Letter to the Governor to Restore Full Funding
May 5, 2025
The Honorable Robert W. Ferguson
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504-0002
Dear Gov. Ferguson:
We are writing to urge you to amend section 226, line 6, in the general fund budget to restore the full appropriation provided solely for programs and grants to maintain access to abortion care, including but not limited to staffing at the state Department of Health and grants to providers of abortion care to fund abortion care.
In the budget adopted by the Legislature April 27, and now on your desk for review and consideration of all provisions, there was a reduction of your predecessor’s budget funding for this program from $16,938,500 in fiscal year (FY) 2026 and $15,706,000 in FY 2027 to $7 million in FY 2026 and $7 million in FY 2027. That’s more than a 50% reduction in funds associated with helping individuals access safe abortion services. These cuts will hurt low- and modest-income individuals, who face daunting financial barriers, across the state and nation.
As a small, all-volunteer nonprofit organization founded in 2022, Access Walk has raised and donated $160,000 over the past two years to Cedar River Clinics of Washington and Lilith Clinics to fund travel-related expenses for individuals forced to travel from hostile states to Washington state to access safe reproductive and abortion services. Like the state appropriation, we began Access Walk in the wake of the Dobbs decision to create a funding stream to support as many individuals as possible to access reproductive health care and exercise their bodily autonomy.
Working with the clinics who received our grants, the stories of individuals forced to sleep in their cars, forego medication and meals due to lack of financial means, makes the state’s funding absolutely necessary.
Cutting funding now, in the face of uncertainty of federal funding for safe abortion service access, is the wrong direction. Individuals across the nation are traveling to Washington state to exercise their freedom to access reproductive care and treatment.
On behalf of the Access Walk and our all-volunteer board, we urge you to restore full funding to the grant program to help individuals across the nation and state access the reproductive healthcare services that are a basic human right.
Sincerely,
Jeffrey B. Pyatt
Co-founder, Access Walk