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On a busy corner in Wellston, volunteers recently passed out essential items — including bottled water and cellphones — to people in need.
Under one tent, sex workers Miyonnee Hickman and Esmeralda, who uses the name for work, fill bags with condoms, pregnancy tests and emergency contraception.
Hickman and Esmeralda represent the MO-Ho Justice Coalition, a statewide organization of sex workers trying to decriminalize and destigmatize sex work in Missouri.
After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Missouri outlawed nearly all abortions. Now, the coalition is starting an abortion fund to help sex workers pay for the costs of abortion in Illinois. Abortion funds are among the fastest-growing ways that grassroots groups are trying to help people continue to access abortion services.
“It's going to be these grassroots groups on the ground who are going there to serve people when the state has let them down and cannot meet their needs,” said Maggie Olivia, the policy manager for Pro-Choice Missouri, the state’s largest abortion-rights organization.
Sex workers face higher rates of sexual violence. Many entered the industry to afford food and housing. People who use abortion funds often are parents who lack full-time jobs and permanent housing.
Esmeralda, who has had two abortions, said she wants others to be able to access the same care.
“Knowing that I had that option and how difficult [it] was at those moments in my life and knowing now that a lot of people don't have the option that I had, it puts me in a position of like, ‘I need to do something about this,’” she said.