Learning to Self-Manage Abortions Is Key in a Post-“Roe” Society

As we head into 2023, we face the collective challenge of working to normalize knowledge of self-managed abortions.

By Kelly Hayes , TRUTHOUT
December 31, 2022

For many of us, the fall of Roe v. Wade was one of the most devastating events of 2022. When Politico published a leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, I was deeply rattled. My intellectual awareness that such an outcome was likely, given the Republican’s seizure of the Supreme Court, had not prepared me emotionally for the sight of those hateful, arcane words. Like many people, I was overwhelmed by the impulse to do something useful. So, I trained to become an abortion doula, which means that, in addition to my work as a writer, organizer and podcaster, I also provide various forms of support to people who are seeking to end pregnancies. Through that work, and my coverage of abortion rights on “Movement Memos,” I have built relationships with some great people who are working to help folks around the country access abortions. About six months out from the fall of Roe, we all agree about one thing: We desperately need to normalize knowledge of self-managed abortion.

Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/learning-to-self-manage-abortions-is-key-in-a-post-roe-society/

A covert network of activists is preparing for the end of Roe

What will the future of abortion in America look like?

By Jessica Bruder
APRIL 4, 2022

One bright afternoon in early January, on a beach in Southern California, a young woman spread what looked like a very strange picnic across an orange polka-dot towel: A mason jar. A rubber stopper with two holes. A syringe without a needle. A coil of aquarium tubing and a one-way valve. A plastic speculum. Several individually wrapped sterile cannulas—thin tubes designed to be inserted into the body—which resembled long soda straws. And, finally, a three-dimensional scale model of the female reproductive system.

The two of us were sitting on the sand. The woman, whom I’ll call Ellie, had suggested that we meet at the beach; she had recently recovered from COVID-19, and proposed the open-air setting for my safety. She also didn’t want to risk revealing where she lives—and asked me to withhold her name—because of concerns about harassment or violence from anti-abortion extremists.

Continued: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/roe-v-wade-overturn-abortion-rights/629366/

04.04.2022

American Medical Association

Army of Three

Autonomous Pelvic Care

Carol Downer

Choix

Clergy Consultation Service

Danika Severino Wynn

Del-Em device

dilatation and curettage

DIY abortion

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Laurie Bertram Roberts

Letitia James

Lorraine Rothman

lunch-hour abortion

manual vacuum aspiration

Mountain Access Brigade

Plan C

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

self-managed abortion

Self-managed Abortion Safe and Supported

telemedicine abortion

The End of Roe v. Wade

traveling for abortion

trigger laws

undue burden standard

Advocates for Self-Managed Abortions Are Preparing for a Post-Roe World

Advocates for Self-Managed Abortions Are Preparing for a Post-Roe World
Activists are trying to help women navigate the complicated legal landscape around misoprostol and mifepristone, "essential medicines" according to the World Health Organization.

Arvind Dilawar
Jul 12, 2019

One evening last month, half a dozen people, mostly women, met at a suburban home in upstate New York for a remote workshop. Sitting on sofas and fold-out chairs in their host's living room, they enjoyed vegan snacks while waiting for the leader of the workshop to appear on the television above the mantle place. Bottles of wine sat to the side for drinks to follow.

"The atmosphere felt something like a radical Tupperware party," says Kate Krimsky, one of the participants.

Continued : https://psmag.com/social-justice/advocates-for-self-managed-abortions-are-preparing-for-a-post-roe-world

USA – She Started Selling Abortion Pills Online. Then the Feds Showed Up.

She Started Selling Abortion Pills Online. Then the Feds Showed Up.
What happened when one woman tried to make safe and cheap abortion pills available through the mail.

Chelsea Conaboy
Mother Jones - March/April 2019 Issue

For two years, before she headed off to her full-time job as a web developer, or after she put her daughter to bed at night, Ursula Wing ran a business selling abortion pills from the bedroom of her New York City apartment. The 40-year-old single mother would fill orders that had been submitted through her website, dropping a piece of inexpensive jewelry into a mailer with a return address for “Fatima’s Bead Basket.” Hidden behind a panel taped inside were one tablet of mifepristone and four tablets of misoprostol.

continued: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/02/she-started-selling-abortion-pills-online-then-the-feds-showed-up/

USA – Self-Induced Abortion’s Risks Could Leave Immigrant Women Choiceless

Self-Induced Abortion’s Risks Could Leave Immigrant Women Choiceless
"Imagine being undocumented and considering self-managed abortion in this environment."

Jan 17, 20194
Tina Vasquez

With the confirmation of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the U.S. Supreme Court now has the votes it needs to completely undermine or overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case legalizing abortion that turns 46 next week. In response to the likelihood of Roe’s demise, reproductive rights advocates have mounted campaigns raising awareness of the safe and effective use of the drug misoprostol as an option for those who want to self-manage the termination of their pregnancy at home. Self-managed abortion can be an ideal option for immigrant women currently in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant, anti-choice administration, but the risk of imprisonment is especially high for low-income women of color who obtain the medication through illegal means.

Continued: https://rewire.news/article/2019/01/17/self-induced-abortion-risks-could-leave-immigrant-women-choiceless/

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

04.01.2019

American Council of Gynecologists and Obstetricians

jailing women for abortion

Jamila Perritt

Jane Collective

Jill Adams

Knoxville Abortion Doula Collective

medication abortion

mifepristone

misoprostol

Physicians for Reproductive Health

Planned Parenthood

prosecuting women for abortion

self-induced abortion

Self-Induced Abortion Legal Team

self-managed abortion

Self-managed Abortion Safe and Supported

The slow but steady decline of abortion access in the U.S.

The slow but steady decline of abortion access in the U.S.

Elizabeth Renzetti
July 13, 2018

One of Lealah Pollock’s patients faced a dilemma. The woman had become pregnant while using an IUD, and already had a very young daughter with Down syndrome. Because she was Catholic, she struggled with the idea of having an abortion.

Dr. Pollock discussed the options with her patient at her clinic in the San Francisco Bay area. In the end, the woman opted for an abortion. At this moment, Dr. Pollock is allowed to discuss reproductive options including abortion with her patients. Soon, under proposed regulations brought forward by the Trump administration, she would not be.

Continued: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-the-slow-but-steady-decline-of-abortion-access-in-the-us/

USA: Self-Managed Abortion and Embodying the Principles of Reproductive Justice

Self-Managed Abortion and Embodying the Principles of Reproductive Justice

Jan 12, 2018
Marlene G. Fried & Susan Yanow

Legal and policy barriers too often render the legal right to abortion meaningless, especially for those individuals and communities who are already the most vulnerable.

Worldwide, there is an enormous gap between having the legal right to abortion and being able to access one. This is painfully obvious in the United States. While abortion is legal, its opponents have successfully decreased access to services through restrictive laws; bans on Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance coverage; and violence directed at clinics and providers.

These strategies have successfully put abortion clinic services out of reach for many people. Their long-range goal is to overturn Roe v. Wade and re-criminalize abortion. In the meantime, legal and policy barriers too often render the legal right to abortion meaningless, especially for those individuals and communities who are already the most vulnerable.

Continued at source: https://rewire.news/article/2018/01/12/self-managed-abortion-embodying-principles-reproductive-justice/