These volunteer pilots fly people to other states to get abortions, gender-affirming care: 'My plane is the great equalizer'

Adrian is a pilot and a veteran who volunteers for Elevated Access, a nonprofit organization that flies people in small private planes at no cost so they can access abortion services or gender-affirming care, such as hormonal treatments for transgender individuals.

The pilots who volunteer often do so in “absolute secrecy,” Fiona, an Elevated Access spokesperson, says (everyone who spoke with Yahoo Life for this story asked that their last names be withheld to protect their identities). But Adrian talks openly about flying for the organization under cheesepilot on TikTok and rails against restrictions across the U.S. on both reproductive and transgender rights.

For Adrian, his reason for volunteering hits particularly close to home.

“My mom got pregnant at 13 and gave birth to twins” — Adrian and his brother — “at 14,” he says. Although abortion was legal in her state, she needed parental consent. But Adrian’s grandparents wouldn’t sign off on the abortion procedure.

“I dealt with a life of food scarcity and abuse and general all-around suckiness, which is putting it nicely,” Adrian tells Yahoo Life. “My mom and I don't get along … but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t have been given the option to have access to the health care she needed. If I wasn't born, she might not very well have ended up a terrible individual, rife with mental health issues, addiction issues, etc. Me and my twin brother wouldn't have had to put up with that.”

He adds: “People might say, ‘This guy wants to die’ — that's not what I’m saying. Whether or not I’m happy with my life, which to be honest, my life kicks ass, I own my own seaplane and I help anybody who needs it — I wouldn’t give this up for anything — that doesn't mean my mom shouldn’t be given the option to get the care she needs.”

'You need a pilot who wants to do this and take a risk'

Ever since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, dismantling 50 years of federal protections for abortion, restrictions have been expanding across the country, making it increasingly hard for people to access abortion care. Most abortions are now banned in 13 states, many with no exceptions for rape or incest.

Flying patients in small planes at no cost to receive abortion services doesn’t just save them time and money — it’s often the only way they can access abortion care. Those who live in states with abortion bans or strict abortion laws may have to travel long distances to access care — assuming they can afford it, take the time off from work and find transportation and child care (59% of those who seek abortions are already mothers).

Elevated Access pilots, on the other hand, can fly into 3,000 airports across the country. “It’s private, it’s anonymous and convenient, and it’s way quicker than driving,” Fiona tells Yahoo Life.

However, given the current abortion landscape, these volunteer pilots are taking “incredible risks,” says Fiona, particularly as states look to penalize people who transport those seeking an abortion in another state. Idaho, for example, is the first state in the U.S. to make it illegal for an adult to help a minor leave the state to get an abortion or obtain pills for them for a medication abortion without parental consent. Knowing that some states have bounty-type laws and that transporting patients may be considered a criminal act “creates fear, uncertainty and doubt,” says Fiona, “so you need a pilot who wants to do this and take a risk.”

She adds: “It takes a special human being to do it, which means they have a special story. They have reasons for doing this that aren’t trivial.”

'My plane is the great equalizer'

Pilots who fly for Elevated Access have a range of reasons for volunteering. For some, like Adrian, it’s personal. Tim, a pilot who has flown for 20 years and lives in Michigan, had a friend in college who was date raped, and he remembers escorting her to Planned Parenthood so she could have an abortion.

“My feeling is that to truly help somebody, you have to deliver time, talent and treasure,” Tim, who is a father of three daughters, tells Yahoo Life. “Many people can dedicate time, and others can dedicate treasure, but when you dedicate a talent, especially one as rare as flying, you’re truly delivering beneficial help. Every woman deserves the health care they desire, and every person should be free to receive health care they wish to have. No one and no government should stand in their way. My plane is the great equalizer, and it’s important to me to not pull the ladder up behind me.”

Others view volunteering their services as their patriotic duty in light of women’s reproductive rights and transgender rights being infringed. “There is a very patriotic tone of what they believe America should be about,” says Fiona. “That you should be able to live your life the way you want to live it. They feel that’s been taken away.”

In a quote provided by Elevated Access, a pilot named Thomas said: “Being an ally for injustice has always been important to me. Flying for Elevated Access gives me the ability to do something about rights being stripped from women and trans people. The ‘party of freedom’ seems to want to tell people how to live their lives, and Elevated Access lets me be involved in giving the oppressed their voices back.”

How does Elevated Access work?

Elevated Access was founded in 2022 by an amateur pilot named Mike in response to Texas’s SB8 six-week abortion ban, which includes a bounty for anyone who successfully sues a person for violating the ban. The organization has a network of 1,100 volunteer pilots across the country. The majority of them are men, some of whom are ex-military. “It’s men helping women,” says Fiona. “And it’s gender-affirming care, so it’s men helping LGBTQ folks as well.”

Pilots use their own private planes and are not compensated. “They do all of this on their own dime,” says Fiona. “They pay for their gas — anywhere from $400 to $800 or $900” per flight, depending on the length of the trip.

Elevated Access partners with certain organizations, such as Planned Parenthood, who have direct contact with patients and work out what the patient can pay for the health care appointment. “Let’s say an abortion is $500 and the patient has $100 — the organization may chip in $400,” says Fiona, who explains there’s “no cost from us” as far as the flight, she says. The partner organizations find available appointments — often just a few days out — and then Elevated Access has to quickly search for an available pilot on short notice. “I used to call these miracle flights,” says Fiona. “It felt like it was a miracle when we pulled it off.”

Once a pilot is paired with a patient, they exchange phone numbers to communicate via text. “The pilot doesn’t keep the number,” says Fiona. The patient — sometimes with a companion, which is recommended for support or to help with any language barriers — then meets the pilot at a regional airport near where the patient lives. “The majority of people we’ve helped have never flown in any airplane big or small,” she says.

Fiona explains that small regional airports or rural airfields are “pretty much everywhere. Most people don’t know they’re there,” she says, adding: “That also means that planes can fly in and out of anywhere, which makes it particularly convenient.”

With these smaller airports, there’s typically no check-in desk, says Fiona. “You don’t need identification,” she says. “We don’t need to know who you are, and in fact we prefer to not know who you are. Nobody asks you what you’re doing with private aviation. America is amazing in terms of freedom of the skies. You can literally get up and go.”

Fiona says that the services provided by Elevated Access are “critically important” but adds that she wishes they weren’t necessary. “Frankly, I want us to go away.”

In the meantime, she says, “We’re helping folks who have exhausted every option or almost every option. It’s a last resort. If you talk to our partner organizations they’ll say we do miracles.”

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