Victoria Rossi/El Paso Matters and Veronica Martinez/La Verdad
Sep. 17, 2021
The heartbeat gave Ana nightmares for years. She stared at the sonogram of her fetus as a woman at El Paso’s Hill Top Women’s Reproductive Clinic, who wore scrubs but had not introduced herself, described the image on the TV screen before them.
Earlier, the woman had explained that Texas state law required this narration. If Ana wanted her abortion, the woman said, she was not allowed to look away.
Here’s how Texas women are getting around the most extreme abortion ban in the nation
By TESSA STUART
September 16, 2021
In the 21st century, you can order an abortion online. “It can be done without ever leaving your home,” says Elisa Wells, co-director of the organization Plan C, which provides information and instructions about how to self-manage an abortion. “You go online. You have either a virtual consultation or an e-visit — that’s just done by filling in a form and chatting with the provider. And then they mail the pills to your home…No need to take time off from work. No need to encounter protesters.” And no need, if you live in the state of Texas, to expose anyone to the threat of a lawsuit under the state’s medieval new abortion ban.
It's time to talk about self-managed abortion care as a safe alternative in Canada — and the legal risks involved.
BY JULIANNE STEVENSON & JENNIFER TAYLOR
16 SEP 2021
The new Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy is obviously horrific. It also proves that legal protection for abortion — which we think of as relatively robust in Canada — is more fragile than it seems. But this tragic moment presents an opportunity to reframe our thinking around abortion. That is, we should think of abortion not just in relation to the law, but as something that can happen safely at home in appropriate circumstances, without direct medical supervision or state involvement.
Inspired by the work of scholars like Prof. Joanna Erdman, we believe self-managed abortion (SMA) needs to become a more mainstream part of the abortion conversation in Canada. As part of that conversation, it’s important to evaluate some of the legal risks involved — because, while the law shouldn’t always dictate how we think about abortion, we can’t ignore it either.
Continued: https://www.nationalmagazine.ca/en-ca/articles/law/opinion/2021/a-choice-of-options
By Samantha Schmidt and Sammy Westfall
Sept 14, 2021
In the 1980s, women in Brazil began spreading the word about a pill used to treat ulcers. Sold over the counter, the drug carried a warning: Don’t use during pregnancy; risk of miscarriage.
It flew off the shelves. Hundreds of thousands of women, desperate for abortions in a country where the procedure was criminalized, now had an option.
Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/14/abortion-pills-texas/
Kim Chan-hyuk
Published 2021.09.13
Pro-choice groups and health experts have expressed split opinions on whether to conduct a bridging trial of Mifegymiso (ingredient: mifepristone/misoprostol), an abortion drug that will arrive in Korea soon.
A bridging trial aims to obtain clinical data for Koreans when it is difficult to apply foreign clinical trial results due to differences in ethnic factors.
Continued: https://www.koreabiomed.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=12123
BY Candice Bernd, Truthout
September 9, 2021
As Texas’s remaining 15 abortion clinics grapple with the fallout of last week’s implementation of the nation’s most restrictive anti-abortion law, which now allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” a person seeking an abortion after six weeks, at least three facilities in San Antonio have stopped offering the procedure to avoid lawsuits.
With access to the procedure shrinking rapidly even for Texans under six weeks, pregnant people without the ability or resources to travel out of state, especially undocumented Texans, rural Texans and/or Texans of color, are already turning to self-managed methods. That doesn’t necessarily mean the kinds of desperate measures pregnant people have traditionally turned to in the past when abortions were illegal, although it doesn’t rule them out either. Most commonly, self-managed abortion has come to look like women obtaining abortion-inducing pills from online telemedicine sites and online pharmacies.
Continued: https://truthout.org/articles/texas-providers-may-face-jail-time-for-prescribing-abortion-pills/
We may finally have the opportunity to “build back better” and ensure not just a right to abortion but a guarantee of the personhood of pregnant people at every stage of pregnancy.
9/8/2021
by LYNN M. PALTROW
I started my career nearly 40 years ago defending the right to choose abortion and then founded National Advocates for Pregnant Women, an organization devoted to ensuring that no person loses their civil or human rights because of pregnancy or abortion. I refuse to feel hopeless about the fact that Texas has, for now, successfully banned abortion in that state. There are many reasons why I will not despair.
Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2021/09/08/texas-abortion-rights-ban-feminists-roe-v-wade-pregnancy/
By Melissa Cunningham
August 30, 2021
Surgical terminations have dropped in Australia in recent years as an increasing number of women instead choose to take an abortion pill early in their pregnancy.
A new study, published in the Medical Journal of Australia, for the first time examines abortion rates nationally since two oral medications – mifepristone and misoprostol – were added to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in 2013.
The science is clear: abortion by medication is safe and effective
By Kelly Cleland
on August 21, 2021
The pandemic has shown us that it’s time to change the way we get health care and that essential health care, including abortion, has always been out of reach for far too many. As we look ahead to the future of care, the science is clear: medication abortion care is safe and effective, and it’s past time to remove the restrictions on it. Now, actions from the FDA and new research show us that removing the restrictions on medication abortion care has the potential to expand access for many people who need care. The July 2021 special issue of the journal Contraception focuses on the restrictions on medication abortion, mifepristone, including its impacts on safety and efficacy, access to abortion, and burdens on patients and providers.
Phoebe Arslanagić-Wakefield
Tuesday 17 August 2021
In 2020, the total number of abortions performed in the UK reached a record high of 210,860. Most of these – 47 per cent– were early abortions, carried out during the pandemic by women in their own homes, using pills posted to them after a teleconsultation with a doctor.
Prior to the pandemic, those seeking an early abortion could be forgiven for feeling that they were being made to jump through hoops.
Continued: https://www.cityam.com/abortion-numbers-are-at-an-all-time-high-it-means-reforms-are-working/
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