Why America’s Abortion Rate Might Be Higher Than It Appears
The number of abortions performed in American clinics was lower in 2017 than in any year since abortion became legal nationwide in 1973, new data showed this week. But that does not count a growing number of women who are managing their abortions themselves, without going to a medical office.
With Abortion Restrictions On The Rise, Some Women Induce Their Own
A new report from Guttmacher suggests an upward trend in women trying to self-induce; the organization’s latest survey on abortion rates, from 2017, found that 18% of nonhospital facilities said they had treated at least one person for an attempted self-induced abortion, up from 12% when the data were last collected, in 2014.
Reproductive Rights Groups Tell FDA to Stop Restricting Medication Abortion
Four months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned online service Aid Access to stop shipping abortion pills to patients in the United States, dozens of reproductive rights advocates have come out against unnecessary regulation of medication abortion by mail. In an open letter released Monday, the organizations and experts explained the online service’s importance as states continue to pass laws putting abortion care out of reach for many.
Doctors and Major Reproductive Health Organizations Just Took a Decisive Stand in Support of Self-Managed Abortion
On Monday, 75 organizations, doctors, and researchers joined that public fight, signing an open letter that stands behind the work of Aid Access and articulates something healthcare providers have known for a while: that right now in the United States, the risk involved with seeking a self-managed abortion is legal— not medical.
New York Dems Move to Protect Abortion Rights
On the 46th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, amid a landscape in which the fate of abortion rights becomes increasingly uncertain, a nearly decade-long effort to amend an archaic New York state law came one major step closer to fruition. The New York State Senate voted Tuesday to pass the Reproductive Health Act, amending a law that effectively criminalizes self-managed abortions and abortions performed after 24 weeks.
What Back Alley? These Women Say DIY Abortion Can Be Empowering
The imagery makes Jill Adams, founder of the Self-Induced Abortion Legal Team, shake her head. “If I never see another coat hanger at a press conference again…” she said in a recent interview, trailing off wistfully. Adams is part of a new movement that advocates for a woman’s right to perform her own abortion. The women refer to home abortion as “self-managed” or “self-induced”—the sinister-sounding “back alley” isn’t in their vocabulary—and argue that it is both safer and more accessible than ever before.
Abortions by Mail: The FDA is Going After Online Pill Providers
The US Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on organizations that sell medical abortion pills over the internet. In a warning letter released Tuesday, the agency requested that the online abortion pill provider AidAccess.org immediately stop selling unapproved versions of the abortion drugs mifepristone and misoprostol and respond to FDA concerns within 15 working days outlining how it will correct its regulatory violations.
Women Should Be Able to Get Their Abortions Like They Get Their Sudafed: Over the Counter
Finally, a small glimmer of good news for women: The ACLU is working to make the abortion pill more accessible across the country. On Tuesday, the organization filed a federal lawsuit to make Mifeprex available by prescription in retail pharmacies, arguing that the FDA’s current restrictions against offering it there mean that women are delayed—or prevented altogether—from obtaining their legal right to abortion.
Should over-the-counter medical abortion be available?
The coat hanger – often with a red line through it – is a powerful feminist symbol. Conjuring images of women suffering unspeakable consequences of unsafe abortion, the coat hanger sends a foreboding message about a past we must not return to. The implications are clear: abortions women give themselves when they cannot access legal services are dangerous.
Why Aren’t ‘Abortion Pills’ Available in Pharmacies?
Are federal rules that limit access to “medical abortion” justified? According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the answer is no. Earlier this month, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), challenging regulations that restrict access to the drug mifepristone. Mifepristone is marketed in the United States under the brand name Mifeprex. It can be administered in combination with the drug misoprostol to induce miscarriage.
A study tests the safety of women using abortion pills sent by mail
At a time when access to abortion is being restricted on many fronts, advocates say being able to terminate a pregnancy through telemedicine and mail-order drugs would provide a welcome new option for women.
If Roe Is Overturned, Self-Managed Abortion Won’t Be A Coat Hanger
With the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy from the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s crucial that we consider what would happen in a state that effectively outlawed abortion. We still hear stories about the dangers of unlawful abortion in the U.S. before Roe v. Wade made the procedure legal in all 50 states. The specter of the back-alley abortion and the imagery conjured of the coat hanger have loomed large. Whether used as a rallying cry to protect abortion rights, a warning, or a solemn remembrance of women’s lives lost, these symbols persist in the public imagination and the stories they represent are told and retold by those who lived through the era.