‘We’re doubling down’: how abortion advocates are building on midterm wins

Pro-choice activists are focusing on expanding abortion access, voter registration and education, and shield laws for providers

Melody Schreiber
Wed 7 Dec 2022

Renee Bracey Sherman answers the phone and apologizes – is it OK if we speak while she drives? Like many abortion advocates, she tends to keep a packed schedule and talk at lightning speed – the next initiative, the next law, the next policy on the horizon. Ask advocates how they felt in June after the Dobbs decision sharply curtailed reproductive rights across the US, or in November after wins in the midterm elections signaled strong public support for abortion, and they’ll answer immediately: We knew this was coming; but the fight’s not over.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/07/abortion-supporters-building-midterm-wins

Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network rises after Roe

Amid legal and medical risks, a growing army of activists is funneling pills from Mexico into states that have banned abortion

By Caroline Kitchener
October 18, 2022

Monica had never used Reddit before. But sitting at her desk one afternoon in July — at least 10 weeks into an unwanted pregnancy in a state that had banned abortion — she didn’t know where else to turn.

“I need advice I am not prepared to have a child,” the 25-year-old wrote from her office, once everyone else had left for the day. She titled her post, “PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/

USA – Self-managed abortion could be the future — but it’s very hard to talk about

Especially in conservative states, advocates can’t talk openly about abortion methods that exist outside of the formal health-care system

Caroline Kitchener, The Lily
December 20, 2021

Two hours before the U.S. Supreme Court convened for the case that could make abortion illegal across much of the country, four women gathered on the court’s steps to propose another path forward. With a mifepristone pill in one hand and a loudspeaker in the other, Amelia Bonow started to chant.

“Abortion pills are in our hands and we won’t stop,” yelled the co-founder of the abortion rights organization Shout Your Abortion.

Continued: https://www.thelily.com/self-managed-abortion-could-be-the-future-but-its-very-hard-to-talk-about/

USA – What I learned from buying abortion pills online

Accessing the medications online may be relatively straightforward, but self-managed abortion exists in a dangerous legal gray zone in this country.

Feb 8, 2021

Steph Black

Last October I found myself in a situation familiar to a lot of people: at home
and on a Zoom meeting for work when I heard an insistent knocking at my door.
At first I mistook it for my rowdy cat, since in my nearly year-long quarantine
practically no one has knocked on my door. I muted my call and ran to answer,
laptop in hand. I opened the door and immediately the person on the other side
shoved a pen into my hand. I had a package and I needed to sign for it.

I looked at the bare envelope, with no return
address and illegible scrawl on the sticker. I noticed the tiny red text that
read, “Personal supply of Rx medicines.” At once I knew what this package was.
Inside were medications, prescribed in Austria, filled in India.

https://rewirenewsgroup.com/article/2021/02/08/what-i-learned-from-buying-abortion-pills-online/

Buying pills online for an at-home abortion: a lockdown reality

Buying pills online for an at-home abortion: a lockdown reality

Lucie AUBOURG, AFP News
9 May 2020

With the coronavirus crisis raging, women in the United States are increasingly going online to buy their own pills for a "self-managed" abortion

One week after Sally realized she was pregnant, her home state Texas temporarily banned abortions, deeming them unnecessary elective procedures that were suspended because of the coronavirus crisis.

Continued: https://sg.news.yahoo.com/buying-pills-online-home-abortion-lockdown-reality-013043882.html

Self-Managed Abortions May Be More Difficult to Access Right Now—Here’s What You Need to Know

Self-Managed Abortions May Be More Difficult to Access Right Now—Here’s What You Need to Know
With supply chain disruptions in India due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, medication abortion may be less accessible—an issue compounded by anti-choice state officials trying to ban the procedure and the FDA.

Apr 14, 2020
Ray Levy-Uyeda

If you visit aidaccess.org in search of the abortion pill right now, you won’t be able to find what they’re looking for. Aid Access, a website that offers medication abortion pills by mail for people in the United States seeking to self-manage their abortion, has hit a snag in its supply chain, thanks to a halt in trade out of India because of the coronavirus outbreak.

“Because of [COVID-19] the government of India have decided to close all international airports to prevent corona virus outbreak and therefor [sic] the pharmacy in India cannot send the medicines until further notice,” reads a disclosure on the Aid Access website’s consultation page.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2020/04/14/self-managed-abortions-may-be-more-difficult-to-access-right-now-heres-what-you-need-to-know/

USA – It’s Time For A Revolution In At-Home Abortion

It's Time For A Revolution In At-Home Abortion
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the fiction that most abortions need to be performed in a clinic setting.

By Melissa Jeltsen, HuffPost US
04/08/2020

The callers wanted to know how to end their pregnancies without going outside. Many were afraid to travel for fear of contracting the coronavirus, which spreads through contact with others. Some didn’t have the financial resources to make an arduous, often multi-day trip to an abortion clinic. Others were stuck in states where abortions were temporarily halted by Republican leaders exploiting the crisis to erode access.

Faced with dwindling options, callers to the helpline run by the reproductive rights group If/When/How, were considering “self-managed abortion,” loosely defined as ending a pregnancy without the formal supervision of a health care professional. Calls to the confidential helpline have more than doubled in the past two weeks, according to Jill Adams, the group’s executive director.

Continued: https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/abortion-at-home-medication-abortion_n_5e8cd4e6c5b62459a9304428?ri18n=true&ncid=NEWSSTAND0001

USA – Abortion After the Clinic

Abortion After the Clinic
As Republican lawmakers try to legislate it out of existence, the future of reproductive healthcare may be at home.

By Irin Carmon
Nov 11, 2019

When Leana Wen introduced herself to America as the new president of Planned Parenthood last fall, she had a story she liked to tell — one that showed exactly why abortion access mattered. It was a sad tale of “a young woman lying on a stretcher, pulseless and unresponsive, because of a home abortion.” Wen, an emergency physician who had been plucked from Baltimore’s Health Department to take over the century-old institution, said the young woman had arrived at her ER in “a pool of blood” because “she didn’t have access to health care, so she had her cousin attempt an abortion on her at home. We did everything we could to resuscitate her, but she died.”

Wen was talking about a time when abortion was technically legal, yet the story rhymed with the pre-Roe era, when doctors and lawyers spoke of being radicalized by women filling their wards with blood and desperation, the same nightmare the familiar pro-choice rhetoric warns will soon be upon us. Behind the scenes, however, a vanguard of the abortion-rights movement implored Wen, directly and through intermediaries, to stop talking about “home abortion” in such dire terms.

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2019/11/future-abortion-access-america.html

11.11.2019

Commentary

Events/Campaigns

Ilyse Hogue

abortion pills by mail

Aid Access

Alexis McGill Johnson

Amy Hagstrom Miller

at-home abortion

Brett Kavanaugh

buying abortion pills online

Naral Pro-Choice America

National Network of Abortion Funds

Pamela Merritt

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

self-induced abortion

self-managed abortion

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt

USA – Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Want the State to Know Everything About Your Abortion

Anti-Abortion Lawmakers Want the State to Know Everything About Your Abortion
Dozens of states require abortion providers to submit data that's not necessary for public health purposes. Experts say the requirements intimidate patients and providers, and could even be used to criminalize abortion.

by Garnet Henderson
Oct 10 2019

Brent Blue has been practicing medicine in Jackson, Wyoming, for 38 years. At his family medicine and urgent care practice, he also provides abortions. As of July 1, each time he performs an abortion he must submit a report to the state including information about the patient’s age, race, county of residence, and previous pregnancies, including the patient’s number of past abortions, miscarriages, births, and number of children living or dead. It also requires details of the termination, including the type of procedure used, complications, and gestational age of the fetus—including fetal weight and length.

Continued: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/xwe59n/abortion-reporting-laws-lawmakers-want-the-state-to-know-everything-about-your-abortion

USA – A boom in at-home abortions is coming

A boom in at-home abortions is coming
Advocates say “self-managed abortions” are safe — and in the current political environment, interest is rising.

By Anna North
Jul 9, 2019

After Marie decided to take medication to end her pregnancy, it took several days for the pills to work.

When the uterine contractions started, Marie recalled, she experienced “a lot of bleeding, a lot of pain, a lot of cramps. Just like a bad cycle.” (Marie asked that her last name not be used because of legal concerns.)

Continued: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/7/1/18638649/abortion-pill-internet-misoprostol-mifepristone