Canadian non-profit that facilitates abortion pill access sees surge in U.S. requests

By Hannah Alberga, The Canadian Press
November 27, 2024

A Canadian non-profit that helps women obtain the abortion pill in countries with restrictions says it saw a fourfold increase in U.S. requests after the presidential election.

The majority of inquiries came from women who were not pregnant, suggesting many want the drug on hand in case they need it, says Venny Ala-Siurua, executive director of Women on Web.

Ala-Siurua, based in Montreal, says some women fear abortions could become illegal or harder to access in the U.S. after Donald Trump takes office.

Continued: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/11/27/canadian-non-profit-that-facilitates-abortion-pill-access-sees-surge-in-u-s-requests/

In Morocco, Women Turn To Booming Online Abortion Pill Market

By Claire GOUNON
May 26, 2024

Asmaa was terrified at the thought of giving birth again, but with abortion largely illegal in Morocco she turned to the thriving illicit online pills market to end her pregnancy.

The 37-year-old mother of one went on Facebook after her gynaecologist told her about other women who had managed to get their hands on abortion pills through the platform.

Continued: https://www.barrons.com/news/in-morocco-women-turn-to-booming-online-abortion-pill-market-62a86370

The long and winding history of the war on abortion drugs

Along with the stethoscope and camembert cheese, mifepristone may be one of France’s greatest inventions. It’s one of two drugs taken for medical abortions, along with misoprostol, and has been making headlines in the US, where a Texas judge issued a ruling to ban it nationwide. FRANCE 24 takes a look at the history of these two drugs.

26/04/2023
by Lara BULLENS

Two separate rulings filed one after another in quick succession on April 7 had US abortion providers holding their breath. The first, issued by Trump-appointed federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, ordered a hold on mifepristone, one of two drugs taken for medical abortions. The second, issued by Obama-appointed federal judge Thomas O. Rice, came less than an hour later. His ruling ordered the exact opposite.

Continued: https://www.france24.com/en/health/20230426-the-long-and-winding-history-of-the-war-on-abortion-drugs

This doctor says bans won’t stop her from getting abortion pills to women in the U.S.

BY LAURA KINGSTAFF
APRIL 3, 2023

AMSTERDAM — It was nearly three decades ago, as a young medical trainee in West Africa, that Rebecca Gomperts witnessed scenes that would set in motion her life’s work. Gruesome hemorrhages, perforated wombs, bloodied young women gasping out their lives: all the aftermath of botched illegal abortions.

“The methods — oh, how invasive they were,” the 57-year-old Dutch activist-physician said, shaking her head at the memory of stricken women staggering or being carried into the hospital. “Sticks. Bleach.”

Continued: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-04-03/dutch-doctor-telemedicine-group-abortion-pill-struggle

‘It’s a war’: the doctor who wants Americans to get abortion pills before it’s too late

Rebecca Gomperts has found innovative ways to circumvent abortion restrictions worldwide – and a US ruling could make her work even more urgent

Poppy Noor

Mon 20 Feb 2023

In the first month of the coronavirus pandemic, when planes from India temporarily stopped flying, Rebecca Gomperts faced a problem. A Dutch physician and abortion specialist, she had spent the two years prior shipping the pills commonly used to end a pregnancy – mifepristone and misoprostol – to people in countries where they couldn’t access them. Now, mifepristone wasn’t available to her any more.

Gomperts is a doctor who has gone to extraordinary lengths to circumvent abortion restrictions around the world, including parking her boat in international waters outside of countries like Poland to administer abortions. So she pivoted. She trialled misoprostol-only abortions, as that drug was more easily available outside India. The results weren’t ideal, but they were much better than nothing.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/20/abortion-pills-us-ruling-rebecca-gomperts-interview

20.02.2023

misoprostol-only abortions

USA – Meet the Doctors Taking to the High Seas to Perform Abortions

They might be in murky legal water.

Maddie Bender
Updated Jul. 24, 2022

When states cracked down on gambling in the 20th century, Americans took their money offshore to casino boats in the Mississippi River and along the Pacific Coast. They reasoned that once a vessel was more than 12 nautical miles offshore, it would be outside of U.S. territorial waters—and therefore wouldn’t have to abide by gambling restrictions.

Inspired by these boats, one doctor is betting on these same legal loopholes to set up a floating health clinic in the Gulf of Mexico and offer comprehensive reproductive care, including surgical abortions. It’s not a completely new idea, and it’s not uncontroversial, either: Some wonder whether the idea is more of a performative gimmick than a feasible solution to reproductive care, and there are a slew of legal issues to take into account, too. But all agree that it is the kind of workaround that will proliferate in a post-Roe America.

Continued: https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-doctors-taking-to-the-high-seas-to-perform-abortions

24.07.2022

International Maritime Group

If You Can’t Get an Abortion on Land, Can You Get One on a Boat?

A doctor explains her long-brewing plan to set up a floating clinic in the Gulf of Mexico.

BY CHRISTINA CAUTERUCCI
JULY 14, 2022

In the weeks since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, reproductive health clinics in states with abortion bans have been forced to curtail their services. This has been particularly acute in the South, where there will soon be no legal abortion services in a wide swath of the country.

Some patients are now forced to travel hundreds of miles for care. Someday soon, they may not have to. To serve patients on the Gulf Coast who may be closer to the water than an abortion clinic, Amy Autry, an OB-GYN and professor at the University of California San Francisco, is spearheading a project that would provide abortion services on a boat in federal waters a few miles off the coastline. The nonprofit is called PRROWESS, an acronym that stands for Protecting Reproductive Rights Of Women Endangered by State Statutes.

Continued: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/07/abortion-care-boat-gulf-of-mexico.html

14.07.2022

Protecting Reproductive Rights of Women Endangered by State Statutes

Why Are We Restricting the Abortion Pill to First-Trimester Pregnancies?

By Lux Alptraum
JULY 8, 2022

For the past few years, medication abortions have been on the rise in the United States, accounting for 54 percent of abortions performed in 2020 (up from just 39 percent in 2017). With last month’s gutting overturn of Roe v. Wade, that number is now expected to spike even higher despite the legal risks in states where abortion is now criminalized. The reasons are obvious: Medication abortion — a.k.a. “the abortion pill” — offers a safe way to terminate a pregnancy from the comfort of your home, even in places where abortion is criminalized. Clinics may shut their doors and doctors may refuse to provide abortions, but pills remain readily available online.

https://www.thecut.com/2022/07/medication-abortion-pill-after-first-trimester.html

How Mexican feminists are helping Americans get abortions

Latin
American groups are sharing their abortion access models with US activists in
as Roe v Wade stands to be overturned

Cecilia Nowell
Fri 10 Jun 2022

In late January, nearly 70 abortion rights activists from across Mexico
gathered in a city along the US-Mexico border. For three days, they huddled in
hotel conference rooms, video chatting with activists in the US, who had been
unable to travel due to Covid-19 and an Arctic cold front. Together, they
strategized how to support Americans as abortion restrictions proliferated
across the US.

“It was three days of very, very, very, very cold outside, but very, very warm
inside,” Verónica Cruz Sánchez, director of Las Libres, a feminist organization
based in Guanajuato, Mexico, said.

Continued: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/10/mexico-abortion-access-americans

USA – The Doctor Prescribing Abortions from Overseas

If Roe falls, then Rebecca Gomperts could become one of the most important medical figures in America.

By CHELSEA CONABOY
06/03/2022

Within a few weeks, if Roe v. Wade is overturned as expected, a Dutch doctor named Rebecca Gomperts may quickly become the most controversial abortion provider in America — even though she isn’t in America.

Gomperts and her organization, Aid Access, is already the only provider openly providing telehealth abortion in the 19 states that currently restrict access to such services; if you go the website of Plan C, a group providing information about abortion pills by mail, Aid Access is the sole provider listed for many of them.

Continued: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/06/03/rebecca-gomperts-interview-abortion-00036742