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

How a network of women in Latin America transformed safe, self-managed abortions

June 8, 2025
By Marta Martínez, Liana Simstrom
Podcast: 41-Minute Listen

In November 1990, more than 3,000 women descended on the sleepy beach town of San Bernardo del Tuyú, Argentina, for what was becoming a legendary event.

Activists, doctors, academics, social workers and lawyers from across the Americas traveled all the way to attend a feminist gathering known as an Encuentro.

While they publicly debated their political demands, the piece of information that made the biggest impact on the future of abortion was exchanged in private, in whispers.

Continued; https://www.npr.org/2025/06/08/g-s1-68729/latin-america-abortion-activism

08.06.2025

Interviews/Podcasts

'La Escuela Socorrista

abortion accompaniment workshop

abortion manual

abortion pills

abortion support networks

Encuentro Feminista Latinoamericano y del Caribe

First Responders Network

Gabriela Luchetti

green bandana

green wave

Ibis Reproductive Health

Kelly Blanchard

Las Libres

Lesbianas y Feministas por la Descriminalización del Aborto

Lesbians and Feminists for Abortion Decriminalization

self-managed abortion

self-managed abortion manual

Socorristas En Red

Veronica Cruz

Women on Waves

World Health Organization

NPR and Latino USA’s new series ‘The Network’ traces a global movement transforming abortion access

Luke Medina for NPR
May 29, 2025

WASHINGTON – NPR's Embedded and Futuro Media's Latino USA are launching The Network, a limited-run series about the international movement that's allowed millions of women around the world to have safe abortions outside of a clinic — and the pill that's made it possible.

Premiering June 5, The Network tells the story of a loose collection of activists, supporters, and women across the Americas who discovered a method for safe, self-managed abortions and how they spread this knowledge around the world. The series begins in 1980s Brazil, where abortion was, and still is, severely restricted. Hosts Victoria Estrada and Marta Martínez chronicle how women there repurposed an over-the-counter medication to safely end pregnancies. The series follows the impact of this method across the Americas and how this approach is shaping abortion access in the U.S.

Continued: https://www.npr.org/2025/05/29/g-s1-69421/embedded-npr-latino-usa-the-network-abortion-access

29.05.2025

self-managed abortion

Colombian Online Abortion Pill Market Surges Despite Legal Pathways Expanding

May 24, 2025

Although Colombia’s abortion law is among the most liberal in Latin America, a new study finds a flourishing internet trade in medication-abortion pills sold without prescriptions. Its revelations help explain why thousands still sidestep clinics and rely on digital storefronts.

A Rapidly Changing Abortion Landscape
Walk into a public hospital in Bogotá today, and, in theory, you can request a no-cost abortion up to 24 weeks of pregnancy. That reality would have been unthinkable at the turn of the millennium when any termination could land a woman behind bars. Court rulings in 2006 cracked the door open for a few medical exceptions, and by 2022, the Constitutional Court swung it wide, fully decriminalizing abortion through the second trimester. Newspapers hailed the decision as a regional beacon; activists toasted Colombia’s new status as Latin America’s most progressive jurisdiction on reproductive rights.

Continued: https://latinamericanpost.com/life/colombian-online-abortion-pill-market-surges-despite-legal-pathways-expanding/

24.05.2025

News

abortion pills

Colombia Constitutional Court

medication abortion

mifepristone

misoprostol

self-managed abortion

Malaysia Punishing Women For Abortion Is Not The Answer

The Galen Centre calls for law reform, after a Melaka court sentenced a 21-year-old woman to jail for self-managed abortion. Abortion has been lawful in Malaysia since 1989 when Section 312 of the Penal Code was amended to allow termination of pregnancy.

By Azrul Mohd Khalib
23 May 2025

The recent nine-month custodial sentence imposed by the Ayer Keroh Magistrate’s Court on a young woman who ended a five-month pregnancy with medication obtained online, highlights the urgent need to modernise laws that continue to criminalise women while failing to address the root causes of unplanned pregnancies.

No woman or girl should face prison for exercising autonomy over her body. Malaysia’s Penal Code still contains provisions dating back from and written in the 19th century. They do not reflect current medical practice, World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations, human-rights standards, or the realities faced by women, especially young women, the poor and the unmarried.

Continued: https://codeblue.galencentre.org/2025/05/punishing-women-for-abortion-is-not-the-answer-azrul-mohd-khalib/

Inside a Czech Abortion Network Offering Pregnant Women from Poland a Lifeline

Apr 29, 2025
By Tamara Davison

Eva Ptasková was waiting in a dimly lit parking lot near the Czech-Polish border at 4 a.m. for someone she’d never met.

“It was empty and dark,” Ptasková recalled about the unusual mid-pandemic encounter, adding that she kept her colleague on the phone for safety.

Eventually, a figure exited a taxi and clambered into Ptasková’s car — a woman from Poland, who had traveled to the neighboring Czech Republic for an abortion. With just hours to spare before the appointment, Ptašková listened to the woman recount her life story as they drove through the night. It was the first time the Polish woman, who was already a mother to a young baby, had left her homeland.

Continued: https://www.moretoherstory.com/stories/inside-a-czech-abortion-network-offering-pregnant-women-from-poland-a-lifeline

Resist and Persist: How Ipas will meet the changing global health landscape

April 2025

For 52 years, Ipas has supported communities around the world to ensure access to abortion and contraception for all. We have a deep history and experience working on abortion in places in the world with very restrictive laws, and with health systems that face critical challenges. Ipas has survived extraordinary challenges in the past, and our mission, persistence, and expertise are more critical than ever in the current moment.

The United States’ drastic dismantling of its $79.5 billion foreign aid program has significantly impacted development and humanitarian sectors and created chaos around the globe. Health systems have been crippled, and countless lives and livelihoods have been disrupted. This is a moment of inflection in the global health and development community.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/our-work/resist-and-persist-how-ipas-will-meet-the-changing-global-health-landscape/

More people in India are choosing self-managed abortion with pills—and it’s safe

The transformative terrain: An in-depth analysis of trends in self-managed abortion in India using NFHS-5 national data

Ipas
March 19, 2025

Conducted by researchers from Ipas Development Foundation and partners, this study examines national survey data to understand the growing use of self-managed abortion (SMA) in India. The research confirms that SMA—using abortion pills outside of a clinic—has become much more common and is a safe and effective option, especially in early pregnancy.

Main takeaway : More people in India are ending their pregnancies with abortion pills on their own, without seeing a doctor in person. The study found that self-managed abortion nearly doubled between 2014 and 2021, with no increase in reported health complications. This suggests that SMA can be a safe and effective way to access abortion—especially in early pregnancy and when people have the right information and access to quality medication. However, provider-assisted care is still critical, particularly for those who need abortion later in pregnancy. As India’s abortion law now allows abortion up to 24 weeks, it’s more important than ever to expand access to trained providers for those who need them.

Continued: https://www.ipas.org/news/more-people-in-india-are-choosing-self-managed-abortion-with-pills-and-its-safe/

19.03.2025

Research

Ipas

Ipas Development Foundation

self-managed abortion

Why Indian Women Struggle To Get Even A Legal Abortion

While Indian policies talk about comprehensive abortion services even at primary health centres, many villages and small towns do not have these facilities, resulting in people resorting to unsafe abortion services

By Menaka Rao
24 Jan, 2025

As a girl growing up in small-town Uttar Pradesh, Pooja wanted to “get ahead in life”. She wanted to be a working woman, earn a comfortable living, and get out of the confines of her village. But her marriage soon after graduation--when she was just 21--paused her plans.

Pooja, whose name has been changed to protect her privacy, lives in Azamgarh’s Atraulia block and has two sons, aged seven and 12 years. “I was stuck taking care of two children,” she said. But she managed to study further and finished her Bachelors in Education while her second son was a baby. Now, after working all day, she studies at night for government competitive exams for teacher jobs.

When she found that she was pregnant in December 2023, she was shocked. She always tracks her periods, and uses condoms. This put a break on her career plans.

Continued: https://www.indiaspend.com/gendercheck/why-indian-women-struggle-to-get-even-a-legal-abortion-939548

Rwanda and Nigeria Still Struggle with Abortion Stigma, Despite Laws

Nigeria Health Watch
Jan 20, 2025

When Francine Nyiramahirwe, 22, decided to consult a health professional to terminate her pregnancy at a private clinic in Nyanza, a district in Southern Rwanda, she was immediately arrested and charged with murder. In 2015 Nyiramahirwe was indicted and sentenced to 15 years in jail after taking the drug Misoprostol at 18 weeks of pregnancy.

Misoprostol is known to be an effective pill for terminating a pregnancy, with a success rate of over 80% for women who are between 10 to 13 weeks pregnant,

Continued: https://nigeriahealthwatch.medium.com/rwanda-and-nigeria-still-struggle-with-abortion-stigma-despite-laws-197a4441d2f3