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January 25, 2023
Abortion Hotline for Reproductive Rights
Oregon launches a
free hotline offering
legal advice
(AP) -Oregon is launching a new abor-
tion hotline offering free legal advice to
callers, moving to further defend abortion
access after the U.S. Supreme Court over-
turned Roe v. Wade last summer and elimi-
nated federal protections for the procedure.
The state’s Department of Justice an-
nounced the initiative Monday. It is mod-
eled on similar hotlines launched by the
attorneys general of New York and Del-
aware, as states where abortion remains
legal have seen an increase in the number
of patients traveling from areas where the
procedure has been banned or restricted.
“The Hotline will fill an important need
in our state for callers to understand the
status of our reproductive health laws, in-
cluding issues related to abortion access,”
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum
said. “This is especially important because
we share a border with Idaho, which has a
near-total abortion ban.”
Abortion remains legal at all stages of
pregnancy in Oregon, which has worked
with California and Washington to pro-
mote the West Coast as a safe haven for
the procedure.
People can call the anonymous hotline
from any state for free legal advice and
receive a call back from a lawyer within
48 hours. “We expect there might be calls
Protesters hold signs protesting against the Supreme Court's decision to overturn
Roe v. Wade in Portland, Ore., Friday, June 24, 2022. Oregon's Department of
Justice has launched a new abortion hotline offering free legal advice to callers. (AP
Photo/Craig Mitchelldyer)
from people from out of state asking what
the legal landscape is in Oregon with re-
spect to abortion,” said Molly Honore, a
lawyer with Markowitz Herbold, a firm
helping to staff the pro bono hotline. “We
expect there will be questions from pro-
viders and questions from people seeking
care.” Honore also said she expects calls
from people within Oregon seeking clarifi-
cation about their rights in the state.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court over-
turned Roe v. Wade in June, near-total
bans on abortion have been implemented
in Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklaho-
ma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and
West Virginia. Legal challenges are pend-
ing against several of those bans. The lone
clinic in North Dakota relocated across
state lines to Minnesota.
Idaho has three separate laws banning
abortion. One allows the potential family
members of a fetus to sue a health care pro-
fessional who performs an abortion; anoth-
er makes it a crime for medical profession-
als to perform an abortion after electrical
activity is detected; and another effectively
bans all abortions but allows doctors to de-
fend themselves in court by proving that
the procedure was done to save the life of
the patient.
All three bans are in effect statewide,
though a federal judge put a small por-
tion of the third law on hold while a law-
suit is underway. The federal judge said
the state could not enforce the third law
against health care providers who per-
form abortions in medical emergencies
at Medicaid-funded hospitals until the
lawsuit is over.
About 70 lawyers from several local law
firms will be working for Oregon’s hotline,
said Anna Sortun, a partner at Tonkon
Torp, which will be serving as the num-
ber’s logistics backbone. She said her firm
sought advice from people operating New
York’s abortion hotline.
While lawyers will only be sharing le-
gal advice on the status of Oregon law,
they can also provide contact informa-
tion for providers and abortion funds if
callers need more information on the re-
sources available to them, according to
state justice officials.
The hotline was launched the day af-
ter abortion supporters rallied across the
country to mark the 50th anniversary of the
now-overturned Roe v. Wade.
Anticipating a spike in out-of-state pa-
tients, Oregon lawmakers created a $15
million fund last year to increase access to
abortion services. This year, Democrats in
the Legislature plan to introduce a bill that
would shield patients and providers from
lawsuits originating in states where abor-
tion is banned or restricted.
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