The FDA may be about to make the abortion pill more accessible

BY USHMA UPADHYAY
DEC. 10, 2021

In the course of just a few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court heard two cases on abortion access. The first, SB 8, is a Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy. The second, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is a Mississippi law banning abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy. Both cases could bring an end to the ability to access abortion as a federal right.

While the constitutional fight continues in court, there is another opportunity in the coming days for the federal government to help maintain abortion access: by allowing people to get abortion pills as soon as they need them.

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-12-10/fda-abortion-pill-accessible

More turn to abortion pills by mail, with legality uncertain

By John Hanna, Associated Press
Nov 13, 2021

TOPEKA, Kan. — Before her daughter’s birth, she spent weeks in bed. Another difficult pregnancy would be worse as she tried to care for her toddler.

Faced with that possibility, the 28-year-old Texas woman did what a growing number of people have considered: She had a friend in another state mail her the pills she needed to end her pregnancy. She took the pills, went to bed early and describes the experience as “calm” and “peaceful.”

Continued: https://www.wral.com/more-turn-to-abortion-pills-by-mail-with-legality-uncertain/19979246/

How to Order an Abortion Online

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.

Continued: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/how-to-order-abortion-pill-online-texas-sb8-1224437/

Beyond Lawsuits, Texas Providers Could Face Jail Time for Prescribing Abortion Pills

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/

UK – Pills in the post: how Covid reopened the abortion wars

As some European countries rolled out ‘telemed’ abortion, others shut down access completely.

by Sarah Hurtes and Daniel Boffey
Wed 21 Apr 2021

Kay, 34, realised her period was late a month into Britain’s lockdown. The coronavirus death count was spiralling across the country. Covid-19 was putting the NHS under unprecedented strain and Boris Johnson had given the British people what he described as “a very simple instruction” in an address to the nation from Downing Street: “You must stay at home.”

A worrying, unsettling time, and Kay, a mother of a six-year-old girl, needed to get hold of a pregnancy test kit. She went online and, two days later, took delivery of the test, learning of a positive result via two pink lines. It was the news she had dreaded.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/21/pills-in-the-post-how-covid-reopened-the-abortion-wars

21.04.2021

Commentary

Featured

1967 Abortion Act

abortion is essential healthcare

abortion pills by mail

ACAI

access to abortion during lockdown

Agenda Europe

British Pregnancy Advisory Service

Celia Herrero Medina

Christian Concern

CitizenGO

Covid-19 and abortion

Federation for Women and Family Planning

Fundacja Pro-Prawo do Życia

MSI Reproductive Choices

Royal College of Midwives

self-managed abortion

Spanish abortion clinics association

telemedicine

telemedicine abortion

Malta – Over 200 reach out to Abortion Support Network since 2019

Abortion Support Network founder Mara Clarke: people requested information on abortion clinics, reputable online providers of medical abortion pills as well as funding to travel abroad

12 February 2021

by Laura Calleja

Over 200 people have contacted the Abortion Support Network (ASN) since the NGO
expanded its services to Malta, ASN founder Mara Clarke revealed.

Since expanding its services to Malta back in February 2019, people had
contacted the NGO for information about abortion clinics, reputable online
providers of medical abortion pills, funding to help with the costs of abortion
and travel, and logistical support.

Continued: https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/107657/over_200_reach_out_to_abortion_support_network_since_2019#.YCan8WhKhPY

UK – Using the government consultation on abortion to advocate for women’

11 FEBRUARY, 2021
BY RUTH BAILEY

The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on healthcare, and we have all had to respond to this on some level and change the way we practise. There have been few good things to come of this, but the opportunity to change the law in relation to abortion care could be one of them.

We have all had to adapt the way that we deliver services and abortion care is no exception. Abortion is the most common gynaecological procedure and an essential component of sexual and reproductive care.

Continued: https://www.nursingtimes.net/opinion/using-the-government-consultation-on-abortion-to-advocate-for-women-11-02-2021/

11.02.2021

Commentary

Featured

abortion pills by mail

Covid-19 and abortion

early medical abortion

pills by post

Ruth Bailey

telemedicine

telemedicine abortion

New Zealand – Abortion Care: Equity Not Improving Fast Enough

Wednesday, 16 December 2020
Press Release: ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa

ALRANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa notes with disappointment that the Ministry of Health survey shows improvements to abortion care have not reached all DHBs.

While delays for early medical and surgical abortions have shortened in some DHBs, others still do not offer abortion care at all. Different DHBs do not provide medical abortions, or telemedicine, or abortions post 20 weeks gestation.

Continued: https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE2012/S00067/abortion-care-equity-not-improving-fast-enough.htm

16.12.2020

Featured

News

abortion after 20 weeks

ARLANZ Abortion Rights Aotearoa

TIME 100: Rebecca Gomperts is among the 100 most influential people of 2020

For immediate release, September 23nd, 2020

Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, founder of Women on Web, Women on Waves and AidAccess, has been chosen among the 100 most influential people of the world in 2020 by Time magazine.

Cecile Richards writes for Time 100: "In this moment of fear and uncertainty, Gomperts is a beacon of hope, standing up for the principle that safe abortion is a human right."

The full list of the Time most influential people of 2020 can be seen here: time.com/time100

Continued: https://www.womenonwaves.org/en/page/7616/time-100-rebecca-gomperts-founder-of-women-on-web-is-among-the-100-most-influ

USA – The Supreme Court is already considering another threat to abortion rights

The Trump administration could force abortion patients to have unnecessary surgeries.

By Ian Millhiser
Sep 9, 2020

Last June, Chief Justice John Roberts provided a brief reprieve to abortion providers — joining his liberal colleagues in striking down a Louisiana anti-abortion law. But that reprieve could be very short-lived: A case now before the justices could give them a vehicle to undercut the right to terminate a pregnancy. If the Trump administration gets its way in
Food and Drug Administration v. American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the Supreme Court could force many patients seeking abortions to undergo unnecessary surgeries, despite the fact that those patients could safely terminate their pregnancy with medication — and that’s assuming that these individuals are able to find a doctor to perform the surgery in the first place.

Continued: https://www.vox.com/2020/9/9/21426056/supreme-court-abortion-american-college-obstetricians-gynecologists-surgery-trump-john-roberts