00:00As much as I would love to put a face to the cause, I can't do that because it would risk
00:13my career and my future.
00:20Lester in this historic decision, the Supreme Court has now overturned Roe v. Wade.
00:27I'm part of this community that is being stripped of their rights and their freedoms,
00:34which is not something that I expected from living here in the United States.
00:40I'm just there to take them to where they need to be.
00:49Since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022, over a dozen of states have restricted, if
00:54not banned, abortion.
00:56For Brut, I traveled to the Deep South where I met with Michelle.
01:00It's not her real name.
01:01I agreed to conceal her identity and her location.
01:05She's in her mid-20s, and she's part of an underground network of volunteers who transport
01:11women across state borders to get abortion care.
01:15Typically, once I get to the airport, I wait for my passengers that are coming, and I'll
01:22review my flight plan that I have ready.
01:26If you're in any of these states, you're having to travel three to four states across just
01:33to get the care that you need.
01:35And we're talking about people who might not even have a car, people who might not be able
01:43to afford to take off time from work.
01:47If the journey is very long, it might have to be split up into two flights, even three
01:53flights.
01:54There's a lot of logistics that have to go into it, and it's happening really fast, and
01:59it's all very under the radar.
02:01I nearly died.
02:03I continue to feel this baby move, and knowing that I'm going to give birth and watch my
02:12child pass.
02:14I would hope that while delivering my baby, if there were any complications, they would
02:21choose me.
02:22To all the black women and girls who have had abortions and will have abortions, we
02:26have nothing to be ashamed of.
02:32Could you explain to me why you're doing this?
02:35Yeah, so that hit really close to home for me, because I am a young Hispanic female.
02:44I knew exactly who this was going to impact, and it was going to be my community, specifically.
02:53I am a first-generation American.
02:55My parents came here to give me and their children the American dream.
03:02I did grow up in impoverished places.
03:07I experienced homelessness as a child sometimes.
03:12I think about all of those things when I do these flights, and I know exactly who it is
03:17that I'm helping.
03:19I see myself in them.
03:20I see my family in them.
03:22I see my friends in them.
03:26The airport that we're at is considered an uncontrolled airport, which just means there's
03:33no air traffic control tower.
03:36There's nobody that's directing you or telling you what to do.
03:39You can just hop in your plane and go wherever you want, do whatever you want.
03:45That makes it completely anonymous, actually, right?
03:47Completely.
03:48You're in the air.
03:50No one knows whose plane it is, who's in the plane, who's also with the pilot.
03:54Correct.
03:55No one knows anything unless they know your tail number.
04:01Nobody knows who you are unless they can pick out your voice.
04:06I'm just going to go in and ask them to see if the plane's pulled out.
04:09Should my camera not be out right now, or?
04:13Yeah, actually, if you need to pack up stuff.
04:17Okay.
04:18And then I'll just go in.
04:20The majority of the aviation community is straight, white males.
04:27I am a minority, a very, very, very small percentage of people in aviation, including
04:35being a woman and being a person of color.
04:38And even just me walking around in an airport is just so strange to people.
04:50I'm ready whenever you are.
04:52Okay, great.
04:53And you're still okay if I record our conversation?
04:57Yes.
04:58Okay, great.
04:59The pilots, most of the time, have no real knowledge of who they're transporting.
05:09They could be transporting a volunteer, a staffer, a patient, a provider, anybody.
05:17First of all, it's none of their business.
05:19That's the whole point.
05:20An healthcare decision is very private.
05:22But more importantly, it's like with the Uber in the sky.
05:26Uber drivers don't know why they're transporting somebody.
05:29And so if later somebody accuses a pilot of committing a crime, a pilot can genuinely
05:36say, he's just transporting somebody.
05:38In the last three decades, there have been some very violent attacks on people who have
05:46been providing abortions.
05:47One of the few remaining doctors to perform late-term abortions was shot dead at his church
05:51in Wichita, Kansas.
05:53George Tiller was a target of anti-abortion extremists.
05:56His Wichita clinic was bombed in 1985.
05:59And then, at the age of 67, he was murdered at church.
06:03Things that are considered violent crimes, you know, per the FBI.
06:06So, stalking, harassment, vandalism.
06:09And then it gets worse.
06:10Death threats, arson, bombing.
06:12The report says violence against abortion providers rose significantly in 2021.
06:16Thou shall not kill.
06:18You don't have a blessing to give.
06:20And so it's just safer for us to stay off the radar of the people who might be wishing to hurt us.
06:28And then, like, over here, there's a self-service station as well.
06:32You can land at whatever time you need to, and there's going to be fuel available.
06:39The passengers don't have to pay a dime.
06:44I personally pay for the flights that I do.
06:48It can range anywhere between a few hundred dollars to close to the thousand dollar range.
06:55Okay.
06:56What it means to give somebody the opportunity to receive the help that they need, that's priceless to me.
07:09Automated weather observation.
07:13One.
07:14Six.
07:15Visibility.
07:16One.
07:17Zero.
07:18Clear.
07:19Below.
07:20One.
07:21Two.
07:22Thousand.
07:23Temperature.
07:24Two.
07:25Six.
07:26Celsius.
07:27Dewpoint.
07:28Zero.
07:29Altimeter.
07:30Two.
07:31Nine there.
07:32Nine there.
07:38What do you like about flying?
07:41It's so freeing.
07:42I can go wherever I want.
07:44My family came to this country to provide me every opportunity and freedom.
07:49So, aviation gives me that extra liberty.
07:53Nobody can tell me where I'm going, what I'm doing.
07:58Nobody's going to ask me.
08:00It's a liberating feeling.
08:03I can never get tired of this.
08:05And I will spend the rest of my life looking at this.
08:14Sometimes, after realizing, wow, I just transferred these people to get the care that they need, it feels very dystopian.
08:23Like, I shouldn't have to be doing this.
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