Telemedicine Abortions Are Safe — So Why Are They Still So Hard To Get?

ELIZABETH GULINOLAST
OCTOBER 20, 2020

Katie realized she was pregnant during the first week of April 2020. She decided pretty quickly that she wanted to terminate the pregnancy. She already had two kids, and she’d just been diagnosed with high blood pressure. The condition was still uncontrolled, which made her pregnancy high-risk. But it was just weeks into the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. She was in full lockdown, and she wasn’t sure if she could get an abortion.

"I was Googling abortions," she tells Refinery29. "My biggest thing was not wanting to actually go to a place." Besides being afraid of catching the virus, the nearest clinic to Katie was six hours away from her home in New Mexico, and she wasn’t sure how she’d find the time to get there.

Continued: https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/10/10015435/medical-abortion-pill-telabortion-access

England’s at-home abortions amid coronavirus should be ‘catalyst’ for positive change to remain, experts urge

Alexandra Thompson, Yahoo Style UK
Oct. 8, 2020

Experts hope the relaxation of at-home abortion services amid the coronavirus pandemic will continue in England once the outbreak has passed.

Abortion is one of the most common procedures among women of a reproductive age.

Continued: https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/news/abortion-coronavirus-covid19-termination-england-223053170.html

08.10.2020

Featured

News

abortion pills at home

at-home abortion

Covid-19 and abortion

telemedicine abortion

Central America – Ipas videos on abortion with pills attract almost a million views

Tuesday, August 4, 2020

In 2018, Ipas Central America and Mexico (Ipas CAM) created an informational video in Spanish on how women can safely self-manage an abortion using misoprostol, a safe and effective drug readily available in most pharmacies in Mexico without a prescription. Staff started using the video to train Mexican pharmacy workers so they could advise and support women seeking abortion pills.

But they quickly realized that views of the video on their YouTube channel far outpaced the number of trainings they were doing. People searching the internet for information on abortion with pills were finding and watching their video (“Safe Abortion with Misoprostol”) by the thousands, and a robust discussion had also started in the comments section.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/ipas-videos-on-abortion-with-pills-attract-almost-a-million-views/

COVID-19 is changing the way Canadians have abortions

BY TEGWYN HUGHES
POSTED ON JULY 30, 2020

As health care providers continue to adapt to the demands of COVID-19, doctors in Canada say that the crisis proves we need accessible abortion services more than ever.

From routine procedures to life-saving surgeries, health authorities have deemed different services either essential or non-essential to prioritize emergency care. This need to prioritize health care based on urgency has reopened debates about the kinds of services we consider important.

Continued: https://the-pigeon.ca/2020/07/30/covid-19-abortions/

USA – The Demand for At-Home Abortion Is Increasing Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic

Kimberly Truong
July 23, 2020

As some states rushed to restrict abortion amid the coronavirus pandemic, one new study has found an increased demand in self-managed abortions. Unsurprisingly, many of these requests are happening in states with more severe restrictions as well as more serious COVID-19 outbreaks.

The study, published in the Obstetrics and Gynecology journal, tracked requests for medication abortion by mail through data from Aid Access, an online medication abortion pill provider, during the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic's spread and consequent lockdown measures in the U.S.

Continued: https://ca.style.yahoo.com/demand-home-abortion-increasing-amid-142240025.html

USA – Abortion After the Clinic

Abortion After the Clinic
As Republican lawmakers try to legislate it out of existence, the future of reproductive healthcare may be at home.

By Irin Carmon
Nov 11, 2019

When Leana Wen introduced herself to America as the new president of Planned Parenthood last fall, she had a story she liked to tell — one that showed exactly why abortion access mattered. It was a sad tale of “a young woman lying on a stretcher, pulseless and unresponsive, because of a home abortion.” Wen, an emergency physician who had been plucked from Baltimore’s Health Department to take over the century-old institution, said the young woman had arrived at her ER in “a pool of blood” because “she didn’t have access to health care, so she had her cousin attempt an abortion on her at home. We did everything we could to resuscitate her, but she died.”

Wen was talking about a time when abortion was technically legal, yet the story rhymed with the pre-Roe era, when doctors and lawyers spoke of being radicalized by women filling their wards with blood and desperation, the same nightmare the familiar pro-choice rhetoric warns will soon be upon us. Behind the scenes, however, a vanguard of the abortion-rights movement implored Wen, directly and through intermediaries, to stop talking about “home abortion” in such dire terms.

Continued: https://www.thecut.com/2019/11/future-abortion-access-america.html

11.11.2019

Commentary

Events/Campaigns

Ilyse Hogue

abortion pills by mail

Aid Access

Alexis McGill Johnson

Amy Hagstrom Miller

at-home abortion

Brett Kavanaugh

buying abortion pills online

Naral Pro-Choice America

National Network of Abortion Funds

Pamela Merritt

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood Federation of America

self-induced abortion

self-managed abortion

Whole Woman’s Health v. Hellerstedt

Five theories for the record-low US abortion rate

Five theories for the record-low US abortion rate

23 September 2019

Abortion rates have fallen to their lowest level since the pregnancy-terminating procedure was legalised in a 1973 Supreme Court decision, according to a new report. But experts say the reason for the decline can be hard to isolate.

The study released on Wednesday by the Guttmacher Institute - a research organisation that supports abortion access - found a 7% decline from 2014 to 2017.

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49731167

23.09.2019

decline in abortion rates

decrease in abortion rates

Elizabeth Nash

Guttmacher Institute

Laura Echevarria

National Right to Life Committee

North America

United States

USA – A boom in at-home abortions is coming

A boom in at-home abortions is coming
Advocates say “self-managed abortions” are safe — and in the current political environment, interest is rising.

By Anna North
Jul 9, 2019

After Marie decided to take medication to end her pregnancy, it took several days for the pills to work.

When the uterine contractions started, Marie recalled, she experienced “a lot of bleeding, a lot of pain, a lot of cramps. Just like a bad cycle.” (Marie asked that her last name not be used because of legal concerns.)

Continued: https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/7/1/18638649/abortion-pill-internet-misoprostol-mifepristone

USA – Abortion Pills Are No Post-Roe Panacea

Abortion Pills Are No Post-Roe Panacea
Yes, they are revolutionary. But price and legal barriers to access mean that coat hangers aren’t safely back in the closet for good just yet.

By Françoise Girard
Nov. 25, 2018

As abortion rights have come under increasing attack in the United States, commentators have held up self-administered abortion pills as a backup plan for a post-Roe world. They point to the millions of pregnant women worldwide who are using pills to self-manage abortion, citing them as an example of what reproductive health care might look like should in-clinic abortions be made illegal.

There’s no question that abortion pills are revolutionary. In the hands of women, the pills have transformed self-induced abortion from a once-dangerous endeavor into a safe procedure. Abortion help lines have walked women through the process of self-management, sometimes remotely or even over the internet. Where abortion is illegal, black market access to the drugs has resulted in significant decreases in complications and deaths.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/25/opinion/medication-abortion-roe.html

Wales to allow women to take second abortion pill at home

Wales to allow women to take second abortion pill at home
Women in Wales will be allowed to take the second medication needed in a medical termination to be taken at home.

Friday 29 June 2018

By Sanya Burgess, news reporter

Wales is to allow women to take the abortion pill at home to avoid bleeding and pain in public. The change in the rules will allow women to take the second abortion pill at home, announced Welsh Health Secretary Vaughan Gething.

Guidance will be issued to health boards in Wales today to allow misoprostol, the second medication needed in a medical termination, to be self-administered at home.

Continued: https://news.sky.com/story/wales-to-allow-abortion-pill-at-home-11419927