What new research into the criminalization of self-managed abortions hints about a post-Dobbs world.
KATIE HERCHENROEDER, JULIANNE MCSHANE, Mother Jones
Nov 20, 2023
In 2013, an Indiana woman showed up at an emergency room suffering from severe vaginal hemorrhaging. At first, Purvi Patel denied she had been pregnant. But, eventually, Patel told doctors she had a stillbirth. The hospital staff did not believe her. So, her doctor—a member of the anti-abortion American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists—called the cops.
As a new report shows, Patel isn’t alone: Even before the fall of Roe, women were reported by doctors to law enforcement for conducting self-managed abortions, or SMAs. While only one state, Nevada, outright criminalizes SMAs, health care workers still reported pregnant people to law enforcement all across the country. And in a post-Dobbs world, experts worry this criminalization could get worse.
Continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/11/abortion-criminalization-healthcare-providers/