U.S.: Group launches site to help women self-induce abortions at home, citing restrictive U.S. laws

Group launches site to help women self-induce abortions at home, citing restrictive U.S. laws

By Sandhya Somashekhar
April 27, 2017

An international advocacy group concerned about restrictive laws in the United States plans to help women use the abortion pill at home, offering online advice and counseling about how to use medications the Food and Drug Administration says should be taken only by prescription and under medical supervision.

Women Help Women, a three-year-old organization headquartered in the Netherlands, this week launched a website to provide one-on-one counseling services for women early in pregnancy who may have illegally obtained the pill on the Internet or through other means.

Continued at source: Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/website-aims-to-help-women-self-induce-abortions-using-drugs/2017/04/26/119a1ba8-29c4-11e7-be51-b3fc6ff7faee_story.html

US: It’s Time to Talk About DIY Abortions

Dec 27, 2016, Medium
by Amie Newman

When you hear the phrase “self-induced abortion,” it’s hard not to envision the iconic image of a coat-hanger, the tool women were sometimes forced to use to end an unwanted pregnancy before abortion was legal in the United States. And although abortion has been legal for over 40 years now (since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1972), it’s almost always been more difficult for low-income women, Native American women, and women in the military to access safe abortion care because of the passage of the Hyde Amendment in 1976, a regulation which drastically limits public funding for abortion. Frustratingly, safe abortion care has become even more challenging to access. That’s why there are a growing number of people attempting do-it-yourself (DIY) methods to self-induce an abortion, according to an article in Broadly.

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Source: Medium.com

U.S.: The Activists Fighting to Legalize DIY Abortions

by Kimberly Lawson
Dec 9 2016, Broadly

As reproductive healthcare becomes increasingly inaccessible in America, more and more women are taking matters into their own hands—and some activists think they should be allowed to do so free of punishment.

In 2012, Jennifer Whalen discovered that her 16-year-old daughter was pregnant. She promised to support her in whatever decision she made, and after a few days, the high schooler decided she couldn't have a baby. From there, Whalen and her daughter began investigating how to obtain an abortion in their rural town of Washingtonville, Pennsylvania.

They discovered that the nearest clinic was 75 miles away, and the procedure alone would cost between $300 and $600—two huge barriers, especially given the fact that the family had only one car. After searching online for another solution, Whalen stumbled upon a website selling misoprostol and mifepristone—the FDA-approved regimen for a medication abortion—for $45. She purchased the pills.

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Source: Broadly

US: Jailed for ending a pregnancy: how prosecutors get inventive on abortion

Donald Trump has flirted with punishing women for their abortions. But some already are prosecuted under a variety of laws in what is murky legal territory

by Molly Redden

Tuesday 22 November 2016, The Guardian

In late March, Donald Trump sat down for a town hall-style interview with Chris Matthews. The candidate at the time was still crisscrossing himself on abortion rights – should Planned Parenthood be defunded? Was Roe v Wade settled law? – and Matthews made several attempts to pin him down.

“If you say abortion is a crime or abortion is murder, you have to deal with it under law,” Matthews said. “Should abortion be punished?… Do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no, as a principle?”

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Source: The Guardian