Study: 8% of Texas Women Self-Induced Their Abortions

Study: 8% of Texas Women Self-Induced Their Abortions

ZawnVillines
Thursday September 05, 2019

As many as 8% of Texas women may have self-managed their abortions, according to a new study published in BMC Women’s Health. The study suggests that women may already be pursuing less safe abortions in the wake of increasing abortion restrictions.
Texas Women Are Inducing Their Own Abortions

The authors of the study hypothesized that women might not report self-induced abortions, and that official data on the topic might underestimate the numbers. So they administered surveys to 790 Texas women of reproductive age in 2015. The surveys asked about various health experiences. Self-managed abortion was included in half of the surveys.

Continued: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/9/5/1883591/-Study-8-of-Texas-Women-Self-Induced-Their-Abortions


Activist Rebecca Gomperts Is Reshaping Last-Ditch Abortion Care

Activist Rebecca Gomperts Is Reshaping Last-Ditch Abortion Care

by Greta Moran
Published on July 9, 2019

Abortions are as inevitable as the sun rising. Every year, around 56 million people around the world induce their own abortions, but this doesn’t need to come in the form of a “back-alley” abortion. Dutch activist and doctor Rebecca Gomperts has made it her life’s work to ensure the abortion pill is accessible—even in places where it is outlawed. She describes her work as a form of harm reduction: using medication to induce abortion is the safest alternative to fully legal abortion. So making this method available (and raising awareness of it) mitigates the consequences of harsh laws that criminalize or limit access to abortion. Gompert’s work reduces the potential of self-induced abortion causing harm or a person having to unwillingly carry a pregnancy to term.

Continued: https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/interview-with-abortion-activist-rebecca-gomperts


Some US women are taking reproductive matters into their own hands: They’re ordering abortion pills by mail

Some US women are taking reproductive matters into their own hands: They're ordering abortion pills by mail

USA TODAY
June 25, 2019

In Aid Access' first year of operation, 21,000 U.S. women reached out to the online organization launched in March 2018 that offers abortion pills internationally. Requests came from all over the country ⁠– especially states where abortion is tightly restricted.

After a string of states passed bans or limits in recent weeks, pushing the abortion debate in the USA to a fever pitch, abortion rights advocates said those numbers could climb.

Continued: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/06/25/abortion-by-mail-foothold-limit-ban-states-access/1512470001/


A European doctor prescribes abortion pills to U.S. women over the internet — but the FDA is watching

A European doctor prescribes abortion pills to U.S. women over the internet — but the FDA is watching
Aid Access, an organization started by a Dutch doctor to offer abortion pills to women in the U.S., is defying an FDA warning by continuing to operate.

June 1, 2019
By Katie Engelhart

Necolie remembers taking the pregnancy test in the bathroom and then throwing it at her husband. “I’m not doing this again,” she said.

By then, in late 2018, her husband had been out of work for three months. Necolie, who lives on the Florida Coast and asked that her full name not be used to protect her privacy, was borrowing gas money from friends so she could drive her three kids to school. During her last pregnancy, she had developed a serious liver condition and had to be hospitalized.

Continued: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/european-doctor-prescribes-abortion-pills-u-s-women-over-internet-n1012676


Ghana Tops World Abortion Pill Searches

REVEALED: Ghana Tops World Abortion Pill Searches

By Andy Ashong
May 29, 2019

According to a global report, Ghana together with Nigeria topped online global search for abortion pill Misoprostol the last decade.

Per a report derived from Google data, Ghanaians and Nigerians are the world’s leading abortion pill searchers.

These reports also suggest that in countries where abortion laws are more restrictive, there is greater search interest in abortion pills. By buying pills online and sharing medical advice through WhatsApp groups, women are increasingly turning to technology to sidestep legal barriers to abortion.

Continued: https://www.ghgossip.com/revealed-ghana-tops-world-abortion-pill-searches/


USA – The Complicated Reality of Buying Abortion Pills Online

The Complicated Reality of Buying Abortion Pills Online
An abortion provider delves into the safety, efficacy, and legality.

April 8, 2019
By Jennifer Conti, M.D., M.S.

Given the many obstacles facing reproductive rights in our current political climate, we as physicians are seeing some people take abortion into their own hands. No, I’m not talking about coat-hanger abortions or any of the other infamous and tragic methods that people in the past (and, sadly, even some in the present) have explored.

Specifically, I’m talking about those who are self-managing medication abortions, meaning that they’re getting and taking abortion medications without going through a health-care provider at all.

Continued: https://www.self.com/story/buying-abortion-pills-online


USA – What Back Alley? These Women Say DIY Abortion Can Be Empowering

What Back Alley? These Women Say DIY Abortion Can Be Empowering
The pro-choice movement has portrayed non-clinic abortion as a last resort. But some women are trying to change that image.

Emily Shugerman
01.04.19

The image provokes both fear and fury: a wire coat hanger, spattered with blood, symbolizing the drastic measures women may take when abortion access is limited.

Whoopi Goldberg brandished one on stage at the 2004 March for Women’s Lives, urging the younger generation to remember what their forebears used. Protesters at the 1989 March for Women's Equality carried a giant replica, stained red, through the streets of Washington D.C. like a macabre parade float. And the symbol has been ubiquitous since Donald Trump’s election, popping up at marches, in the pages of glossy magazines, and on this site.

The imagery makes Jill Adams, founder of the Self-Induced Abortion Legal Team, shake her head.

Continued: https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-back-alley-these-women-say-diy-abortion-can-be-empowering?ref=scroll


USA – As access to abortion gets harder in the US, women turn to an online service in the Netherlands

As access to abortion gets harder in the US, women turn to an online service in the Netherlands

December 17, 2018
By Allison Herrera
(also a podcast)

Marie was 19 when a pregnancy test she took in the bathroom at work came out positive. That was a couple of years ago. Marie, a waitress, thought to herself, "I really can't afford to take care of a child."

It was her second pregnancy and the second time she needed an abortion. Marie decided not to go to a clinic this time, though.

Continued: https://www.pri.org/stories/2018-12-17/access-abortion-gets-harder-us-women-turn-online-service-netherlands


USA – They Called Her “the Che Guevara of Abortion Reformers”

They Called Her “the Che Guevara of Abortion Reformers”
A decade before Roe, Pat Maginnis’ radical activism—and righteous rage—changed the abortion debate forever.

By Lili Loofbourow
Dec 04, 2018

There was nothing remarkable about the small woman carrying a box of leaflets—certainly nothing to justify the clutch of reporters waiting for her across from San Francisco’s Federal Building on a July morning in 1966. Still, there they were. She arrived at exactly 9 a.m., greeted them, and began distributing fliers to anyone who passed. There were two of them: One was a yellow slip of paper titled “Classes in Abortion,” listing topics like female anatomy, foreign abortion specialists, and police questioning. The other—which she gave only to the assembled journalists and the five women who signed up for her class that Wednesday evening—described two techniques for DIY abortions. “I am attempting to show women an alternative to knitting needles, coat hangers, and household cleaning agents,” she told the reporters, adding that she had notified San Francisco police of her whereabouts and plans.

Continued: https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/12/pat-maginnis-abortion-rights-pro-choice-activist.html?fbclid=IwAR3BPV4zD2olxZfKz946KlEQNmkUyN1x5kbV8IV_os8B-CScIShArXir_ag


USA – Everything You Need To Know About Self-Managed Abortion

Everything You Need To Know About Self-Managed Abortion

Meera Shah
Nov 28, 2018

The coat hanger is a symbol of an era before Roe vs. Wade, when abortion was illegal and people tried managing it with the only means they knew: a straightened coat hanger used to dangerously induce a termination that would often result in hemorrhage, and sometimes death. While outdated, the symbol of the coat hanger is a persistent reminder that when abortion is illegal or out of reach, people will find other means to terminate their pregnancies. Today people have safer means of self-managing abortion.

Roe vs. Wade legalized abortion in all 50 states in the United States in 1973, but it didn’t give everyone an unfettered right to access it, either without burden or significant obstacles

Continued: https://jezebel.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-self-managed-abortion-1830471836