By ARCH Fund Board
As we approach the third anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade and eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion, we reflect on what access to reproductive healthcare means for our Falls Church community.
We are fortunate to have a longstanding provider, the Falls Church Healthcare Center, which has served our region with compassionate, respectful care for decades. It is a critical resource for people from Northern Virginia and far beyond. People in neighboring Southern states are not as fortunate.
Since Dobbs, the landscape of access has shifted dramatically. Abortion care has been banned or severely restricted in many states, leaving Virginia to be the only state in the South without an abortion ban or a mandatory waiting period – a tactic used exclusively to delay care and inconvenience patients. This reality makes Virginia an essential access point for those living in states where abortion is banned or severely restricted. Nearly one in four abortion patients in Virginia now comes from out of state. People are traveling hundreds of miles, often at great financial and emotional cost, to access care — including here in Falls Church. Patients commonly have to balance their work schedules, childcare needs, and transportation costs to make attending a healthcare appointment a reality.
Fortunately, there are ways to support abortion access in Falls Church. Access to Reproductive Care and Health (ARCH) Fund is a non-profit abortion fund operating out of the Falls Church Healthcare Center, that provides financial support for gynecological care and screenings, a variety of birth control options, and of course, abortion care. We volunteer on this board to ensure that no one is turned away because of their inability to pay. We believe in the dignity, autonomy, and freedom of every person in our community.
We are experiencing an unprecedented request for support. People in our community need access to reproductive healthcare now more than ever. With looming uncertainty around the future legality of abortion care and birth control options, and an influx of patients traveling for abortion care from the most restrictive areas of the country, there has been an increased demand on our local clinics and providers. Many in our community have lost their jobs, or are experiencing interruptions in income and health insurance coverage, materially increasing both uncertainty and the need for more accessible reproductive care coverage.
The ARCH Fund continues to support the need in our local community by providing critical funds to patients at the Falls Church Healthcare Center. We hope you will learn more about supporting our work on our website, and by signing up for our mailing list.
Together, we can ensure that Falls Church continues to be a place where people can access the care they need — no matter who they are or where they come from.
Access to Reproductive Care and Health (ARCH) Fund is a volunteer-run non-profit operating out of the Falls Church Healthcare Center. We distribute funds to patients to offset the cost of their reproductive healthcare needs. Learn more at ARCHfund.org
