USA – Is the ‘tech bro-ification’ of abortion here?

Repro workers and tech experts reveal startling gaps between the promises offered by abortion technologies and the realities facing abortion-seekers and support workers

by Nicole Froio and Jade Jasmine Hurley
June 11th, 2025

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion tech has emerged as a potential solution for an increasingly prohibitive reproductive rights landscape…

This exclusive Prism investigation delves into the role of tech in reproductive health care, finding gaps in how abortion workers are served by tech initiatives, a clash between funding abortion tech and industry layoffs, and tension in how best to address the changing legal landscape for abortion. Interviews with a dozen reproductive health workers, tech specialists, abortion fund staff, and reproductive rights advocates further revealed a lack of investment in backend tools for abortion support workers navigating a progressively underfunded field.

Continued: https://prismreports.org/2025/06/11/abortion-tech-repro-workers/

11.06.2025

Commentary

abortion and tech

abortion and technology

abortion apps

abortion chatbot

Abortion Freedom Fund

Abortion Policy API

Aid Access

Amy Merrill

automated abortion finder

Carolina Abortion Fund

Cathy Torres

Cecile Richards

Charley app

crisis pregnancy centers

If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice

National Network of Abortion Funds

self-managed abortion

‘Grace Under Pressure’: A Look Back on the Late Cecile Richards

The late Cecile Richards transformed Planned Parenthood as its longtime president—while steadfastly defending the organization against antiabortion attacks.

May 3, 2025
by Ellen Chesler

In fall 2015, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards was called to appear before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives. For months, antiabortion activists had circulated deceptively edited videos with the bogus claim that Planned Parenthood was unlawfully profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. Republicans in control of the chamber seized on this implausible accusation as an excuse to defund the organization that for decades had steadfastly provided family planning services and healthcare of the highest quality as a trusted government contractor.

Antiabortion protesters packed the hearing room, alongside Planned Parenthood supporters and a large platoon of newspaper reporters and TV correspondents, including, of course, those of Fox News. Retaining her composure throughout, Richards calmly parried rapid-fire questions and endured constant interruptions from Republicans (including one, in particular, who displayed little interest in the facts)—just looking to score points with their base. For everyone else, however, she provided a compelling lesson about the humane and often lifesaving services Planned Parenthood provides, including cancer screenings, birth control and, yes, abortion.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2025/05/03/remembering-cecile-richards-planned-parenthood-abortion-women-politics/

03.05.2025

fetal tissue disposal

Hillary Clinton

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood v. Casey

USA – Abortion Bans Upended Their Lives—Now They’re Fighting Back, One Story at a Time

Across the country, abortion storytellers are putting the struggle for reproductive freedom into powerful new words.

Regina Mahone, The Nation
April 7, 2025

Shanette Williams sat patiently on the stage of an auditorium in Austin, Texas, staring at the photograph of her daughter Amber that was resting in her lap. The photo appeared on the front of a rose-dappled pamphlet, below the words “Celebration of Life” and “September 16, 1993–August 19, 2022.”
Occasionally, Williams looked up, out past the audience of 200 or in the direction of the other women who shared the stage with her, each recounting the horrors they had experienced under new, extreme abortion bans. Then it was Williams’s turn to speak.

“Good morning, everyone,” she said. “My name is Shanette.”

Continued: https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/abortion-in-america-storytelling/

USA – Need a Safe, Private Abortion? Ask Charley.

“The goal of Charley is to provide people with easy-to-access information about how to find abortion care in every state—even states with restrictions.”

9/12/2023
by CARRIE N. BAKER, Ms. Magazine

On Tuesday, Sept. 12, reproductive health experts launched a new online chatbot named Charley to help abortion seekers in all 50 states find quick, accurate and confidential abortion information, tailored to their individual needs and circumstances.

Available in English and Spanish, Charley explains different abortion methods (from procedural abortion to abortion with pills) and how to access abortion (from in-clinic to telemedicine to self-sourced pills).

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/12/need-an-abortion-charley-chatbot-private-anonymous-secure/

12.09.2023

Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline

Plan C

Tom Subak

‘We need to read the room’: GOP divided on abortion as Democrats unite for 2024

Democrats center abortion rights in early stages of presidential campaign while Republicans waver over unpopular position

Lauren Gambino in Washington DC
Sun 30 Apr 2023

Hours after Joe Biden announced his re-election campaign on Tuesday, his vice-president and 2024 running mate, Kamala Harris, delivered a fiery call to action for voters alarmed by the loss of constitutional protections for abortion.

“This is a moment for us to stand and fight,” she said to a packed auditorium at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington and her alma mater. To the “extremist so-called leaders” rolling back access to reproductive rights, Harris warned: “Don’t get in our way because if you do, we’re going to stand up, we’re going to organize and we’re going to speak up.”

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/apr/30/republicans-divided-abortion-democrats-united-2024-election

What the Supreme Court has done to women: We will not forget

Some of us remember life before legal abortion. Hardly any of us thought we'd ever have to go back there

By ELAYNE CLIFT
JANUARY 25, 2022

My friend and I drew up to a drab brown brick building. An older man, shrunken and slouched, opened the door furtively. We climbed a flight of stairs in a putrid green escape well and emerged into a hallway, then entered a dark apartment. I imagined fleeing down the stairs but then considered the consequences.

"Wait here," the man commanded. After a few minutes he re-emerged from another room and asked me some questions. I tried to stay calm. I felt as if I were sinking into a huge hole from which I might never emerge. "Come with me," he said, leading me into what must have been a kitchen. It had a table in the center of the room, at the foot of which, between stirrups, was a lamp on a stand, and a stool. The table was covered with a sheet of white paper with a thin pillow on it. Next to it was a tray bearing silver instruments and a large jar. The man told me to take off everything from the waist down. There was no privacy screen. I asked him for something to cover myself. "You won't need that," he said. "Just get on the table."

Continued: https://www.salon.com/2022/01/25/elayne-abortion/

25.01.2022

Justice Sonia Sotomayor

Planned Parenthood

Roe v. Wade

U.S. Supreme Court

women's abortion stories

Activism

Human Rights

Law

‘We’re not backing down’: the Texas church fighting for abortion rights

In the face of a draconian abortion ban in effect for more than three months, the mission has only grown stronger for a progressive congregation

Mary Tuma in Austin
Mon 20 Dec 2021

In the late 60s, the burgeoning movement to legalize US abortion state by state found an unlikely yet loyal ally – a contingent of women at the First Unitarian Universalist church in Dallas, Texas.

In lieu of knitting sessions and bake sales, the church’s Women’s Alliance advocated for abortion rights and even had a hand in legally supporting Roe v Wade, the pivotal US supreme court case that protects abortion care in the US as a constitutional right.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/20/texas-church-fighting-abortion-rights

Democrats position themselves as last line of defense for abortion rights

Party sees new urgency – and political opportunity – amid growing threat to Roe v Wade

Lauren Gambino in Washington DC
Sun 26 Sep 2021

Standing on the lawn of the US Capitol, in clear view of the supreme court, a coalition of Democratic women declared Roe v Wade was no longer the law of the land.

Nearly half a century after the court established the constitutional right to abortion, it allowed a near-complete ban to stand in Texas, the second-most populous state. Though the 5-4 decision did not address the substance of the Texas law, Democrats warn that it was a mere taste of things to come from the court – and Republicans who helped expand its conservative majority.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/26/democrats-abortion-rights-texas-roe-v-wade

Cecile Richards marks a year since RBG death with abortion rights battle cry

Former Planned Parenthood president cites Texas law and says Republicans are on brink of ending right to abortion

Martin Pengelly and agencies
Sat 18 Sep 2021

Marking the first anniversary of the death of the supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Cecile Richards warned that after nearly 50 years, Republicans are on the brink of ending the right to abortion.

“We must fight to fully regain it,” said the former president of Planned Parenthood, a leading provider of women’s healthcare.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/18/abortion-rights-campaigner-anniversary-rbg-death

18.09.2021

American Bridge 21st Century

Planned Parenthood president: Saying abortion is a small part of what group does is stigmatizing

By KK Ottesen
Dec. 29, 2020

Alexis McGill Johnson, 48, is a political scientist, social justice advocate, and president and chief executive of Planned Parenthood. She is co-founder and former co-director of the Perception Institute, an anti-bias research group.

You served on the board of Planned Parenthood for nearly a decade [before] actually running the organization. Can you talk about how you first got involved?

I literally was just walking down the street and saw a billboard that I now know was run by [Life Always]. It had a little Black girl’s face on it, and she just was cute. [Laughs.] And so I got closer, and I saw the words underneath that said, “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.” I’m from New Jersey. My family had moved to Georgia. And so I would travel on holidays and see billboards like that and would totally write that off as being, you know, something that happened in really conservative states. And when I saw it in New York City — it was in SoHo — I just was shocked, like, What is going on here?

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/planned-parenthood-president-saying-abortion-is-a-small-part-of-what-group-does-is-stigmatizing/2020/12/18/e85b88f6-2dd1-11eb-860d-f7999599cbc2_story.html

29.12.2020