Kamala Harris Became First Major Presidential Candidate to Detail Process of Out-of-State Abortion Travel

In 2023, the first full year after Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, over 170,000 patients traveled out-of-state for abortion. Since then, even more states have enacted total or near-total abortion bans, and over a third of all American women live in abortion-banned states. 

As the crisis surrounding abortion access only continues to worsen, on Wednesday, Kamala Harris became the first major presidential candidate to detail the process of out-of-state abortion travel, HuffPost’s Alanna Vagianos first reported. In remarks given to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s leadership conference, Harris stressed “that the majority of women who seek abortion care are mothers.”

“So, she’s got to now travel to another state—God help her that she has some extra money to pay for that plane ticket. She’s got to figure out what to do with her kids—God help her if she has affordable child care,” Harris said. “Imagine what that means: She has to leave her home to go to an airport, stand in a TSA [airport security] line… to travel to a city they’ve never visited and receive medical care from a doctor they’ve never met.” 

After getting the procedure, Harris continued, “She’s going to have to get right back to the airport because she [has] got to get back to those kids. And it’s not like her best friend can go with her because her best friend is probably taking care of the kids. All because these people have decided they’re in a better position to tell her what’s in her best interest than she is. … It’s just simply wrong.”

In May, the Brigid Alliance, an organization that provides transportation and logistical funding to traveling abortion seekers, shared some of its post-Dobbs data with Jezebel. The average distance Brigid’s clients need to travel increased by 30% between 2022 and 2023, from 1,000 miles to 1,300, due to the spread of abortion bans. From 2021 to 2023, travel-related costs increased 16% from $836 to $993 per client, and in that same period, average lodging costs increased 29% from $242 to $345. Also in May, Jezebel reported that abortion funds are spending substantially more money post-Dobbs: In 2023, Texas’ Lilith Fund spent $1 million, the Baltimore Abortion Fund also spent $1 million, the Abortion Fund of Ohio spent about $1.5 million, New York Abortion Access Fund spent $1.7 million, and the DC Abortion Fund spent $2 million. 

All of this data comes from before Florida enacted its six-week abortion ban on May 1, decimating access to the procedure for the entire South. The Florida Access Network abortion fund said in June that their clients are now on average traveling over 900 miles for care.

Serra Sippel, director of Brigid, previously told Jezebel she’s heard from people who have lost their jobs from being forced to miss work to travel for abortions, as well as people who lost significant wages from missing work for abortion care and struggled to pay rent and cover other living costs as a result. “It can set them back for a long time,” she said. “The short-sightedness of imposing these bans, the impact it has on the economic infrastructure when so many people are going to lose wages, lose jobs, lose housing—the ripple effect is massive.”

None of this is sustainable and, as Harris put it, it’s “simply wrong.”

Harris’ speech is significant because it marks the first time a politician this prominent has waded into this much detail about what it’s like to seek abortion right now. A speech like this from Joe Biden, who rarely said the word “abortion” and often used stigmatizing language, is unthinkable. 

As I’ve previously written, it still bothers me that Harris can’t yet articulate a plan to expand abortion access beyond a nebulous pledge to sign a bill restoring Roe, should Democrats win a sizable enough majority in Congress. That’s unlikely, and Harris’ campaign hasn’t detailed how she’d wield the executive branch to fight for reproductive rights on her own—just as Donald Trump would wield it to bypass Congress and impose a national abortion ban if elected. That said, Harris’ remarks on Wednesday are at least encouraging—her speech shows she knows what abortion seekers are enduring. Now, she just needs to show us how she’d directly act to help them.