If Trump Restricts Mifepristone, Clinicians Are Ready to Pivot to Misoprostol-Only Abortions

7/7/2025
by Carrie N. Baker

For decades, clinicians relied on the gold standard of medication abortion care: a two-pill regimen. Mifepristone is taken first, followed by misoprostol 24 to 48 hours later. However, misoprostol can be used alone for abortion. Recent research on patients in the U.S. confirms that misoprostol-only abortion is not only safe and effective, but that patients respond positively to using it.

In light of the FDA’s recent decision to reopen its safety review of mifepristone—a move advocates warn may lead to new restrictions—abortion providers say they are ready to offer the misoprostol-only regimen to keep telehealth abortion available in all 50 states.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/07/07/trump-restricts-mifepristone-misoprostol-only-abortions/

Australia – To put an end to the abortion wars, we need mass struggle

Issue: 187
1st July 2025
Judy McVey

The global surge of attacks on abortion rights has been a wake-up call for pro-choice activists in Australia.1 In June 2022, thousands rallied in solidarity with women in the United States when Roe v Wade was overturned by the US Supreme Court. Many media commentators argued that Australia was different from the US and abortion rights were safe here. After all, between 2002 and 2023, regional governments around the country removed abortion from criminal laws. Decriminalisation reflected community-wide popularity for legal abortion. Polls show that more than 80 percent of Australians believe “abortion should be legal and available in Australia in all circumstances”; anti-abortion sentiment is generally less than 10 percent.2

However, the bigots do not simply acknowledge defeat and disappear. Anti-abortionists inside and outside mainstream parties in Australia were emboldened by the rise of the far right and anti-abortion politics in the US and Europe.

Continued: https://isj.org.uk/abortion-wars-australia/

How a $5 Pack of Abortion Pills in Ethiopia Sparked a Movement to ‘Demedicalize’ Access in the U.S.

In her new book, Access, Rebecca Grant chronicles activists' decades-long fight to defy abortion restrictions—including the origin story of Plan C.

By Rebecca Grant
June 24, 2025

This is an excerpt from Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom, by Rebecca Grant. The book chronicles activists’ decades-long mission to defy abortion restrictions and fight for reproductive freedom, from the U.S. to France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and more.

In 2014, Elisa Wells and Francine Coeytaux were positioned outside a pharmacy in Ethiopia waiting for a colleague to come out. The pharmacy was sandwiched between two stores with green signs that read “Fujifilm Digital Print Shop” and set back from the bustling red-and-yellow sidewalk. A few moments later, their companion, a woman, emerged holding a box. White and light brown with a yellow rose and branded as a “Safe-T” kit, its label read: “This pack contains treatment for early medical abortion.”

Continued: https://www.jezebel.com/how-a-5-pack-of-abortion-pills-in-ethiopia-sparked-a-movement-to-demedicalize-access-in-the-u-s

This abortion method doesn’t involve doctors — and many of them consider it safe

June 22, 2025
By Abby Wendle, Liana Simstrom
Podcast: 43-Minute Listen, with transcript

This story is an accompaniment to a three-part podcast series released by NPR's Embedded and Futuro Media.

For nearly four years, Dr. Maya Bass's commute included a monthly plane ride from Philadelphia to Oklahoma to provide abortions at a clinic there. Starting in 2018, she took these trips even though flying made her nauseous and she had to use vacation time from her regular job. Bass was motivated to fill a gap: Oklahoma — like all parts of the U.S. outside of a fraction of metropolitan areas — has long had a shortage of abortion providers.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/22/g-s1-73119/abortion-mifepristone-roe-v-wade

Getting Abortion Pills Into Women’s Hands

June 22, 2025
NPR
26-minute podcast

This week marks three years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, in an historic ruling that changed the landscape of abortion access. Since that decision came down, abortion rates across the country have actually increased, despite many states enacting abortion bans or severely restricting abortion access. One way many women are still accessing abortion is through abortion pills.

The Network is a new series by Futuro Media and our colleagues at NPR's Embedded that looks at the surprising history of how the use of abortion pills began in Latin America and eventually spread around the world, including to the U.S.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2025/06/22/1254591582/getting-abortion-pills-into-womens-hands

22.06.2025

Activists opened pop-up abortion clinic outside Polish parliament. Opponents threw acid at it

by Petra Dvořáková, Prague
June 20, 2025

Donald Tusk's Polish government has not yet pushed through abortion law reform. In the meantime, opposite the parliament building, feminists have opened an abortion 'clinic', where they face harassment and bullying by anti-abortion activists several times a week — with no protection from the Polish authorities.

“What can I tell you?” shrugs Nikola, a bearded Netflix employee from Bulgaria, when I ask him how he perceives the current political situation. “The whole of Europe is heading towards fascism!” “I’m constantly angry,” adds his Polish partner Anna, who is looking at sweatshirts on a rack next to the window.

Continued: https://euobserver.com/health-and-society/ar6eb25e24

‘I was terrified I was going to die.’ Rape victims in Brazil struggle to access legal abortions

A Brazilian woman who says she became pregnant after being raped in March should have been granted access to a legal abortion

By ELÉONORE HUGHES, Associated Press
June 19, 2025

RIO DE JANEIRO -- A 27-year-old Brazilian woman, who said she became pregnant after being raped in March during Carnival in Brasilia, should have been granted access to a legal abortion. But when she sought to terminate the pregnancy at a hospital around a month later, she was told she needed a police report to access the service, despite it not being a legal requirement.

She decided to abort at home with medication she bought on the black market, with only a few friends on site to help. “I fainted several times because of the pain. I was terrified I was going to die,” she said.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/terrified-die-rape-victims-brazil-struggle-access-legal-123029719

Brazil/USA – Why We Must Keep Talking About Abortion Pills

As part of a delegation to Brazil, I saw how our countries’ respective struggles to maintain and expand reproductive justice are really part of the same fight.

Regina Mahone
June 16, 2025

Brasília, Brazil—We packed ourselves into a meeting room at the back of the Socialism and Freedom Party (known as PSOL) office in the National Congress building in Brasília on May 14. The bird-shaped capital of Brazil was developed in the 1950s as a modern, futuristic city, but inside the legislative building are standard government meeting spaces, with cubicle walls and drab, windowless halls.

We took our seats at the big conference table or on one of the folding chairs located along the sides. Lunch was served—an assortment of breads, including the staple pão de queijo; salads; fresh juice; and Brazilian carrot cake, which was fluffy (nothing like the traditional US version) and delicious.

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/medication-abortion-misoprostol-brazil/

USA – Inside the legal fight over the telehealth clinics that help women defy abortion bans

Every month, thousands of women evade abortion bans in their home states by turning to telehealth clinics willing to send them pregnancy-ending drugs through the mail

By MICHAEL HILL and SUSAN HAIGH, Associated Press
June 12, 2025

Every month, thousands of women thwart abortion bans in their home states by turning to telehealth clinics willing to prescribe pregnancy-ending drugs online and ship them anywhere in the country.

Whether this is legal, though, is a matter of debate. Two legal cases involving a New York doctor could wind up testing the shield laws some states have passed to protect telehealth providers who ship abortion pills nationwide.

Continued: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/inside-legal-fight-telehealth-clinics-women-defy-abortion-122763768

The Network: Saint-o-tec

June 5, 2025
By Marta Martínez, Victoria Estrada
Podcast: 41-Minute Listen

In the mid-1980s, an OBGYN in Brazil noticed that far fewer pregnant women at his hospital were dying from abortion complications.

It wasn't a coincidence.

Brazilian women had made a discovery that allowed them to safely have abortions at home, despite the country's abortion restrictions. That discovery eventually spread across the globe.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2026/01/01/1263508251/the-network-saintotec

05.06.2025