Desperate pleas and smuggled pills: A covert abortion network rises after Roe

Amid legal and medical risks, a growing army of activists is funneling pills from Mexico into states that have banned abortion

By Caroline Kitchener
October 18, 2022

Monica had never used Reddit before. But sitting at her desk one afternoon in July — at least 10 weeks into an unwanted pregnancy in a state that had banned abortion — she didn’t know where else to turn.

“I need advice I am not prepared to have a child,” the 25-year-old wrote from her office, once everyone else had left for the day. She titled her post, “PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!”

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/10/18/illegal-abortion-pill-network/

The Post-Roe Abortion Underground

A multigenerational network of activists is getting abortion pills across the Mexican border to Americans.

By Stephania Taladrid
October 10, 2022

The handoff was planned for late afternoon on a weekday, at an underused trailhead in a Texas park. The young woman carrying the pills, whom I’ll call Anna, arrived in advance of the designated time, as was her habit, to throw off anyone who might try to use her license plates to trace her identity. She felt slightly absurd in her disguise—sun hat, oversized sunglasses, plain black mask. But the pills in her pocket were used to induce abortions, and in Texas, her home state, their distribution now required such subterfuge, along with burner phones and the encrypted messaging app Signal. Since late June, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Texas and thirteen other states had effectively banned abortion, and more were sure to follow. In some of the states, laws that originated as far back as the nineteenth century had been restored. Providing the tools for an abortion in Texas had become a felony that could lead to years in prison, and a fellow-citizen could sue Anna and collect upward of ten thousand dollars for every abortion she was found to abet.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/17/the-post-roe-abortion-underground

One-third of American women have lost abortion rights since Roe v. Wade overturned

Shelley Connor
Aug 29, 2022

Nearly a third of American women, around 21 million, lost access to abortion immediately after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This week, trigger laws in five states have deprived even more of the right as trigger laws in states like Idaho and Texas went into effect. Thirty-six percent of American women will lose abortion rights should courts lift injunctions blocking anti-abortion legislation in other states.

On Thursday, legislation outlawing most abortions went into effect in Texas, Idaho and Tennessee. A stipulation in Idaho’s law, which would have made it illegal for doctors to perform abortions to preserve the mother’s health, was blocked by a federal judge. In Texas, abortion providers now face felony charges and can be sentenced to life in prison.

Continued: https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/08/29/ickq-a29.html

29.08.2022

Sandra Cardona Alanís

traveling for abortion

’I need an abortion’: The text that gets pills sent in secret

Leire Ventas, BBC News Mundo, Los Angeles
Aug 25, 2022

Anna*, 23, knew that she could not have another child. She also knew that she wouldn't get an abortion in Texas, where she lives, as the state has one of the strictest abortion laws in the United States.

So the mother of a four-month-old turned to social media to search for solutions. She found a number online, and sent a desperate text on WhatsApp: "I need an abortion".

Continued: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61874921

Volunteer networks in Mexico aid at-home abortions without involving doctors or clinics. They’re coming to Texas.

Before abortion was legal in parts of Mexico, an extensive “accompaniment” system grew to help women safely terminate pregnancies on their own. Its organizers are now moving abortion-inducing medication across the border and helping replicate the system in the United States.

BY ALEXA URA AND GRETA DÍAZ GONZÁLEZ VÁZQUEZ
AUG. 4, 2022

MONTERREY, Mexico — Hi, I’m four weeks pregnant. Eight weeks. Six weeks.

The stream of pings and messages through Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and WhatsApp reach Sandra Cardona Alanís at her home in this mountainous region of northern Mexico. She is an acompañante and a founder of Necesito Abortar México, a volunteer network that has helped thousands of people across Mexico access abortion, usually at home, by providing medication and support.

Continued: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/08/04/texas-abortion-mexico-volunteer-networks/

People From the US Flee to Mexico for Abortion Care

Roe v. Wade's reversal means more people from the United States are fleeing to Mexico to receive abortion care.

By Jessica Washington
July 24, 2022

In news that might shock the “build that wall” types, it turns out that people from the United States are now fleeing to Mexico to get adequate health care.

You see, late last year, Mexico’s Supreme Court finally decriminalized abortion.

Continued: https://www.theroot.com/people-from-the-us-flee-to-mexico-for-abortion-care-1849321534

24.07.2022

traveling to Mexico for abortion

More Americans who want abortions are turning to Mexico for help

By Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
Fri July 22, 2022

Verónica Cruz says she's been getting frantic calls from women in the United States.

Abortion clinics have canceled their appointments, and they're scared, she says.

"As soon as the Supreme Court decision came out, they were left without service. There are many people who call us crying, very desperate," Cruz told CNN in a recent interview. "And the majority don't even speak Spanish."

Continued: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/21/health/mexico-abortion-assistance-cec/index.html

With pills and burner phones, Mexican abortion activists prepare for Roe v. Wade overturn

By Daina Beth Solomon
JUNE 23, 2022

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Abril, a 22-year-old
college student, has a plan if Roe v. Wade is overturned: use encrypted
messages, burner phones and international numbers to ensure women still have
the choice to terminate a pregnancy.

And maybe save for a bail fund, she joked.

Continued: https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-abortion-mexico-idUKL8N2XX4D7

How Mexico ensures access to safe abortion without legalizing it

No outcomes of pregnancy are a crime in Mexico

By Annalisa Merelli
Published June 6, 2022

When it comes to abortion, Mexico offers a glimpse of a possible future
for the US.

Like its northern neighbor, the country is a federal republic of 32 states in
which the legality of abortion varies. It does not have a federal law, or Roe v
Wade-like constitutional decision legalizing abortion—a position the US is
likely to find itself in by the end of June, when the Supreme Court is expected
to officially announce its decision on Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health
Organization. The decision, a draft of which was leaked last month, might
overturn the precedent stating that a woman has a right to obtain abortion as
part of her right to privacy. If the leak is confirmed, it would end the
federal protection of abortion, and making its legality dependent on the
individual state.

Continued: https://qz.com/2172871/how-decriminalization-of-abortion-in-mexico-expanded-access/

What the U.S. Could Learn from Abortion Without Borders

A coalition across Europe is resisting Poland’s abortion ban. Its strategy could foreshadow activism in a post-Roe America.

Anna Louie Sussman, The New Yorker
May 17, 2022

Last month, an abortion-rights activist named Justyna Wydrzyńska stood in a courtroom in Warsaw, Poland, and described her abortion. Her lips were painted a defiant red; her voice cracked at times, but she was unapologetic. When she was thirty-three, she said, she was in an abusive marriage and learned that she was pregnant. She struggled to find accurate information online and had to order three packs of abortion pills—the first two, from the black market, were duds. She was terrified that she would bleed out or fall unconscious in front of her three children, who were too young to call an ambulance. Wydrzyńska, who is forty-seven, is now part of a coalition of activists called Abortion Without Borders. She was on trial for helping another Polish woman get an abortion.

Abortion was legal when Poland was under Communist control, but, in 1993, the predominantly Catholic country outlawed most abortions, except in cases of rape, incest, severe fetal conditions, and risk to the life of the patient. As the U.S. Supreme Court considers Roe v. Wade and giving states the ability to ban abortion, the diverse, international coalition of Abortion Without Borders may model an effective approach to abortion-rights activism in a post-Roe America—and also its risks.

Continued: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/what-the-us-could-learn-from-abortion-without-borders