btw if you or someone you know needs an abortion in a restrictive state and can’t travel, please check out (on a secure browser and delete your history and cookies after!) the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, Abuzz, Aid Access, or Armadillo Clinic. they are currently (June 11, 2024) providing telehealth medication abortion services.
found through this somewhat annoying story about PPFA:
Planned Parenthood privately lobbied against shield laws allowing doctors to provide abortion medication via telehealth, sources told the Ch
South Carolina is one of two states in the country that criminalizes self-managed abortions, experts told USA TODAY. The other state is Neva
The arrest this week of a South Carolina woman accused of self-administering an abortion pill to end a pregnancy in 2021 prompted outrage among advocates who decried the criminalization of self-managed abortions.
According to a police report, a 33-year-old woman in Greeneville was taken to the hospital in October 2021 due to labor contractions. Police said she told staff she had taken the pill to terminate the pregnancy.
In light of this news, I'm passing along this reminder:
(image description: an image from the Instagram account @palmettostateabortionfund. There is white text inside a yellow box over a background of blue and yellow pills. Text reads: "Remember, you do NOT have to disclose what medication you have taken, if any, if you are seeking treatment for miscarriage symptoms.")
This is especially important if you live in South Carolina or Nevada, where self-managed abortion is criminalized.
I'm adding a link to the Repro Legal Helpline below:
Know your rights - information and a legal helpline for people who have been investigated, arrested, or are facing arrest for ending their o
The Repro Legal Helpline is a free, confidential helpline where you can get legal information or advice about the abortion laws in your state, including self-managed abortion, young people's access to abortion or judicial bypass, and referrals to local resources.
If you have been arrested, questioned by the police, or charged with a crime for your abortion, we may also be able to help you by finding you a lawyer in your state, or working with your lawyer to help with your defense.
And finally, for my locals, tread carefully when seeking any form of reproductive or pregnancy related health care from the St. Francis Hospital system; they are Catholic affiliated. Very recently I met someone who was, several years ago, refused a tubal ligation after giving birth at one of these hospitals. Be careful.
📢 Abortion is still legal in the United States, but legality isn't accessibility. ✨ Increasingly, more women and people are managing their abortions on their own without a doctor. There are a variety of reasons someone may choose to do so, including not being able to access in-clinic abortion care, cost, fear of safety or need for privacy.
✨ As we move closer to a post-Roe future, now is the time to educate yourself and your community about self-managed abortion with pills 💊 . The number of people turning to self-managed abortion is increasing, 📈 and knowledge about abortion can be empowering! 🍎 📚
📍Here's what you need to know:
-It's MEDICALLY safe and effective to take the abortion pills 💊(misoprostol and/or misoprostol+mifepristone) to end a pregnancy in the first 12 weeks without a clinic or doctor supervision.
-It's LEGALLY risky ⚖️ - at least 20 people have been arrested for self-managing their care. ✨
📚 Here are some resources to explore & learn more (and accounts to follow!)
✨Step by step instructions and information about self-managed abortion with pills is available from Reproaction, the World Health Organization (YUP), and Aid Access.
✨ Plan C has a report card of online abortion pill retailers!
✨If someone needs help or has questions about how to use the abortion pills, they can contactWomen Help Women 💻
✨If someone has questions about their rights, they can call ☎️ If/When/How's hotline atreprohelpline.org
✨If someone needs judgement free advice (or just needs an ear to listen!) they can call All-Options at 1-888-493-0092 ☎️
✨ Before you @ me, I wouldn’t be sharing if I didn’t think it was necessary. This is community harm reduction.
In the meantime, continue fighting like hell - contribute to your local abortion fund💰 and get involved! ✊️
Quote from @abortion_embroidery on Instagram!
Women Help Women is a group of trained counselors and activists who can answer any questions you may have over a secure network. The medical abortion service is provided in collaboration with doctors and other medical experts.
For abortion pill information, visit abortionpillinfo.org if you live in the United States or womenhelp.org if you live outside the United States.
Between 2000 and 2020, at least 61 people were criminally investigated or arrested for allegedly ending their own pregnancy or helping someone else to do so, a report from If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice finds. Based on public criminal court records and media reports, Self-Care, Criminalized: The Criminalization of Self-Managed Abortion from 2000 to 2020 (68 pages, PDF) found that the cases spanned 26 states, with the greatest concentration in Texas, followed by Ohio, Arkansas, South Carolina, and Virginia. The study found a lack of correlation between where investigations and arrests took place and where statutes authorizing the criminalization of self-managed abortion have existed, which suggests that the cases are as much about how prosecutors are bending the law to fit the circumstances as they are about law enforcement carrying out the law. The report also found that healthcare providers serve as a major vector for criminalization through reporting their patients to law enforcement, due in part to confusion about the law. The authors call for protecting patients’ privacy; challenging unlawful charges and prosecutorial tactics that rely on stigma, stereotypes, and false claims about abortion care; broadening decriminalization efforts to address all aspects of people’s reproductive lives; reforming laws that are susceptible to misuse; and reinforcing protections against criminalization by holding law enforcement and prosecutors to the limits of their authority.
