South Africa – Dr Dusi, Dr Google, stigma and all the other reasons pregnant women are risking their lives

In today’s newsletter, Tanya Pampalone and Mia Malan explain why South Africa still has unsafe abortions.

By Bhekisisa Team
May 5, 2025

There are piles of R100 notes, a hand holding a tinted vial, a small plastic bag of brown herbs and a bloody sanitary pad with a message in green type: “Thank you Dr Dusi. Now I’m Free.” There is also a phone number where, presumably, you’ll find someone at the other end of the line eager to help.

If Dr Dusi doesn’t pick up, or, more likely, has changed his number, don’t worry. There are plenty of others to call. Dozens of them.

Continued: https://bhekisisa.org/health-news-south-africa/2025-05-05-dr-dusi-dr-google-stigma-and-all-the-other-reasons-pregnant-women-are-risking-their-lives/

6 Women Reveal Why They’re Stocking Up on the Abortion Pill

By Yerin Kim
Jan 29/2024

Courtney, 27, learned about advance provision — a practice that involves ordering abortion pills as a precautionary measure — during a TikTok scroll. Once she found there were telehealth organizations safely shipping abortion pills to states with abortion bans, she sought her own supply. Living in Arkansas, where abortion is completely banned, paired with recently learning that she'd been taking a medication that had made her birth control ineffective, Courtney requested advance-provision pills through Aid Access, a nonprofit providing access to medication abortion by mail.

"If I ever was in the position of being pregnant and wanting to terminate, I would have the option to decide that for myself in the comfort of my home."

Continued: https://www.popsugar.com/fitness/abortion-pill-advance-provision-49332675

29.01.2024

advance provision of abortion pills

Americans Deserve Better Than Abortion Pill Misinformation

Self-managed abortion through pills is safe, private and effective. Media outlets have a role to play in stopping the spread of misinformation.

9/16/2023
by JENNIFER LINCOLN

Since the fall of Roe, there have been countless attempts to chill speech about abortion, and misinformation has run rampant. Just last month, a prominent newspaper published one of the most egregious examples yet: an op-ed by David Reardon titled “Coercive Abortions Are at the Heart of the FDA Abortion Pill Case.”

Reardon holds a degree from Pacific Western University, an unaccredited correspondence school that closed in 2006 after a lawsuit from the state of Hawaii. Medical professionals and researchers have repeatedly criticized his research for methodological flaws and biases—and reproductive health experts have argued that his conclusions are not supported by scientific evidence.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/16/mail-order-abortion-pills-safe/

16.09.2023

anti-choice disinformation

anti-choice extremism

anti-choice lies

anti-choice misinformation

refuting anti-choice lies

Billboards advise on how to get abortion pills in US states where procedure is banned

Mobile billboards on how to get access to pills by mail are being driven through college campuses in 14 states

Ed Pilkington in New York
Fri 3 Mar 2023

Women living under abortion bans in the US are being offered advice on how to get access to abortion pills by mail, through a system of mobile billboards which are being driven through college campuses in 14 states carrying the prohibition.

The billboards are the creation of Mayday.Health, a non-profit set up in the wake of the US supreme court’s ruling last June that overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. The posters carry QR codes that link to online information providing a step-by-step guide on how to obtain the abortion pill even in states which have banned it.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/03/abortion-pill-billboards-us-states-bans

03.03.2023

News

abortion pills

Food and Drug Administration

pro-choice billboards

self-managed abortion

USA – People are getting IUDs and Plan B ahead of a possible post-Roe future

By Abigail Higgins, Washington Post
May 10, 2022

Last week, as soon as Sydney Phillip read about the leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court was poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, she booked an appointment to get an IUD.

Intrauterine devices are one of the most effective forms of birth control, and getting the long-acting contraceptive had been a floating item on her medium-term to-do list. She’s been using the birth control pill, a method that has about a 7 percent failure rate for typical use. The potential consequences of that margin of error felt tolerable — until now.

Continued, Unblocked: https://wapo.st/3Maiuda
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/05/10/iud-birth-control-supreme-court-draft-opinion-leak/