Meet the pilot flying women across state lines for abortion care

Brut America

"It feels dystopian. I shouldn't have to be doing this."  She's anonymous, stays under the radar, and transports women across state lines to to get safe abortion care. Brut filmmaker Léo Hamelin meets "Michelle" from Elevated Access.

Transcript

00:00As much as I would love to put a face to the cause, I can't do that because it would risk

00:13my career and my future.

00:20Lester in this historic decision, the Supreme Court has now overturned Roe v. Wade.

00:27I'm part of this community that is being stripped of their rights and their freedoms,

00:34which is not something that I expected from living here in the United States.

00:40I'm just there to take them to where they need to be.

00:49Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, over a dozen of states have restricted, if

00:54not banned, abortion.

00:56For Brut, I traveled to the Deep South where I met with Michelle.

01:00It's not her real name.

01:01I agreed to conceal her identity and her location.

01:05She's in her mid-20s, and she's part of an underground network of volunteers who transport

01:11women across state borders to get abortion care.

01:15Typically, once I get to the airport, I wait for my passengers that are coming, and I'll

01:22review my flight plan that I have ready.

01:26If you're in any of these states, you're having to travel three to four states across just

01:33to get the care that you need.

01:35And we're talking about people who might not even have a car, people who might not be able

01:43to afford to take off time from work.

01:47If the journey is very long, it might have to be split up into two flights, even three

01:53flights.

01:54There's a lot of logistics that have to go into it, and it's happening really fast, and

01:59it's all very under the radar.

02:01I nearly died.

02:03I continue to feel this baby move, and knowing that I'm going to give birth and watch my

02:12child pass.

02:14I would hope that while delivering my baby, if there were any complications, they would

02:21choose me.

02:22To all the black women and girls who have had abortions and will have abortions, we

02:26have nothing to be ashamed of.

02:32Could you explain to me why you're doing this?

02:35Yeah, so that hit really close to home for me, because I am a young Hispanic female.

02:44I knew exactly who this was going to impact, and it was going to be my community, specifically.

02:53I am a first-generation American.

02:55My parents came here to give me and their children the American dream.

03:02I did grow up in impoverished places.

03:07I experienced homelessness as a child sometimes.

03:12I think about all of those things when I do these flights, and I know exactly who it is

03:17that I'm helping.

03:19I see myself in them.

03:20I see my family in them.

03:22I see my friends in them.

03:26The airport that we're at is considered an uncontrolled airport, which just means there's

03:33no air traffic control tower.

03:36There's nobody that's directing you or telling you what to do.

03:39You can just hop in your plane and go wherever you want, do whatever you want.

03:45That makes it completely anonymous, actually, right?

03:47Completely.

03:48You're in the air.

03:50No one knows whose plane it is, who's in the plane, who's also with the pilot.

03:54Correct.

03:55No one knows anything unless they know your tail number.

04:01Nobody knows who you are unless they can pick out your voice.

04:06I'm just going to go in and ask them to see if the plane's pulled out.

04:09Should my camera not be out right now, or?

04:13Yeah, actually, if you need to pack up stuff.

04:17Okay.

04:18And then I'll just go in.

04:20The majority of the aviation community is straight, white males.

04:27I am a minority, a very, very, very small percentage of people in aviation, including

04:35being a woman and being a person of color.

04:38And even just me walking around in an airport is just so strange to people.

04:50I'm ready whenever you are.

04:52Okay, great.

04:53And you're still okay if I record our conversation?

04:57Yes.

04:58Okay, great.

04:59The pilots, most of the time, have no real knowledge of who they're transporting.

05:09They could be transporting a volunteer, a staffer, a patient, a provider, anybody.

05:17First of all, it's none of their business.

05:19That's the whole point.

05:20An healthcare decision is very private.

05:22But more importantly, it's like with the Uber in the sky.

05:26Uber drivers don't know why they're transporting somebody.

05:29And so if later somebody accuses a pilot of committing a crime, a pilot can genuinely

05:36say, he's just transporting somebody.

05:38In the last three decades, there have been some very violent attacks on people who have

05:46been providing abortions.

05:47One of the few remaining doctors to perform late-term abortions was shot dead at his church

05:51in Wichita, Kansas.

05:53George Tiller was a target of anti-abortion extremists.

05:56His Wichita clinic was bombed in 1985.

05:59And then, at the age of 67, he was murdered at church.

06:03Things that are considered violent crimes, you know, per the FBI.

06:06So, stalking, harassment, vandalism.

06:09And then it gets worse.

06:10Death threats, arson, bombing.

06:12The report says violence against abortion providers rose significantly in 2021.

06:16Thou shall not kill.

06:18You don't have a blessing to give.

06:20And so it's just safer for us to stay off the radar of the people who might be wishing to hurt us.

06:28And then, like, over here, there's a self-service station as well.

06:32You can land at whatever time you need to, and there's going to be fuel available.

06:39The passengers don't have to pay a dime.

06:44I personally pay for the flights that I do.

06:48It can range anywhere between a few hundred dollars to close to the thousand dollar range.

06:55Okay.

06:56What it means to give somebody the opportunity to receive the help that they need, that's priceless to me.

07:09Automated weather observation.

07:13One.

07:14Six.

07:15Visibility.

07:16One.

07:17Zero.

07:18Clear.

07:19Below.

07:20One.

07:21Two.

07:22Thousand.

07:23Temperature.

07:24Two.

07:25Six.

07:26Celsius.

07:27Dewpoint.

07:28Zero.

07:29Altimeter.

07:30Two.

07:31Nine there.

07:32Nine there.

07:38What do you like about flying?

07:41It's so freeing.

07:42I can go wherever I want.

07:44My family came to this country to provide me every opportunity and freedom.

07:49So, aviation gives me that extra liberty.

07:53Nobody can tell me where I'm going, what I'm doing.

07:58Nobody's going to ask me.

08:00It's a liberating feeling.

08:03I can never get tired of this.

08:05And I will spend the rest of my life looking at this.

08:14Sometimes, after realizing, wow, I just transferred these people to get the care that they need, it feels very dystopian.

08:23Like, I shouldn't have to be doing this.

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