The prosecution of Justyna Wydrzyńska, a Polish abortion rights activist who sent abortion pills through the mail, marks a pivotal moment in the global struggle for reproductive justice.
The Texas legislature is considering a bill that purportedly aims to clarify the state’s near-total abortion ban. Texas law currently bans abortion at any time during pregnancy unless the pregnancy places the pregnant person “at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of major bodily function.”
By James Toomey On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, overturning the canonical precedent Roe v. Wade and holding that the federal constitution does not protect the right to an abortion. Dobbs has once again thrust abortion to the center of the national political conversation, as states around…
Photo credit: Melisa Slep By Rishita Nandagiri and Lucía Berro Pizzarossa Discussions about abortion tend to be dominated by considerations pertaining to medicine (e.g., “safety”) and law (e.g., “legality”). Medication abortion — misoprostol alone or in combination with mifepristone — has dramatically shifted these discussions. Brazilian women used misoprostol to self-manage their abortions in the…
By Elena Caruso While the exact definition of self-managed abortion remains blurred, it currently tends to refer to the end of a pregnancy through the autonomous administration of pills outside of a public health facility. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends self-management for pregnancies under 12 weeks, using a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol (or…
By Abeer Malik Imagine: Overjoyed at your pregnancy, you eagerly track every milestone, logging daily habits and symptoms into a pregnancy app. Then tragedy strikes—a miscarriage. Amidst your grief, authorities knock at your door. They’ve been monitoring your digital data and now question your behavior during pregnancy, possibly building a case against you using your…
Photo credit: Farrah Skeiky By Patty Skuster and Heidi Moseson Medication abortion did not begin with a clinical trial; it began at home as self-managed abortion, or abortion without supervision from a clinician. Decades before the 2000 U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of mifepristone for abortion, which is taken alongside misoprostol, feminists in Brazil…
Photo credit: Martina Šalov By Jessica Morris The International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) is the world’s largest alliance of national professional societies of obstetricians and gynecologists. FIGO supports comprehensive, equitable, and accessible sexual and reproductive health (SRH) for everyone, recognizing that these are fundamental human rights and essential components needed to achieve global health…
By Julia Burton English and Spanish versions/Versiones en inglés y español In December 2020, the Argentinean Congress passed the Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy Law, (27.610), which legalizes abortion up to and including the 14th week of gestation and, thereafter, in the case of rape or risk to the life or health of the pregnant person….
Photo credit: Martina Šalov by David S. Cohen and Carole Joffe A new story of abortion in America is upon us. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned Roe v. Wade and rejected a constitutional right to abortion, but so far, because of everything we chronicle in our forthcoming book After Dobbs: How the Supreme…
