The Tubman Travel Project began with a simple but powerful question: what if traveling for abortion care did not have to be frightening, chaotic, or isolating?

Founded by Rev. Erika Ferguson and first launched in Dallas, Texas, the project emerged from the reality that women in no-access states would need to cross state lines for reproductive care with little guidance, support, or coordination. What began as a response to that moment soon revealed something much larger.

She created a model that approached abortion travel differently. Instead of leaving women to navigate the journey alone, the Tubman Travel Project created a structure of care, coordination, and human connection. Women who participated in the program became known as Freedom Flyers, and their journeys were organized with intention so that what could have been traumatic became an experience marked by dignity, support, and community.

From the beginning, the work was about more than logistics. It was about changing the experience of abortion travel itself.

Over time, the project developed a proven model of complete wrap-around, one-day reproductive care travel, providing full accompaniment in intimate small groups for women who wanted to travel for abortion care. From the time restrictive abortion laws took effect in Texas, the project supported more than 400 Freedom Flyers traveling from Texas to New Mexico to receive the care they wanted.

The work also attracted broader attention. The Tubman Travel model became the subject of a research grant from the Society of Family Planning, examining the experience of women traveling for abortion care and documenting the impact of structured, supportive travel.

As the model gained visibility, journalists and storytellers from around the world began following the project, recognizing that something different was taking shape.

That deeper story is now expanding into several forms. Rev. Ferguson is currently writing a book about the Tubman model and the larger lessons it reveals about the future of reproductive freedom, and the project is exploring the development of a documentary film that would capture the reality of Freedom Flyers, the creation of the Tubman model, and the broader questions it raises. Support for this documentary effort will help ensure that the story of this work is preserved and shared widely.

At the same time, Rev. Ferguson continues to write and reflect publicly on the evolving ideas behind the work through her Substack, where readers can follow the ongoing exploration of what reproductive freedom might require in the years ahead.

Those ideas are not always the same as the ones commonly heard in the movement today.

Drawing on more than 35 years of work in the reproductive freedom movement, Rev. Ferguson has come to believe that many of the assumptions guiding the current narrative must be questioned if real progress is to be made. The Tubman Travel Project emerged not only as a practical response to immediate need, but also as a living experiment in what a different approach to reproductive freedom might look like.

What began as a single initiative has now become the foundation for a much larger vision.

Our purpose has always been bigger than politics, policy, or anyone with power.

It is about helping build the reproductive freedom travel movement the country did not yet know it needed.