You Don't Need an Emergency Fund. Because of Trump, You Need Something Else.

"Then there was my student who told me that she had been carefully saving for a down payment on a house, but had to use it to travel across multiple states to get an abortion. After the procedure and travel costs were accounted for, she had spent thousands. And yet, she was one of the lucky ones. She had the money. Many women do not."

"I teach women about their money for a living. Lately, I've lost count of the stories about the impossible financial choices women are making just to access an abortion. As lawmakers take increasingly hostile stances against reproductive rights, it's only going to get worse. This is why, as a finance educator, my most critical piece of financial advice for 2026 is this: Build a personal abortion fund."

"For those with means, accessing abortion still represents a sudden, steep tax. A draining of savings, a taking on of debt. In 2023, 170,000 patients traveled out of state for abortion care. Another 155,000 in 2024. For my student, the one who used her down-payment money, the bargain felt cruel and unfair: a direct trade of future security for a present medical necessity, borne by her alone. It takes two to tango, but it was only she who paid the band."

Many women incur substantial financial costs to access abortion, including credit-card debt, depleted savings, borrowed money, and canceled plans like home purchases. Travel across state lines for care creates additional expenses that can total thousands of dollars. The 2022 legal shift left an estimated 31 million reproductive-age women living in states where abortion is banned or threatened, worsening economic and reproductive insecurity. For those with means, abortion access often causes sudden savings drains and debt; for those without means, inability to pay forces many to carry unwanted pregnancies and compounds long-term hardship.

Read at Slate Magazine