7 Questions with Julie Burkhart
Julie Burkhart is the founder and president of Wellspring Health Access, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing essential abortion and healthcare services. A long-time advocate for reproductive rights, Julie has a deep understanding of the challenges and the importance of ensuring access to care in all communities. She is also the co-owner of Hope Clinic in Illinois, which has seen a 170% increase in out-of-state patients since abortion restrictions went into effect, specifically after the 6-week abortion ban was enacted in Florida. She answered 7 Questions.
What were some of the biggest internal challenges when you started moving toward a new model for your organization? Did you face any resistance from funders, partners, or supporters who felt uneasy about the shift? How did you navigate that?
Well, we did not face resistance from our allies or funders. However, with a strictly for-profit model, and anyone who knows about abortion care, the margins are always very thin. It prevented us from raising money in other areas because of our for-profit status. So, with a 501(c)(3), where you might be able to go out and build relationships with individual funders and foundations, those were not avenues open to us. That we had that strict model of patient revenue from patient services, from abortions, which would fund us, and insurance, it was just not enough to make ends meet. And I'm happy to talk about some of those roadblocks because, whether you're a for-profit or non-profit, we all universally face these roadblocks.
For a for-profit model, some of that philanthropic money is unavailable. We have laws on the books across the country where, while we have legal abortion rights, we have insurance bans, etc. For example, in the state of Wyoming, where Wellspring has its clinic in Casper, we are barred via state law from taking any insurance. So, if you have Medicaid, if you have Blue Cross, if you have Aetna, we are not allowed to bill the insurance companies for your abortion care. However, in the state of Illinois, we're able to access that insurance funding. This is very unequal, and it's a patchwork state-by-state. You have a lack of insurance in certain states. Patients need funding for the actual procedures. But not only that, we are providing more funding for travel, for lodging, for meals, and gas money.
People are having to drive, fly, and travel further distances, and so their funding requirements have gone up. And even with the funding that we get from our wonderful abortion funders, it's still, at the end of the day, oftentimes not enough money to make ends meet.
What kinds of misconceptions did people have about what it meant for you to not just be a nonprofit?
Well, one of the things that I've been thinking a lot about, and we haven't solved the problem for us, is that when you're thinking about opening a clinic, we're always thinking about where we can provide services for those who are under-resourced, marginalized, and underserved. One of the big stumbling blocks is real estate.
Real estate is pricey, and not everybody has enough money in their pocket to pay that 10, 20, 30% down payment on a mortgage. I have been having a lot of conversations with folks, putting a lot of thought into how we as reproductive health providers move into that social impact investing arena. And so far, I have no good answers. This is an area, though, that I think has a lot of potential. But the folks that I have talked to so far who work in this arena don't focus on reproductive health care. Many more areas of focus are all worthy, but we just haven't found the right partner or partners for this. But I do think that this warrants more conversations and thinking about this puzzle piece because that can oftentimes be a big stumbling block for folks when they're trying to simply provide services in communities that need them.
You’re doing this work in a socially and politically conservative region (Wyoming, Kansas, and Oklahoma). How has that shaped your strategy, messaging, or business model?
My approach is that no matter where you live in the United States, people are going to need access to quality reproductive health care. We are helping people to understand that this is not just about abortion. This is about what people need to serve the full span of their reproductive lives. Because if you look at people who have abortions, people go on to be parents, to be mothers. 60-65 % of the people we serve are already parents. Trying to help people understand that we're not talking about this one little isolated section of healthcare, that this ties into one's whole reproductive life, is so critical.
There’s also a direct correlation between having access to quality reproductive healthcare and childhood health outcomes, childhood poverty, and maternal health. You have all these direct correlations that, if we don't have these services provided for freely in our communities, then people's health across the board is going to suffer. We do not want people to suffer, and we want people in every corner of the United States to have quality healthcare when they need it.
You’ve faced unimaginable adversity, including the death of Dr. Tiller and arson attacks at three of your abortion clinics. How do you keep moving forward when confronted with forces actively (and physically) trying to derail the work you do?
I go back to right after Dr. Tiller's assassination. I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do, what I could do personally, and processing that in my mind. At the end of the day, I just kept coming back to the fact that for those of us who can continue to carry the mantle in whatever way, however that looks, it's incumbent upon us to do that as we can. For this sheer evil, and that's the way I look at it, that this sheer evil will continue to infect our society if we don't take some action, whatever that action looks like.
It has just been very important to me that no matter what type of roadblocks are put in place, we can find the solutions, and as Dr. Tiller always said, “Solutions, not problems.” We will continue to look for those solutions until there aren't any more. But in my experience, we have continued to find those solutions. I think it's important not to let that bullying, that hatred, invade all of our spaces, and that just opening up that space to acceptance and goodness and service provision is incredibly important.
Have you found allies or support in unexpected places—conservative leaders, local businesses, or others you didn’t expect to back your mission?
It's not something we've been able to see or anticipate in advance. For example, in Casper, Wyoming, after we opened, the anti-choice folks went to the city council numerous times to try to get the council to take action against us. They encouraged the council to do this study, and the council members looked at their request, and I also had an opportunity to talk to some of the council members about this. But at the end of the day, they came back and made the recommendation not to take this up. That this was not an issue that was appropriate for the city council. And that was quite helpful because it just kind of put that whole issue at that time to rest.
After the arson in Casper, we had a handful of businesses that came out and gave public support for us, which was unexpected, but it was nice. It was really heartening, and it helped us to feel more one with the community.
One of the fears in changing is losing sight of the mission. How do you make sure your values still lead the way?
We are very patient-centered. We continue to have a no-turn-away policy. We hold the deep belief that everyone deserves bodily autonomy, the right to the type of healthcare that they need in consultation with their doctor. We don't believe that somebody should be forced into parenting because of money. That leads us.
We've faced a lot of, you know, court challenges over the years. Right now, in Wyoming in particular, we have three cases before the courts, one in the state Supreme Court, two in district court. And I think it's important to reassure people that we're not going to roll up the tent and go away because we have these challenges in front of us. This year, we had our services disrupted for seven weeks, but we constantly reassured people that we are following the judicial process, and we are going to do everything in our power to make sure that we have services again. I did get some questions. “Are you leaving Wyoming?” And my answer was, “Hell no.”
And finally, what does success look like for you now that your organization operates differently, but still serves the same mission?
Well, I mean, I think it's twofold. One is to be able to continue to go into communities where we can operate legally in the United States and provide reproductive health care. If Roe were still the law of the land, the next two states on my to-do list were Mississippi and Arkansas. I desperately wanted to open a clinic in Mississippi. Unfortunately, some of what we would like to do is not on the table right now. We’re going to go into the places where we can to hopefully be able to capture the people who need our care.
Success for me is that we'll be able to be part of the solution. How do we build back this political power in these states that have been so disenfranchised because of the fall of Roe? How can we build this power back in these states where rights have been and continue to be devastated? That's a much bigger picture item, but it's something that collectively I hope that we are all thinking about so that we can make all corners of this country better.
There are so many other issues that fall into that bucket. Environmental issues, immigration, economic issues, do people have jobs, and are they being educated properly so that these areas in the country can thrive? That's where I would really love to see us collectively able to build this back, because if we're looking at hope for the future and equality for all people, we have to also pay attention to these states that have been so disenfranchised by this administration.
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