Iowa’s abortion ban is causing a funding crisis in the Midwest

Small funds are filling the gaps, but it's still difficult

Mar 19, 2025

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In February, the Iowa Abortion Access Fund received an email. An Iowan needed an abortion in the second trimester and was in desperate need of funding. The total cost of the care was $19,000. She qualified for $5,700 in funding from the National Abortion Federation, but that still left a remaining balance of $13,300.

She needed help and needed it immediately if she was going to keep her appointment. Who could chip in?

Copied on the email were other funding groups, including IAAF, which pledged as much as it could: $2,000.

Everyone chipped in. The cost of the patient’s care was covered one day before her appointment.

This is a success story. But it doesn’t always happen this way.

Funding request emails like this have grown more frequent since July 2024, when the Iowa Supreme Court outlawed abortion after six weeks. In response, clinics closed. The number of Iowa clinics providing abortions before 6 weeks has dropped from five in 2023 to just two now.

Lost wages, childcare, gas, and flights began to factor into abortion costs much more than they had before. Additionally, in states like Iowa, where there is a maternity care crisis, women aren’t being seen by doctors early enough, meaning abortions are happening later in pregnancy. And the cost of abortions, like the cost of everything else, is rising. Small funds and mutual aid groups are struggling to keep up with the demand.

Here are some of the numbers.

In the six months since the ban:

147 Iowans traveled to Illinois for abortion services
84 Iowans traveled to Nebraska for abortion services
130 Iowans traveled to Minnesota for abortion services
7 Iowans traveled to Kansas for abortion services

At the same time, the number of Iowans who needed support to cover the cost of their procedure and out-of-state travel expenses has surged:

625 Iowans received abortion funding and practical support from abortion funds outside the state in 2024, compared to 194 in 2023 and 316 in 2022 — a 222% increase in just one year.
Practical support spending (travel, lodging, child care) increased from $2,536 in June 2024 to $10,262 in July 2024 to $7,139 in August 2024 — the first full month under the ban.
The Iowa Abortion Access Fund has seen a 21% increase in Iowans needing help paying for abortions compared with 2021, the year before the Dobbs decision.

Since the ban took effect, Midwest abortion funds have provided over $250,000 in direct assistance to Iowans seeking abortion care compared with under $100,000 the year before the ban.

To put those numbers a different way:

Abortion funding and practical support from abortion funds outside Iowa increased 222% in 2024 compared with 2023.
Last year, practical support spending (travel, lodging, childcare) increased 304% from June to July, and increased 181% from June to August — the first full month under the ban.
The Iowa Abortion Access Fund has seen a 21% increase in Iowans needing help paying for abortions compared to 2021, the year before the Dobbs decision.

The impact of Iowa’s abortion ban is being felt across the region, placing significant financial strain on abortion funds and increasing wait times for appointments in some neighboring states.

While, clinics in Illinois have absorbed the largest share of people affected by abortion bans across the Midwest and South, with little to no wait times. In other nearby states, wait times for appointments are growing:

Nebraska and Wisconsin clinics are experiencing wait times of 3-5 weeks, forcing some Iowans to travel even farther.
Minnesota and Kansas clinics have wait times of 2-3 weeks, delaying care for both local and out-of-state abortion-seekers.

“As an abortion fund situated in the Midwest, clients we support from Iowa more than doubled after the abortion ban,” said Shayla Walker, executive director of Our Justice in Minnesota. “For the last six months, we’ve been averaging 18 patients a month from Iowa at a total cost of $54,800. Before the ban, we averaged around six at a fraction of the cost. The reality is abortion bans don’t stop people from needing abortions. Bans just make getting an abortion more difficult and more expensive, especially for those who are marginalized, widening the gap in access and mortality rates among Black, queer, disabled folks, and minimum-wage workers.”

IAAF is working with our partner funds in other states, collaborating on cost sharing and funding requests. But donations haven’t yet risen to meet the demand. In 2021, IAAF raised $94,106; in 2024, we raised over $650,000, but it’s still not enough.

“The reality is abortion bans don’t stop people from needing abortions. Bans just make getting an abortion more difficult and more expensive, especially for those who are marginalized, widening the gap in access and mortality rates among Black, queer, disabled folks, and minimum-wage workers.”

— Shayla Walker, Our Justice in Minnesota

Already this year, the need is outpacing our funding.

In 2023, I realized my writing didn’t feel like enough. I wanted to do something to help people in my state. I joined the board of the Iowa Abortion Access Fund just months before the ban went into place; I am now the board chair.

And the work is overwhelming, especially as we begin 2025 and the cost of these bans in Iowa is stacking up. Not just monetarily, but in the effects on people who are forced to scrounge and scramble for basic healthcare. It’s not just physical harm, but moral injury, too.

This is an assault not just on the people who need abortions, but on the families who have to watch their loved ones struggle and the doctors who are forbidden from giving necessary care.

But we are still here, still doing the work. Megan Jeyifo, executive director of the Chicago Abortion Fund, which is IAAF’s partner in this fight, noted: “Abortion funds are nimble and relentless in responding to every new barrier, every policy shift, and every crisis moment.”

“We knew the moment Iowa’s ban took effect, more people would be thrown into chaos, so we acted immediately — because we always do,” Jeyifo said. In just the last year, we’ve handled over 16,000 support requests and distributed $5 million in direct assistance, the most in our 40-year history. This is what abortion funds do: We step up, we organize, and we make sure people get the care they want, need, and deserve.”

That’s what we do.

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An earlier version of this newsletter misstated the gestational weeks in the story in the introduction. Please remember that abortion care is also miscarriage care and refrain from judging and speculating on people’s choices. The very point is people should have choices.