For years, the Frontera Fund hotline has helped Rio Grande Valley residents access and pay for abortions in the region and abroad. But now, callers only receive one recorded voicemail message: “In light of the Supreme Court ruling and the uncertainty surrounding Texas law, we are forced to stop funding right now,” the recording said. “We are working diligently with our lawyers and our national partners to overcome this crisis.” As one of two full-time employees at the Frontera Fund, Cathy Torres has been directing these calls for years. Now, every missed call breaks her heart a little more. “I can not even tell you why it is still on my phone, why I can not do anything for them,” he said. “It’s difficult to remove. It’s like a separation. “ The Frontera Fund is part of a coalition of abortion funds that has been helping Texans pay for abortions for years, both in Texas and overseas. These small, useless nonprofits have seen the demand for their services grow in recent years, in stark contrast to the state legislature’s growing commitment to accessing abortions. But after last Friday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturned Roe v. Wade’s 1973 ruling that legalized abortions, the work of the abortion funds stalled. The groups changed their outgoing voicemail messages, updated their websites and posted on social media, all with a similar message: Due to uncertainty over Texas abortion laws, state abortion funds had stopped funding abortions. “It’s painful,” Torres said. “Even though we knew it was coming and we knew what it was, it’s more painful than I could tell.” Nothing in the confusing web of Texas anti-abortion laws – including pre-1973 laws and an “activation law” passed last year – explicitly prohibits their work from paying for Texans to have access to out-of-state abortions. But neither do the laws explicitly allow it, and Texas abortion advocates have made it clear that they are looking forward to the opportunity to try these laws – and their penalties. Roe’s overthrow of Wade by the Supreme Court stripped her of decades of legal protection for abortion providers, leaving their fate in the hands of local elected prosecutors and their interpretation of confusing state laws. With abortions soon completely out of reach in Texas, abortion funds will become a more critical resource for Texans who need help leaving the state – and a more important target for abortion advocates trying to stop them. The staff at these abortion funds do not believe that helping patients seeking abortions abroad is illegal and are also reluctant to take the risk to find out. “We need to keep ourselves and our communities safe,” Torres said. “It’s painful in many ways, but we know our safety is paramount.”

Last week’s Supreme Court ruling gave Texas Republican-elected officials a victory the party has been working on for 50 years: the opportunity to enact their own abortion laws. These same elected officials immediately plunged the state into a chaotic quagmire of conflicting laws that confused lawyers, experts and advocates of abortion. “We are even struggling to understand what the laws are and what that means to us, because everything is written so vaguely,” Torres said. “And of course, this is intentional.” In 2021, the Texas Legislature passed an “activation law” that would make abortion a second-degree felony punishable by life imprisonment. This law enters into force 30 days after the opinion of the Supreme Court is formalized, something that will last at least another 25 days. However, Attorney General Ken Paxton told an advisory Friday that some prosecutors may immediately prosecute violations of Texas abortion laws before Roe v. Wade, whom the Legislature never repealed. “Although these statutes were unenforceable while Roe was in the books, they are still Texas law,” Paxton wrote. “Under these pre-Roe laws, abortion providers could be criminally liable for abortion from today.” These pre-Roe laws carry less significant sentences – two to five years in prison, compared to five years to life – but are much broader, punishing not only someone who has had an abortion, but also anyone who “provided the means” for a. Fear of prosecution under these pre-Roe statutes prompted abortion clinics to immediately stop abortions on Friday. Texas abortion funds have also stopped paying for abortions, citing legal confusion over whether such an activity would violate the statute. The courts have now embarked on a lengthy and bitter process to clarify which Texas laws – the old pre-Roe criminal laws, the six-week civil lawsuit ban or the impending “initiation” criminal ban – will have precedent. On Tuesday, a Harris County District Judge ruled that the abortion ban before Roe “is lifted and may not be enforced in accordance with the fair procedure guaranteed by the Texas Constitution.” Some clinics involved in this legal challenge have said they will resume abortion procedures immediately. Paxton said he would appeal immediately. This decision is a significant precedent for other legal challenges, but only applies to clinics referred to in the treatment and does not directly protect abortion funds. And abortion funds are worried about something far more potentially damaging than a civil lawsuit – a trial case in criminal court. “The threat of criminal prosecution is real,” said Elizabeth Myers, an associate at Thompson Coburn law firm representing abortion funds. “It will be very difficult for anyone to take on the threat of prosecution in order to test these theories, because the damage done to the criminal justice system is immediate.” The consensus among legal experts is that it would be difficult to win a case against an abortion fund that paid for out-of-state care. Supreme Court Justice Brett Cavanaugh tried to prevent the idea of ​​transnational fees in an agreement with Friday’s ruling. “Can a State prohibit a resident of that State from traveling to another State for an abortion?” Cavanaugh asked. “In my view, the answer is no under constitutional law on transnational travel.” But his view did not address the most thorny issue of paying someone else to travel abroad to achieve an abortion, and that does not mean that a prosecutor will not try to sue an abortion fund. “A lot of that is just a fear of excessive and fraudulent prosecutors in the state of Texas, which is a well-founded fear,” said J. Alexander Lawrence, a lawyer at Morrison & Foerster LLP who has represented abortion clinics. “There is great concern that a prosecutor who wants to override these laws will prosecute people who help women leave the state.” And legal experts say abortion funds are wise to be careful about right now. “Part of the difference in thinking about legal risk is who you are,” said Elizabeth Seper, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “High-profile individuals or high-profile organizations will have concerns that business prosecutors against prosecution may be prosecuted.”

Proponents of her case have been working to make the actual transcript of this statement available online. The North Texas Abortion Fund has been identified as a “criminal organization” in local abortion bans and has received letters of cessation and resignation from an anti-abortion legislator. In February, it was one of two abortion funds named in a legal report that claimed to have “assisted and supported” aborted abortions. Through all this, they simply continued the funding, believing that they could challenge any legal challenges in court. But everything changed on Friday. “When I first heard that we should stop funding, I cried,” said Denise Rodriguez, communications director. “Because I knew what that impact would be on people, just because of how extreme these people try to be when they try to prevent people from having access to abortions.” Texas abortion funds exist because the state does not make abortion easily accessible and affordable, Rodriguez said. “We believe that abortion is a fundamental part of health care and that the government should cover it, like all other health services,” Rodriguez said. “But if the government is not going to do it, we will.” These small nonprofits rely on donations and occasional grants to retain their limited staff, which is responsible for volunteering, raising funds, advertising their services, and coordinating abortions in Texas and surrounding states. The Lilith Fund, the oldest abortion fund in Texas, was founded in 2001 and its ranks have only grown since then, mainly helping low-income Texans gain access to abortion. But now, these organizations, which are …