A New Border Crossing: Americans Turn to Mexico for Abortions

American women are seeking help from Mexico for abortions, crystallizing the shifting policies of two nations that once held vastly different positions on the procedure.

By Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Edyra Espriella
Sept. 25, 2023

The text message Cynthia Menchaca received this summer was one she was seeing more and more: A woman living in Texas said she had left a violent relationship only to discover she was pregnant, and she desperately wanted an abortion. The woman had learned that Ms. Menchaca could send her abortion pills from Mexico, where the procedure has been decriminalized in several states.

But the growing U.S. demand for abortion care is not limited to deliveries of medication, according to advocates like Ms. Menchaca, who lives in Coahuila state in northeastern Mexico.

Continued: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/25/world/americas/mexico-abortion-women-border.html

UK – Calls to change ‘archaic’ abortion law as fifth woman faces court

Hannah Al-Othman and Megan Agnew
Sunday September 24 2023

A woman who has appeared in court accused of having an illegal abortion is the fifth reported to have been prosecuted this year.

The woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is accused of procuring “poison” — the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol — with intent to cause her own miscarriage. The offence, under section 58 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, is alleged to have been committed in November 2020, during the second coronavirus lockdown.

Continued: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/calls-to-change-archaic-abortion-law-as-fifth-woman-faces-court-r86x6rjj0

24.09.2023

Offences Against the Person Act 1861

prosecuting women for abortion

self-managed abortion

Nebraska Mom Gets 2 Years in Prison After Buying Abortion Pills for Her Teen Daughter

“Here's the audacity: Self-managed abortion is not even a crime in fucking Nebraska,” an advocate told Jezebel. The case is a harbinger of more criminalization.

By Susan Rinkunas
Sep 22, 2023

On Friday, a Nebraska judge sentenced Jessica Burgess to two years in prison after she bought abortion pills for her teen daughter and helped bury the fetal remains in early 2022, according to reporters from Norfolk Daily News and Courthouse News. The sentencing went forward without a court-ordered psychological evaluation that the judge canceled for lack of funding last week. Burgess had faced up to five years in prison after she accepted a plea deal. With good behavior, she could be released in a year.

Burgess pled guilty in July to three charges (tampering with human remains, false reporting, and abortion after 20 weeks’ gestation) in exchange for prosecutors dropping two others (concealing the death of another person and abortion by someone other than a licensed physician). States have criminalized people for their pregnancy outcomes for decades—even, as in this case, while Roe v. Wade stood—but advocates worry these types of charges, against people seeking abortion and those who help them, will only become more frequent as millions of people live under state abortion bans.

Continued: https://jezebel.com/nebraska-abortion-case-mom-sentenced-1850864511

Mexican court ruling upholding women’s right to abortion shows global trend better than US Roe v Wade decision

September 19, 2023
Sydney Calkin

It may surprise you to learn that, over the past 30 years, no fewer than 60 countries have liberalised their abortion laws while only four have rolled back abortion rights. The United States is, of course, one of the latter group that has recently restricted women’s access to abortion.

Because the US looms so large in international news coverage of abortion, casual observers often assume that anti-abortion reforms in the US signal a broader global trend or will trigger a domino effect of abortion restrictions. But this view is misguided. It’s important to explore why this is.

Continued: https://theconversation.com/mexican-court-ruling-upholding-womens-right-to-abortion-shows-global-trend-better-than-us-roe-v-wade-decision-213179

Mexican abortion-pill networks reach across U.S. border to help immigrants without access

By Marien López-Medina, Kevin Palomino, April Pierdant and Tori Gantz
Sep 9, 2023

MONTERREY, Mexico — Verónica Cruz Sánchez watched something remarkable happen from the office of her women’s rights organization in Guanajuato, the capital city of one of this country’s most conservative Catholic states.

Founder of Las Libres — “the free” in English — she had built an underground abortion-pill network in a country where having the procedure could have meant going to jail.

In September 2021, the Mexican Supreme Court issued a surprise ruling that abortion was no longer a crime — not even in places like Guanajuato, where it continues to be outlawed by the state.

Continued: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/mexican-abortion-pill-networks-reach-across-u-s-border-to-help-immigrants-without-access/article_75ac1598-4d93-11ee-bd66-d34ec1a86685.html

Austin women’s clinic fights for its patients — and its future — in post-Roe world

Bridget Grumet, Austin American-Statesman
Aug 30, 2023

Alison Auwerda was no longer pregnant. The medication abortion pills she ordered online, in spite of Texas’ ban on such things, had worked.

But an ultrasound confirmed what the cramping suggested: Her body had not expelled the last remnants of tissue from the terminated pregnancy.

“I'm like, Can I go to the hospital? Can I tell my doctor? My first thought was like, ‘Oh, I have to get a flight and go somewhere else,’” Auwerda, 39, told me.

Continued: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/columns/2023/08/30/austin-womens-health-center-at-risk-closing-texas-abortion-ban-medical-care/70587287007/

Indigenous communities navigate abortion after Roe

States with some of the largest Indigenous populations also have some of the strictest restrictions

By Noel Lyn Smith and Maddy Keyes, News21
Tuesday, Aug 29, 2023

ALBUQUERQUE – Rachael Lorenzo calls it their “auntie laugh,” a powerful chuckle that lasts long and fills any space. Aunties are prominent figures in Indigenous culture who offer comfort when one needs help.

Aunties answer the phone when no one else does.

That’s what Lorenzo, who is Mescalero Apache, Laguna and Xicana, does as founder of Indigenous Women Rising, a national fund that covers the costs of abortions – and the traditional ceremonies that follow – for Indigenous people.

Continued: https://www.the-journal.com/articles/indigenous-communities-navigate-abortion-after-roe/

A year after Tennessee’s abortion ban, 14,000 people have faced limited choices, devastating consequences

Organizations nationwide pull together to offer options for unwanted pregnancies

by Sono Motoyama
August 24, 2023

In the year since Tennessee’s abortion ban went into effect on Aug. 25, 2022, about 14,000 pregnant people in the state have been forced to find other solutions for their unwanted pregnancies.

Some have driven hours to out-of-state clinics for abortions. Others have ordered and taken FDA-approved pills, with possible risk of prosecution. Still others, unable to obtain an abortion in Tennessee, have carried their pregnancies to term. Some have even turned to unsafe and ineffective methods, such as taking herbs, large amounts of alcohol or medications unintended for pregnancy termination.

Continued: https://mlk50.com/2023/08/24/a-year-after-tennessees-abortion-ban-14000-people-have-faced-limited-choices-devastating-consequences/

UK – Mom documents at-home abortion to destigmatise abortion pills

‘Thank you for posting. I’ve never known how these kind of abortions work,’ viewer says

Kaleigh Werner
Aug 22, 2023

An internet-wide debate has resulted from one brave woman’s choice to detail her at-home abortion experience on TikTok.

On 20 July, a 24-year-old woman named Monica showed her TikTok followers how she completed her abortion, from the comfort of her home, for the first time at nine weeks pregnant. She began by showing the items she needed to prepare her body: the required prescription drug typically used for terminating early pregnancy, motion sickness medicine, a bottle of water, maxi pads, and Planned Parenthood’s timely instructions.

Continued: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/mom-abortion-at-home-stigma-b2397061.html

22.08.2023

Monica abortion story

self-managed abortion

women's abortion stories

USA – Abortion Snitching Is Already Sending People to Jail

In places where abortion is banned, women must rely even more on social and familial networks. But with greater reliance, comes greater risk.

8/19/2023
by MORGAN CARMEN

Last month, Celeste Burgess was sentenced to 90 days in prison because she took abortion pills when she was 17 years old. Celeste was charged with removing, concealing or abandoning a human body; concealing the death of another; and false reporting, after burying her miscarriage with the help of her mother, Jessica.

The story of Celeste and her mother—who helped her get the pills and will be sentenced next month—went national. Most media attention centered on the local police’s access to Facebook messages between the two, and for good reason: Companies like Meta amass intimate information—including but not limited to messages, location data, browsing patterns, phone numbers and online searches—that may be accessed easily by law enforcement. This case was seen as a harbinger of intimate privacy violations to come.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2023/08/19/celeste-burgess-abortion-snitching-privacy-police-illegal/