Since its founding in 2003, the legal services and advocacy organization If/When/How has been working to fight back against state intervention in people’s reproductive lives, including fighting for abortion access for incarcerated people. In addition to training lawyers, working with law students, and maintaining a legal defense fund, the organization also operates a free and confidential helpline designed to help callers navigate legal emergencies and pose questions regarding their right to access abortions and other forms of reproductive care.

While the helpline has operated since 2018, the organization released a new report this summer that details a sharp rise in calls received since the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision that overturned decades-old abortion protections. Since Dobbs, If/When/How has received more than 5,000 inquiries, with more than half of them pertaining to the caller’s legal rights to use abortion pills, the risks of using pills, or judicial bypass, which allows minors to petition a judge to grant them permission for an abortion without telling their parents.

The report, “State Violence and the Far-Reaching Impact of Dobbs,” provides deeper insight into post-Dobbs helpline trends, illuminating the concerns, fears, and questions that have emerged in the wake of the court’s decision and what that means for the organization’s overall work.

In addition to highlighting caller concerns around emergency abortion and fears of being criminalized for obtaining abortions, the report also focuses on calls from those currently under carceral control, whether detained in jails and prisons or on probation or parole.

Abortion access varies depending on where incarcerated pregnant people are detained. Even prior to Dobbs, some states did not allow incarcerated people to have abortions, while many others only allowed abortions during the first trimester. Pre-Dobbs, only four states had laws ensuring abortion access to incarcerated people; just 23 states had some standard or regulation regarding abortion access for incarcerated pregnant people.

Read the full article about incarceration and abortion access by Tamar Sarai at Prism Reports.