Abortion Pills Go Global

Regardless of the law, women can now access their own safe and effective abortion procedures in the form of these pills.

November 10, 2023

After Ohio’s recent vote to enshrine the right to have an abortion into the state’s constitution, host Robert Scheer dives deeper into one of the underappreciated and underreported aspects of the fight for abortion rights on this episode of the Scheer Intelligence podcast.

Sydney Calkin, a senior lecturer in the School of Geography at Queen Mary University of London, discusses her newest book, “Abortion Pills Go Global: Reproductive Freedom Across Borders,” and breaks down the myths and misconceptions about one of the biggest tools for bringing women’s reproductive rights to the forefront.

Continued: https://scheerpost.com/2023/11/10/abortion-pills-go-global/

Women’s lives, like mine, hang in the balance if medication abortion is banned

Emma Burns
OCTOBER 18, 2023

This week, Vice President Kamala Harris visited my alma mater, Northern Arizona University, as part of her “Fight for Our Freedoms” college tour to discuss key issues that disproportionately impact young people across America, including reproductive freedom. This issue is deeply personal to me, which is why I’m sharing my story of how receiving an abortion while I was a student at NAU saved my life. Without access to a medication abortion, I would not have lived to see the end of my sophomore year, let alone my college graduation. The fight for our reproductive freedom is as important as ever now that access to this life-saving form of health care is under attack.

As a 19-year-old college student already struggling, finding out you’re pregnant with twins is akin to submerging underwater. The world falls silent, and your only thought is of survival. I knew the only way for me to move forward would be to terminate my pregnancy. But due to Arizona’s restrictive abortion laws and lack of access to care, I was almost unable to make this decision for myself.

Continued: https://www.azmirror.com/2023/10/18/womens-lives-like-mine-hang-in-the-balance-if-medication-abortion-is-banned/

18.10.2023

women's abortion stories

Austin women’s clinic fights for its patients — and its future — in post-Roe world

Bridget Grumet, Austin American-Statesman
Aug 30, 2023

Alison Auwerda was no longer pregnant. The medication abortion pills she ordered online, in spite of Texas’ ban on such things, had worked.

But an ultrasound confirmed what the cramping suggested: Her body had not expelled the last remnants of tissue from the terminated pregnancy.

“I'm like, Can I go to the hospital? Can I tell my doctor? My first thought was like, ‘Oh, I have to get a flight and go somewhere else,’” Auwerda, 39, told me.

Continued: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/columns/2023/08/30/austin-womens-health-center-at-risk-closing-texas-abortion-ban-medical-care/70587287007/

Home test that checks if an abortion has worked reduces follow-up surgery, study finds

A successful Australian trial of a urine test to detect whether an abortion has worked will be welcomed by rural and remote patients, say clinicians

Natasha May
Wed 16 Aug 2023

A home test that checks whether a drug-induced abortion has worked is not only safe but reduces rates of unnecessary follow-up surgery, an Australian-first study has found.

People who attend clinics to access medication to terminate a pregnancy, known as a medical abortion, usually need to see a doctor 14 days later and may undergo a blood test to examine levels of a hormone known as hCG, along with an ultrasound to rule out complications.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/16/home-test-that-checks-if-an-abortion-has-worked-reduces-follow-up-surgery-study-finds

16.08.2023

home test for mifepristone

Marie Stopes International Australia

medication abortion

mifepristone

Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists

Therapeutic Goods Administration

What to Know About the Latest Court Ruling on the Abortion Pill

The upshot: Don’t panic.

MADISON PAULY, Mother Jones
Aug 16, 2023

Earlier this spring, the Supreme Court hit pause on a controversial ruling in a massive anti-abortion lawsuit with the potential to eliminate nationwide access to the most common method of abortion. The case, brought by anti-abortion organizations and doctors, challenged the FDA’s two-decade-old approval of mifepristone, a pill used in medication abortion.

In April, a far-right federal district court judge in Texas had sided with the anti-abortion doctors, issuing an unprecedented order to suspend mifepristone’s approval. But before his decision could take effect, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to step in and pause the order while it went through appeals. The Court agreed.

Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/08/abortion-pill-mifepristone-texas-supreme-court-ruling/

Delhi-based abortion pill manufacturer makes its way around the globe despite failing in quality test

Nonprofit DKT International distributes medicines made in India to women around the world. Some of those drugs are now finding their way into the US through unauthorized online channels.

03 Aug 2023
Edited By Mansi Jaswal

Medication abortions are one of the preferred methods for ending pregnancy around the world in contrast to surgical, according to the World Health Organization. Over the past 30 years, more than 60 countries have liberalised their abortion laws and India is among them. All women, including those not married, could get an abortion for up to 24 weeks in India.

Debates around abortion rights have become more prominent nowadays but the medications and how safe they are, have taken a back seat.

Continued: https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/delhibased-abortion-pill-manufacturer-synokem-sells-medicine-to-dkt-international-gates-foundation-11691031202113.html

Medical abortion pill access expanded in landmark move

By Natassia Chrysanthos
July 11, 2023

Access to medical abortions will be dramatically expanded in Australia under major changes that will allow all doctors and nurse practitioners to prescribe the pregnancy termination pill, and all pharmacies to stock it.

The landmark move to slash red tape around who can prescribe and dispense the drug should enable medical abortions to become a first-line option for women who want them, by encouraging thousands more health professionals to provide access to the two-part medication.

Continued: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/medical-abortion-pill-access-expanded-in-landmark-move-20230710-p5dmzs.html

Misoprostol Alone Safely Ends Pregnancies After 10 Weeks, Study Suggests

Most women who took abortion drugs were successful even at later gestation periods, researchers reported. Many used only misoprostol, not the usual two-drug combination.

By Roni Caryn Rabin
July 6, 2023

An overwhelming majority of women were able to end unwanted pregnancies with abortion medications on their own and without additional medical procedures, even if they were well beyond the first trimester, according to a report published on Thursday.

The study was based on the experiences of 264 women who were nine to 16 weeks pregnant in Argentina, Nigeria and an unnamed country in Southeast Asia where abortion is illegal. Almost half of the women took only one drug, misoprostol, instead of the standard two-drug regimen, mifepristone and misoprostol.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/health/abortion-misoprostol.html

06.07.2023

Research

Dr. Daniel Grossman

Ibis Reproductive Health

medication abortion

medication up to 16 weeks

mifepristone

misoprostol

Ruvani Jayaweera

self-managed abortion

One year without Roe: Data shows how abortion access has changed in America

Fewer women are getting abortions, and those without resources are increasingly the least likely to have them.

June 22, 2023
By Jasmine Cui, Chloe Atkins and Sarah Kaufman

The day Mayron Hollis discovered she was pregnant in spring 2022 was the same day doctors gave her terrible news: The pregnancy could be fatal to both her and her fetus.

Hollis had given birth to another child earlier in the year through cesarean section, and doctors were concerned she would experience a cesarean scar pregnancy — a rare type of ectopic pregnancy in which a fertilized egg implants and develops in the cesarean scar. It can cause fatal internal bleeding.

https://www.nbcnews.com/data-graphics/dobbs-abortion-access-data-roe-v-wade-overturned-rcna88947

USA – People are using abortion medication later in their pregnancies. Here’s what that means.

The regimen is common and considered safe after 10 weeks, but the delays are cause for concern.

By Anna North
Jun 18, 2023

A patient takes one medication, mifepristone, which stops the pregnancy from developing, followed one to two days later by another medication, misoprostol, which induces contractions that empty the uterus. The regimen, approved for abortions in the US since 2000, is effective and very safe, according to physicians and researchers, with a low incidence of serious side effects, and it’s the most common method of abortion in the US. It’s approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the first 70 days, or 10 weeks, of pregnancy, though the World Health Organization recommends medication abortion for up to 12 weeks.

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer, however, nothing about abortion is simple anymore. With near-total abortion bans in place in more than a dozen states and gestational limits in several others, the procedure is growing harder to access by the day. Meanwhile, a federal court case is casting further doubt on the future of mifepristone’s availability in the US.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/23755658/abortion-pill-second-trimester-mifepristone-misoprostol