Reproductive rights advocates have launched a new advertising campaign to help people who need to travel out of state for an abortion — along with a new vending machine offering free emergency contraception.
The new billboards have started popping up across New Orleans, asking in bold letters: “Need an abortion?”
The billboards are part of a campaign by The Brigid Alliance, a national group that offers to help people cover the costs of traveling to states where abortion is legal.
“It's really important for people across the U.S. to know and understand that there is support for them if they cannot afford to travel to their abortion care, that there are organizations who will support them to help them get there,” said Sara Sipple, The Brigid Alliance’s executive director.
The group has deployed mobile billboards to circle college campuses in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and also crisis pregnancy centers that try to dissuade women from having abortions and often provide misinformation about reproductive health care. It’s also running targeted digital ads on social media, along with ads in Florida and Georgia.
Thirty-one percent of the Bridge Alliance’s clients come from the three states targeted in the campaign, Sipple said. In 2024, the organization helped 450 people from those states.
According to Sipple, the vast majority already have dependents. About half earn less than $500 per month. That can make the cost of travelling for an abortion seem out of reach, Sipple said. On average, the Brigid Alliance provides $3,000 to cover the costs of traveling to and from an abortion clinic, she added. That includes the cost of hotels, airfare, food and child care, but not the cost of the procedure.
“Whatever it takes to get people to get to their abortion appointment and then back home,” Sipple said. “I think with the escalating restrictions and bans that we’re seeing in these states,it was really important to us to make sure that people in these states know that there is support available for them.”
It’s the first time the organization has done a billboard campaign, she added.
Louisiana lawmakers are considering a bill that would expand the definition of “coerced abortion.” Another bill would allow families to sue anyone suspected of “substantially facilitating” an abortion.
In 2024, approximately 155,000 people crossed state lines for abortion care in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute. Roughly 1,700 Louisianians traveled for abortions in 2023, according to the Guttmacher’s most recent state data. That year, about twice as many people — 2,480 — gave themselves abortions by ordering pills delivered through the mail, according to the Society of Family Planning.
A group of reproductive rights advocates also unveiled a new reproductive health vending machine in New Orleans last week that’s stocked with supplies, including free emergency contraception, Opill, the over-the-counter birth control pill, pregnancy tests and condoms. It also includes drug testing strips and Narcan.
The Louisiana Abortion Fund, Women With A Vision, Birthmark Doula Collective, and the Reproductive Justice Action Collective launched the new vending machine, which sits outside the Turkey and The Wolf restaurant on Jackson Avenue. In a statement, the groups cited new anti-abortion bills at the legislature as one reason there’s a need for more comprehensive care that’s accessible to anyone who needs it.
“Our intent is always to support people in making the decisions that they know is right for them,” said Tyler Barbarin, the director of grants and development at the Louisiana Abortion Fund.
People don’t need money to access any of the products inside, she said, and the goal is for this vending machine to be the first of many.
“We’re in the midst of a crackdown on bodily autonomy and reproductive choice, so it was important to come together to offer free supplies and free resources for the community,” Barbarin said.
The Louisiana Abortion Fund donated over $1.5 million to help 2,699 people travel out of state for an abortion last year, according to its annual report. The bulk of that money, over $1.4 million, helped cover the costs of the procedure itself.
