Read ARC-Southeast’s 2026 Mid-Year Report and hear stories from the frontlines of the fight for reproductive justice in the South.
What Has 2026 Meant So Far in the Fight for Southern Reproductive Liberation?
At ARC-Southeast two of our values are Community Accountability and Building Southern Power. Practicing radical transparency is one way we attempt to embody these values.
Our 2026 mid-year report is an opportunity to share with our community not only what abortion bans and inequitable healthcare systems are doing to Southerners, but what becomes possible when we redistribute resources, share knowledge and build resistance together. We know the status quo of state officials, anti-abortion organizers and mainstream media has always spread rampant misinformation around abortion, the South and Black-led nonprofits. From the front lines, we have a different story to tell. We share what we’re learning to disrupt fearmongering, make visible the realities abortion seekers are navigating and keep our communities connected to one another.
ARC-SOUTHEAST 2026 MID-YEAR REPORT
Some of this year’s mid-year report features the quantitative data you’ve come to expect from us: number of people we’ve supported, who our callers are, how we help lower barriers to care and the persistent gaps created by state abandonment.
Some headlines in the report include:
1. We redistributed $1.3 million in the first six months of 2026 and if we could have fully funded the requests we received the true cost to fully support our people would have been $5 million.
2. 44% increase in callers needing practical support such as meals, transportation fare and hotel stays just to get access to an abortion procedure.
3. Transportation costs have risen to an average of $788 for one caller.
4. Completed a 10-month Guaranteed Income pilot in July investing $60,000 across ten families—participants reported that financial support helped them catch up on bills and spend more time with their children.
We’ve also included some reflections from two Healthline staffers, an update on what we’re seeing locally around abortion pills and perhaps most importantly a glimpse into how we’re reimagining our outreach and organizing efforts in the wake of staff layoffs in June.
As we’ve had to pause much of our Outreach and Organizing programming, we’ve been taking time to listen to our former callers and sitting with the legacy of those in the South who came before us to build radical infrastructures of community-care. You can read more about these efforts on page 13 on the report and see how we’ll be prioritizing some pilots in Georgia as well as Mississippi. We offer this information as an invitation to join us in rebuilding and strengthening the fight for reproductive liberation.
Since our founding, political education, mutual aid, leadership development and community organizing have been essential components to our work because that is how we believe we will achieve our mission of building power in communities of color to abolish stigma and restore dignity and justice. Abortion access is not only a service, it is a pathway to relationship, political education, leadership cultivation and collective action. When we build relationships intentionally, accessing abortion—and helping someone else access abortion—can become a point of connection and mobilization toward broader systemic change.
If you live in the Southeast and want to help disrupt misinformation, support abortion seekers and strengthen the networks of care and resistance in our communities, we want to hear from you. There are ways to volunteer, participate in political education and help us rebuild the relationships and infrastructure that make reproductive liberation possible. Interested? Fill out our volunteer form here. And if you can’t show up in this way, consider becoming a monthly supporter and joining the thousands of people who make this work possible.
We refuse to accept abandonment as inevitable or the only story to tell when it comes to abortion in the South. The real story is in what we’re building for one another to resist and receive care.