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About the Helpline

Repro Legal Helpline is run by If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, a non-profit organization made up of advocates, organizers, and lawyers helping to build a future where everyone is free to make their own decisions about their bodies and reproductive lives.

Abortion is a human right, and it remains a legal right in the majority of states in the United States. Even if you live in a state that has banned abortion, you still have legal rights. We can help you understand those rights.

The Repro Legal Helpline is a free, confidential helpline where you can get legal information or advice about the abortion laws in your state, including self-managed abortion, young people's access to abortion or judicial bypass, and referrals to local resources.

What to Expect

The helpline and its staff are based in the United States and can only answer questions related to U.S. laws.

If you are under age 18 and need an abortion, but can’t tell or get permission from a parent, we can help you with the judicial bypass process. Judicial bypass means getting permission from a judge to have an abortion without telling or getting permission from a parent.

If you need an abortion and have questions about what the law is, we can give you clear, understandable answers about legal rights, what the law is, and how it has been used.

Even if you're unsure about whether we will be able to answer your questions, please reach out. We get a range of questions about people's reproductive lives.

If you have been arrested, questioned by the police, or charged with a crime for your abortion, we may also be able to help you by finding you a lawyer in your state, or working with your lawyer to help with your defense.

We are not a resource on abortion pills, we cannot provide information about where to buy pills, how to buy them, or how to take them. We also cannot help with tracking or receiving pill shipments.

Our Values

As advocates who support the helpline, we are guided by three core values.

Compassion

We are here to be of service to the people who contact us for legal help. We offer non-judgmental assistance and center the needs of our callers so we can provide the most useful information that we can.

Dignity

We uplift the fact that people have a human right, protected by the U.S. Constitution, to decide what happens to their own bodies. We do not believe that abortion is something that can be criminalized, much less should be. Despite this, we know that people continue to face legal risks when it comes to seeking abortion.

Trust

We want to be worthy of your trust by keeping your private information safe and confidential. As part of building that trust, we regularly remove information that we receive through the helpline and use secure channels to communicate. Accordingly, we invite everyone to practice safe browsing and internet use. For more information, click here.

See what community leaders are saying about the helpline

Yamani Hernandez

Yamani Hernandez

National Network of Abortion Funds

All people deserve the power to make decisions about their own bodies, identities, and health without fearing criminal punishment for those decisions. If/When/How plays an important role in preserving that power by providing information and legal support to people who are criminalized for ending their own pregnancies.

Ann Marie Benitez

Ann Marie Benitez

National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice

Whether with the help of a provider or under their own care at home, everyone deserves access to reproductive care with dignity and justice. Many Latinas/xs prefer to take abortion care into their own hands; for generations, we have taken herbs or sought support from traditional curanderas. Now, as some of us turn to online sources, it is clear that we cannot allow Latinas/xs, people of color, im/migrants and people with low incomes, who already face substantial barriers to access reproductive healthcare, to be targeted and criminalized for taking care of ourselves, so that we, along with our families and our communities, can thrive.

Sung Yeon Choimorrow

Sung Yeon Choimorrow

National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum

No one who ends their own pregnancy should face criminal prosecution. Yet these prosecutions occur and often target immigrants and people of color already wracked by oppression, poverty, and aggression by the State. If/When/How fights alongside our resilient communities to shift structures, change laws, and protect people criminalized for self-managed abortion.

Strategic Initiatives

We work to end the criminalization of people for ending their own pregnancies, because no one should be investigated, arrested, jailed, or punished for exercising their constitutional right to abortion. That work is one of If/When/How’s Strategic Initiatives. Learn more about this and our other Strategic Initiatives on our main site.

Learn more