Philly is donating half-a-million dollars to a group that helps patients pay for abortions

Philadelphia is donating $500,000 to a group that provides financial assistance to people seeking abortion care in Southeastern Pennsylvania, city officials announced Thursday.

Coming out of the city’s taxpayer-funded general fund, the money will go to the Abortion Liberation Fund of PA, which helps patients pay for an abortion if they cannot use insurance to cover the procedure or can’t afford it. Under a decades-old state law, Medicaid dollars can’t be used to cover abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, or life-threatening health complications.

The half-a-million-dollar donation represents a significant investment in the Philadelphia-based nonprofit ALF-PA, which took in $1.4 million in revenue in all of 2020, according to tax filings.

Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement that even before the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated a constitutional right to abortion, obtaining the procedure was cost-prohibitive and “anti-abortion restrictions have made it far too difficult for people to access safe and often life-saving procedures.”

“In Philadelphia [abortion] is legal, but sadly that does not mean it is accessible for everyone,” said Kenney, a Democrat. “Providing financial support for people seeking abortions is one of the ways we will support Philadelphians in their fundamental right to bodily autonomy.”

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The overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade in June did not change the legal status of abortion in Pennsylvania. The procedure remains legal through about 24 weeks into a pregnancy.

ALF-PA, which is part of a national network and was founded in 1985 after the Pennsylvania General Assembly voted to ban Medicaid funding for abortions, estimates that out-of-pocket costs for abortion can range from $400 to $3,000.

The group says it has provided financial assistance for healthcare, travel, and lodging to more than 35,000 people since its inception, including 3,200 people seeking abortions in Pennsylvania in the last fiscal year. It supports both people living in and traveling to Southeastern Pennsylvania for abortion care.