much for joining us. We so appreciate your time and your insight. Thank you for having me.