Today we have an important guest post from Argiope.
The post stands on its own, but this is the fight we’re in, and this tweet is a good example of what we’re up against.
When we say they’re coming for birth control this is what we mean https://t.co/leUiBq7RYe
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) April 3, 2024
What if most abortions were DIY?
by Argiope
Access to mifepristone is about compassion. Combined with misoprostol, it’s the safest and most effective medication for women experiencing miscarriage or who no longer want to be pregnant. In terms of the science, mifepristone is currently over-regulated in the US. It has a 20-year track record of global safety. Currently, though, mifepristone can only be accessed through a special, cumbersome process requiring physicians to maintain clinic-based access to the drug and dispense it from specially ordered supplies. The current case before SCOTUS merely preserves the status quo.
Imagine an alternative world where you could obtain a safe abortion, in the privacy of your own home, from your local primary care physician or midwife. Or, one in which you could get pills administered by your pharmacist.(Hello, Ontario!) In both scenarios, only the people you choose to tell know you had an abortion. No screaming protesters at the doors of the clinic. No doctors worrying about which bullet-proof vest to wear, or which route to take to work, to avoid murderous fanatics.
It’s high time we recognize the power of the US Postal Service. Justices Alito and Thomas certainly have: it’s why they want to bring back the Comstock Act to prohibit mail distribution of these meds. Shaming and punishing people for having abortions—or, let’s face it, sex for pleasure—is impossible, if it’s impossible to know who’s having them or which physical locations to target with stochastic violence.
Now let’s tease out this thread a bit further, in accordance with science, safety, andWorld Health Organization (WHO) guidelines: imagine pregnant people managing their own abortions, without a physician, midwife, nurse, or even local pharmacist being involved. The world where individuals can decide to end their undesired early pregnancy with safe medications, obtained through the mail, is here now. But too few people know about it.
That’s where this near top-10,000 blog comes in: we know people. We know people who live in deep red states that have banned abortion—or, to be more precise, have banned their state’s clinicians from providing abortions. In these states, abortion is still available, but people who want it must either travel for care or do it themselves.
Self-managed abortion using a combination of oral mifepristone and vaginal misoprostol tablets is safe up to 12 weeks of pregnancy. Based on studies from low-medical resource areas around the world, the WHO recommends that pregnant people can:
- Safely determine whether they are appropriate candidates for medication abortion.
- Take the pills correctly.
- Determine whether the abortion was successful
- Decide whether they need medical help—all without clinician involvement.
No ultrasounds. No examinations. Just safe pills and sound information are required.
Most abortions in the US happen by nine weeks.
In regions where people learn about—and have access to— medication abortion by mail, gestational duration is decreasing. In regions where people must travel to a distant clinic for procedural or medication abortions, gestational duration is on the rise. There are reputable web-based services to help people obtain medication abortions by mail, and more are being developed every day: to begin, see see planCpills.org, Aid Access, and I need an A.
Aid Access provides telehealth options where clinicians get involved. PlanCPills.org offers both telehealth options and direct mailing of mifepristone and misoprostol dose packs from vetted overseas pharmacies. Shipment from overseas, though, is slow and cheap. Telehealth is more expensive and fast. In fact, telehealth is typically faster than making an appointment at a nearby clinic.
Access to follow-up care remains important for self-managed and telehealth medication abortion. It’s important to know that no clinician in an emergency or OB department can tell how a miscarriage in progress got started, unless they see pills in the vagina or the patient tells them they were used.
So if someone DIYs their abortion and feels they need help due to uncommon complications, doctors and nurses don’t need to know the issue is associated with medication use because it doesn’t change the course of treatment. In Texas and other ban states, don’t-ask-don’t-tell is sadly back for clinicians.
The rare ones who voluntarily narc on patients to the police or child protective services put patients at risk and betray their ethical obligations. But patients who don’t report pill use are unlikely to be identified during follow-up care, and clinicians can protect their patients when it’s legally possible to do so, through careful documentation.
Safe abortion saves lives and life trajectories, and self-managed abortion with appropriate medications is safe for most people.
So how can you help improve access?
- Spread the word.
- Share resources.
- If you live in a ban state, planCpills.org stickers and plaster them on lamp posts and in public restrooms.
- If it’s not legally risky for you to do so, order a dose of pills, just in case, for the young people in your life. Tell them which medicine cabinet they are kept in.
- If you live in an access state, talk with your GYN provider or family practice clinician. Ask them if they would be willing to do the paperwork to provide medication abortion in the office, if they don’t already. Expanding access points to care could allow abortion clinics to focus on patients who can’t get care anywhere else.
- Tell your governor to support Shield Laws that allow clinicians to provide telehealth abortion care for residents of ban states.
- Ask your blue state government to support publicly funded abortion.
- Wherever you live, work to elect Democrats.
- Support access to contraception and oppose state funding for crisis pregnancy centers. Push back on medical misinformation using facts from reliable sources like Guttmacher.org.
- Donate to abortion travel funds and to keep accurate information flowing to the people who need it.
Let’s keep this horse from returning to the barn, no matter what happens in November.
WaterGirl
Argiope, let me know when you get here.
Baud
Interesting stuff. Lots happening today, though, so I’m a little worried this will get lost in the shuffle.
Argiope
@WaterGirl: I’m here. Happy Thursday!
WaterGirl
@Baud: It was pre-scheduled, but if it doesn’t get much play, I might try a repost on another day.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
I figured. Can’t control these things.
JaySinWA
In other news Indiana Court of Appeals finds RFRA right to abortion.
https://bsky.app/profile/lsepper.bsky.social/post/3kpda2dutuz2s
Reading the finding I’m not sure it says exactly that. It remands to the lower court to change the stay against the Indiana abortion laws to limit it to the extent it violates RFRA rights rather than the broad stay it issued. But finds that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail in their challenge to the law
ETA background
https://apnews.com/article/indiana-abortion-ban-religious-freedom-law-dcd8a9246ee1004c1f1a45d70d1285ac
WaterGirl
@Argiope: Hello and welcome!
Did you see Baud’s comment at #2?
Argiope
@WaterGirl: I did and I respect the wisdom of y’all. There are a LOT of things going on. Firehose. Feel free to pull and repost!
rikyrah
Until I started following Jessica Valenti, I didn’t know how important this combination of drugs is.
The percentage of abortions which were now done this way.
And, of course, when I found out the percentage levels, it made so much sense as to why the right is going after these drugs.
If a woman can have an safe abortion in the confines of her own home, then what will the abortion clinic protesters do to harass women? They are mad as a muthaphucka – denying them that opportunity.
I still believe that the drugs will win out at the Supreme Court because they can’t find a way to separate this pair of drugs from Big Pharma itself…and, my money’s been on Big Pharma from the beginning.
And, yes…THEY ARE COMING FOR BIRTH CONTROL!!
Welcome to BJ.
Hope to see more from you.
If Abortion Rights is going to be your beat, I hope that you go into more depth of the Abortion Amendments that are happening in the States for November, and what’s needed to pass them.
WaterGirl
@JaySinWA:
What is RFFRA?
Argiope
@rikyrah: Thank you! I saw what you posted downstairs, too–probably worth a repost up here. I think the next big fight is going to be about EMTALA: whether emergency room physicians who want to be able to to treat pregnant folks with lifethreatening conditions can perform abortions if their states forbid it.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Argiope has been commenting on BJ for a long time. :-)
WaterGirl
@Argiope: Can we define acronyms today? :-) This is the second one in the comments that I have no clue about.
edit: I guess the other one was on the previous thread.
JaySinWA
@WaterGirl: Misspelled RFRA Religious Freedom Restoration act.
Indiana has a state version of the Federal Law that is being applied here. I updated the post to fix and add info
Ksmiami
I hate Republicans. From the bottom of my dark soul
Argiope
@WaterGirl: Pretty sporadically, though. I should say I’m not an expert on legal stuff, more on the clinical and access end of reproducive health. I also 100% agree that the right is coming after contraception next, via the fetal personhood route.
Argiope
@WaterGirl: HAHA yes. EMTALA= The Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). It states, per federal law, that people in labor cannot be turned away due to inability to pay. Also applies to pregnancy emergencies.
Old School
Interesting.
Should that be *less* expensive?
JaySinWA
@JaySinWA: The Federal version of RFRA was used in Hobby Lobby case to prevent required birth control coverage for employees.
This case argues that blanket abortion restrictions violate religious freedom for various religions. Turning the argument on its head.
Argiope
@Old School: Compared to overseas shipping from an international pharmacy, it’s more expensive, yet also faster to get the pills in hand. Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
ETA telehealth can mean pills in hand within 3-4 days. Overseas shipping may take 2 weeks.
UncleEbeneezer
Thank you Agriope (and WaterGirl) for this post. I will signal-boost this for sure :) It’s also a nice reminder that November is about so much more than just one issue, and re-electing Biden and Dems is imperative!
Baud
The EMTALA case will be argued on April 24.
George
@WaterGirl: Yes, thank you for calling for acronyms and abbreviations to be spelled out on first reference. I’ve noticed in my job with a large federal agency that using unattributed acronyms has become a plague over the past few months. It’s like the damned world has gone mad.
WaterGirl
@Argiope: Is that specific to pregnancy and / or labor, or is that the more general law that says that no one can be turned away in emergency due to inability to pay?
Princess
Thanks for doing this, Argiope and Water Girl.
Josie
I’ve always wondered why the right to an abortion is not guaranteed by the right to freedom of religion. It seems to me it would apply, not only to the Jewish faith, but to many others, including atheists and agnostics.
Argiope
@WaterGirl: My understanding it that it’s not specific to pregnancy–it’s the emergency medical treatment AND labor act. So anyone having a heart attack gets to be treated whether they can pay or not.
Quaker in a Basement
“enables widespread sexual immorality”
And there it is. The admission about the real motive here.
JCNZ
An out-of-towner asks: How does US law deal with the fact that the onerous laws around abortion only apply to women? Isn’t that discriminatory?
JaySinWA
@Argiope: Yes.
Here’s an overview the EMTALA vs Abortion Supreme court case.
https://www.healthaffairs.org/content/forefront/emtala-pregnancy-protections-versus-state-abortion-bans-supreme-court-decide
Argiope
@JCNZ: So interestingly, the laws don’t really apply to women–they apply to clinicians. Doctors and nurses and midwives are prohibited from providing this care—but nowhere (yet) are women prohibited from obtaining abortions on their own.
Baud
@JCNZ:
US law say abortion restrictions apply to the only class of people it can apply to, so it’s not impermissibly discriminatory.
Baud
@Argiope:
True, for now, but that’s not relevant to discrimination. If a law said doctors couldn’t treat women for heart disease but could treat men, that would be discrimination even though it applies to all doctors.
rikyrah
@Argiope:
Birth Control and IVF
Argiope
@Baud: It’s so awesome to have an esquire in the house! Thank you for that. I think it’s also useful to point out exactly who is being prohibited from doing what in these abortion bans, because far too often the shorthand becomes “you can’t have one” rather than the more accurate “you can’t have a clinician in this state provide you with a procedure or write a prescription for you because that endangers THEIR freedom and/or license”.
rikyrah
Did we discuss this nightmare?
TN House GOP passes protections for anti-LGBTQ foster parents as parental leave bill fails
Nashville Tennessean
Tennessee House Republicans on Monday passed legislation to block the state Department of Children’s Services from excluding potential adoptive or foster parents who hold anti-LGBTQ+ beliefs for “religious or moral” reasons, which sponsors argued was necessary to grow the pool of foster families in the state.
But dozens of Republicans later voted down a separate bill to establish a paid parental leave program for state employees who become foster parents, saying people would “manipulate” the program for extra vacation time.
The Republican sponsors of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, HB 2169, have argued the legislation will protect prospective foster families from being blocked from fostering children altogether if they decline to care for a gay or trans foster child, but Democrats criticized the legislation as potentially dangerous if children are sent to “hostile” environments where they aren’t supported or accepted.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/politics/2024/04/01/tn-house-passes-bill-to-protect-foster-parents-with-anti-lgbtq-views/73040700007/
matt
You can see why these insane American right wing Christian fascists love them some Putin.
Argiope
@matt: It almost looks like Russia is copying us, not the other way around. And that losses from their genocidal war in Ukraine is one driver. Here’s an idea, Vlad: stop causing your citizens to experience unscheduled disassembly via HIMARS if you’re worried about your birth rate. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/28/russia-limits-womens-access-to-abortion-citing-demographic-changes
SiubhanDuinne
I know I’ve said this enough times that I’m
at risk ofbecoming a bore on the subject, but I still maintain that any government with the power to prohibit abortions also has the power to mandate them. This is not about contraception or abortion. It’s about power over women. Period.Baud
@SiubhanDuinne:
You are correct.
rikyrah
@SiubhanDuinne:
no lie told
Argiope
@SiubhanDuinne: Agreed! And also, governments could mandate organ transplants from living or dead donors. Saving innocent lives, dontcha know. Either we as citizens get to control what happens to and within our own skins, or we don’t. I think this is one of the many reasons Dobbs was so enraging. Women capable of pregnancy automatically became a new category of citizen: one without as many rights as everyone else.
Gvg
@JCNZ: yes but women are not a protected class.
we didn’t pass ERA amendment, and now it’s hurting us.
ChrisSherbak
@rikyrah: Ditto on Valenti and the widespread use of these drugs.
VERY informative piece – being a cis white gay male – growing up with no mother nor sisters nor many close women friends – this is all new territory but hoping to come up to speed quick. Was always pro-choice, but wasn’t always quick on the why’s and wherefore’s and responses to Xtian thinking/arguments on the subject.
Thank you BJ and Argiope. Sharing widely.
Citizen Alan
@JaySinWA: It would be HILARIOUS if the RFRA, which Congress made a national law so that God-botherers could God-bother more effectively, can be turned around and used on behalf of people whose religious beliefs are violated by laws passed to cater to Talibangelicals.
SiubhanDuinne
Calling @Omnes (or any other Wisconsinite):
Just got a fundraising text from a Dr Kristin Lyerly, a staunchly pro-choice OB-GYN who’s running for the WI-08 seat. What, if anything, do you know about her? Would supporting her financially be a rational investment — does she have a prayer of winning the seat?
Heading off to do a bit of research on the district, the incumbent, and the challenger, but I’d appreciate any on-the-ground insights. Thanks!
Baud
@Citizen Alan:
I don’t believe RFRA applies to state laws.
Citizen Alan
@Quaker in a Basement:
Indeed. I would only add “enables widespread sexual immorality among women.” I daresay not a single state that has enacted draconian anti-abortion laws has done a thing to make it easier to go after dead-beat dads who won’t pay child support.
ChrisSherbak
@Josie: IANAL (but I play one on the internet) but my sense of the argument is that (understood but never stated/agreed to in law) the fetus is a human person and therefore has their OWN right to personal autonomy that OVERRIDES the woman, and the State is intervening to protect the (alleged) person.
Similarly, you don’t have a right to own slaves just cuz your religion says it’s morally ok, similarly you don’t have the right to kill a (again, alleged) person cuz your religion says it’s morally ok. So it will be interesting to see how the court rules here – we may end up with (another) personhood decision.
From my perspective – it’s basically what my logic professor explained at Uni: If you start from an invalid premise (fertilized egg is a person) you can logically derive pretty much whatever conclusion that suits your fancy.
Spanish Moss
Great post, thank you Argiope!
Old School
@SiubhanDuinne:
Mousebumples was fairly excited when she announced.
It’s the district Mike Gallagher is retiring from, so it’ll be an open seat, but it’s still pretty red.
SiubhanDuinne
@Argiope:
Hadn’t even thought of the organ transplant angle, but of course you are right. It’s all part and parcel of the arbitrary-control, cruelty-for-the-sake-of-cruelty mindset these monsters embrace.
Thank you so much for this guest post, Argiope.
Citizen Alan
@SiubhanDuinne: Eve ate the apple.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: I agree with Baud. You are absolutely correct.
SiubhanDuinne
@Citizen Alan:
Or mandate vasectomy reversals!!
Josie
@ChrisSherbak: I understand that argument, but isn’t the fetal personhood belief a religious one?
ETA: If it were accepted legally, the fetus could own property, etc.
Citizen Alan
@Baud: Yeah, but a lot of God-bothering states have enacted their own version. I know Mississippi did.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Since the redistricting in 2010, the best a Dem has done there is 43%. Congressional districts were not affected by the WI Sup Ct redistricting case. She is facing an uphill battle. OTOH, the incumbent, Mike Gallagher, resigned, so it will be an open seat and Dobbs has changed things.
SiubhanDuinne
@Old School:
Oh, thanks for that info.
Martin
So, I will again point to California’s handling of this, particularly how policy around the issue is routinely delegated to the medical professionals at UCSFs, particularly around the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. Even in most blue states where abortion is legal, there isn’t a lot of effort to lean into the topic, to treat it as a valid field of research, to do policy work at the academic level. CA still doesn’t do this enough – at least as of recently among all of the UC medical schools virtually all of that work was delegated to UCSF (some of that is because concentration of expertise is better than diluting it, but some because a university needs to accept the full cost of launching such an effort which includes security, PR and the like).
But this has served as a effective way to advance abortion policy in the state because politicians can always point and say ‘this is what experts in the field say we should do, so that’s what we’re doing’. It’s not an ideological policy, but one born out of research. It is from this source that CA expanded the pool of people who can provide abortion care (mostly chemical, but some surgical) across the rainbow of medical titles, allowing nurse practitioners, PAs, and nurse midwives to perform come first trimester abortions – significantly expanding the pool of trained abortion providers in the state. It is through these efforts that who can prescribe birth control is expanded. We required that the UC and CSU systems offer chemical abortion services in campus as part of student health. And UCSF has been instrumental in providing training programs and protocols for a wide range of medical titles. When the university abortion service mandate was put in place, UCSF offered training for all student health employees from both systems. It wasn’t a policy that just hung out unsupported.
The state has already approved a misoprostol only treatment under all insurance if mifepristone becomes unavailable. Is your blue state doing these things? If not, start calling. Point to CA.
Individual states have a lot of authority to improve things here. You don’t just have to go to your federal representative, you can appeal to your state reps for changes to state law to improve all aspects of women’s health care. CA gets around the Hyde amendment by just funding those procedures using state funds (also how we cover millions of undocumented residents). States can firm up rules on insurance companies to make sure that women don’t need co-pays for other visits around a pregnancy. I believe the ACA already prevents charging co-pays for prenatal visits but a significant part of maternal mortality occurs post-delivery, so make access to medical care after pregnancy equally easy and inexpensive. Demand your public university run hospital system and medical school provide training for doctors and nurses on abortion procedures, leverage them to institute policies across your state on best practices for maternal care, offer training, and so on. Public universities are public resources and should be leveraged as such. They can be called on to write first draft policy, do studies on these issues (UCSF does a ton of them), and so on. UCSF has been a reliable advocate and center of expertise on women’s health – every state should be able to say that. They can do all of this free of federal interference. So spread that advocacy around – we tend to over focus a bit on federal action and a bit less on state action – until that ballot initiative shows up. States can do a lot.
And it’s not just abortion here either – CA set up the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative out of Stanford University in partnership with state public health to improve maternal mortality rates in the state. It’s independent from the UCSF effort in part to separate it from abortion focused programs to help pull in the Catholic hospitals in the state – most of whom are participants in this program. It’s had a significant effect on material mortality in the state. Another area for improved advocacy is at the K-12 level for health education. This can be done at the state board of education level who set educational standards or at the local level where implementation takes place. It’s an old battlefield, but one that still needs to be fought.
And to expand on 10 above, I have for two decades had an arrangement with an independent clinic in my neighborhood. It’s a husband/wife owned business – she’s the pharm and he’s the GP. They are one of the local abortion providers in our area, and the easiest one to approach (as compared to the big hospitals a mile away). When Ms Martin first got pregnant I was over there picking up some medical stuff (same building as my dentist) and set up an arrangement where if they ever had a patient who couldn’t pay for the procedure (it’s walking distance from the high school, so that’s our likely demographic here) to go ahead and text me and I’ll come over and pay for it no questions asked. It’s been a little while since they texted me, but I stop in regularly to let them know the deal still stands. It’s not a lot of money, there’s no administrative overhead, and it’s an immediate solution – the doctor is the one who eliminates the barrier to treatment on the spot. That kind of mutual aid is pretty easy and cheap to do with independent providers (see #5), harder with big medical systems. So each of us have at least some opportunities in our local communities (see #4).
One additional area that people can focus on is age of medical consent. ‘Parental rights’ is once again a culture war issue, but most states have age of medical consent laws that allow young people to pursue their own treatment. It varies a lot, and there are categories within there. In CA for most things the age is 12. It’s lower than 12 for some things and higher for others. This is another place where people can appeal to state representatives to expand access to care by removing barriers that parents might present – not just for things like birth control and abortion services, but also mental health services, access to vaccines, etc. Another place where mutual aid becomes important.
oldster
“Discouraging fruitfulness”??
Did that motherfucker just say “fruitfulness”?
You think women are a goddamned apple-tree?
This is how you know you are dealing with someone who believes that women do not have minds or wills or the capacity or right to make choices in their lives. They refer to women’s reproductive decisions in terms of “fruitfulness”.
It’s just gross. And gross that he does not realize how gross it is.
Ohio Mom
DIY abortions were the norm throughout most of history, though some of the methods used weren’t particularly effective or safe for the woman — in my teenage years I was told a family tale about a distant cousin who tried giving herself an abortion by throwing herself against the stairs in her apartment building.
Over the millennia, a lot of plants were used — ancient Egyptians documented the ones they used as abortifacients. Some of them were probably safe and effective, many others not.
Thank goodness and scientists for modern medocine!
The so-called Christian right may succeed in preventing some abortions (and causing much misery as a result) but they are not going to win against history. As long as there are women, there will always be abortions.
SiubhanDuinne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Then I might just send her a few greenback dollahs and see how it goes. Thank you!
JaySinWA
@Baud: Of course this was argued under Indiana’s RFRA, but the Federal Law claims to apply to state government as well.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/103rd-congress/house-bill/1308#:~:text=Religious%20Freedom%20Restoration%20Act%20of%201993%20%2D%20Prohibits%20any%20agency%2C%20department,government%20may%20burden%20a%20person's
ETA Whoops- Congress proposes and the Supremes dispose:
Martin
@JaySinWA: Dumb judges didn’t get the memo that only certain Protestants have a right to religious liberty, and that those rules are to apply to people of all faiths.
Citizen Alan
@SiubhanDuinne: I still can’t get past the perfect overlap between the people who lost their shit because they couldn’t go to the grocery story without wearing a mask and the people who have no problems compelling women to remain involuntarily pregnant for nine months at great personal expense and with a non-trivial chance of dying.
Nora
@Josie:
You’re absolutely right. The notion that a fetus (let alone a zygote) is a “person” is purely based on religion, and the Dobbs decision is based on the religious beliefs of certain members of the Supreme Court, and not on any legal or scientific basis.
WaterGirl
@oldster:
Yes! The word “fruitfulness” jumped right off the page and screamed at me when I first saw the post.
That is exactly the mindset we are dealing with.
Frankensteinbeck
@Citizen Alan:
“You’re not the boss of me!” explains the superficial contradiction.
Baud
@JaySinWA:
It did initially. I think it was amended after the Supreme Court said it couldn’t be applied to the states under the Constitution.
Citizen Alan
@Josie: I’m afraid you’re going to provoke one of the other attorneys to start talking about the Rule Against Perpetuities. But yes, the idea of fetal personhood creates a lot of absurd results if taken literally true.
JaySinWA
@Baud: Just found that and amended the post.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen Alan: Fertile octogenarian FTW!
lowtechcyclist
@JaySinWA:
Which totally makes sense: abortion bans are based on an almost entirely religion-based belief in fetal personhood. Their forcing their religion on me directly interferes with my religious freedom.
Josie
@Omnes Omnibus: {{{snicker}}}
WaterGirl
@Frankensteinbeck:
You forgot the corollary. “But I’m the boss of you.”
Argiope
@Ohio Mom: I think this is a great point. This post, really, is about a return to a very long tradition of people controlling their own reproductive lives, sometimes seeking help from other non-professionals with the skills and tools to do so. This can be done safely, or it can be done dangerously. We still have nearly 30,000 women a year dying from unsafe abortions. But there are ways to DIY safely if it comes to that. Not everyone wants to manage their own abortions, of course, and shouldn’t have to. Many clinicians want to be able to provide this care legally and safely. But if our hands are legally tied (and in some cases, like in TX, we’re also gagged and can’t even tell people how to help themselves), it’s important for individuals to know how to access safe medications and information.
TBone
Anyone who is capable of ejaculation should be required to have insurance and a permit, if women are expected to take fetal personhood seriously. Like driving a car. I know I’m snarking but the ridiculouslness of all of this *waves hand makes me want to go on offense instead of playing defense
lowtechcyclist
While I don’t think it should be considered germane, is his assertion that “birth control pills sometimes cause abortions by stopping embryos from implanting” a known fact, or is it just that there’s no way to prove a birth control pill has never prevented implantation of a fertilized egg?
The inability to prove something never happens doesn’t mean it sometimes happens.
Argiope
@TBone: I’m no longer a Nina Turner fan, but about a decade ago she put forth a bill in the OH lege to require men have a cardiac stress test for their own protection before getting a Viagra prescription. Stopped clock, etc, but she had the right idea.
Argiope
@lowtechcyclist: Birth control pills, like all hormonal contraceptive methods, work in one of two ways: 1) preventing ovulation, and/or 2) thickening the mucus lining the entrance to the uterus, trapping sperm. The hormone that does the thickening could theoretically also change how receptive the uterus is to a fertilized egg, but if that happened much, the pill would be a lot more effective than it actually is. We can’t say it never happens, but here’s what we can say: birth control pills prevent implantation a lot less often than nature does. About half of fertilized eggs fail to implant when no method at all is used.
TBone
@Argiope: I really, really want to present an offensive line like a football team would and tackle these mfers offsides!
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom:
Fun fact: the Nirvana song “Pennyroyal Tea” references the use of that herb as an abortifacient.
(Don’t attempt a self-managed abortion with pennyroyal.)
Frankensteinbeck
@WaterGirl:
That is one of the immediate derivatives, yes. Keeping them from restricting you is restricting them, and thus intolerable.
Argiope
@TBone: Believe me when I tell you I understand the urge. Maybe our action item from all of this should be a BJ Bail Fund.
Argiope
@Suzanne: SECONDED. Please, please don’t.
Lyrebird
@Josie: imho the right wing knows they can stomp all over atheists’ rights with impunity, sadly true in many places.
But plenty of right wing people in power went all in on the religious freedom laws, and at least in Jewish tradition, saving the life of the mother takes the highest priority in situations that require awful choices, and that goes back to way before there were Euro travelers on these shores, so that suits an RFRA fight.
IANAL though.
TBone
@Argiope: 💙
SiubhanDuinne
@Citizen Alan:
Cognitive Dissonance, come on down!!!
cain
@Argiope:
I’m curious – if we were able to measure how many times it is failed to implant – would pro-birthers be upset and force medication to make it more likely to get pregnant and then ask for punishment?
wjca
Forgive the nit picking, but FTFY.
Sally
Possibly restricting access to abortion, pregnancy medical care, and post natal care will increase the number of abortions. Some people, families, will feel the need to rush a decision to terminate a pregnancy because of the time limits. People who might have had more time to think, investigate options and perhaps have found ways to continue the pregnancy, will feel pressured by time limits to make a quick decision to terminate. Just my thought, you know, unintended consequences.
Miss Bianca
Most excellent post, thank you.
Argiope
@Sally: I’ve also had that same thought. I’m not sure we have data that will tell us that, because the year-over-year changes in access points will make direct comparisons pre- and post-bans hard to interpret.
Sally
@Argiope: I realise it would be impossible to quantify. Some people who wanted to terminate couldn’t, and some who might be more ambivalent will. Either way it interferes with people’s FREEDOM to make their own, considered, choices. A general assault on freedom.
Pink Tie
I am a parent who has also chosen abortion when I had to, because my family was complete and we didn’t want to have too many babies. Which is just as good a reason as ANY other pregnant person who seeks abortion care. It is just unfathomable that any person who has experienced pregnancy, childbirth, or really any aspect of parenthood would impose those experiences on someone who isn’t prepared. I wouldn’t even say I was totally prepared with *wanted* pregnancies! The difference between seeing the ultrasound of a baby you planned and are happy to meet versus the one they made me have in Texas before they let me terminate is profound. Just in my own experience, it is a grievous harm to make women continue any pregnancy they wish or need to end… it is cruel and unusual, and as a couple others have pointed out, a violation of our rights.
The Pale Scot
Is delivery by Fed Ex or UPS “mail”? Doesn’t seem so to me. If it doesn’t go in the mailbox it ain’t mail
lowtechcyclist
@Argiope:
About half? Wow, God is clearly not very pro-life!
How do we know this, if I may ask. IVF, perhaps? I’d think that this would be a very hard thing to study in nature, as it were.
Another Scott
Great post, Argiope. Thank you.
Cheers,
Scott.
Sally
Plus, these people ignore that pregnancy can cause debilitating injury to the body. Even death. In all circumstances it’s life changing. No one should be required to give their reason for not wanting to continue a pregnancy. It’s none of anyone else’s damn business. They can stick their wands where the sun don’t shine.
WaterGirl
@Pink Tie: I’m very sorry you were subjected to that. I went from sad to furious in a single sentence.
The people who pass these laws are horrible failures as human beings. These people who want power over women’s bodies are not much better than rapists. It’s always about power and control.
Very sorry you had to go through that and that you have to live with that memory. Bastards isn’t nearly strong enough.
Gvg
@lowtechcyclist: hormone changes and watching IVF Timelapsed photography among other things. Google showed me some interesting papers. Of course the anti abortion fanatics don’t care the somewhere around 60 to 70% of all conceptions don’t make it to live birth, most of them self abort in the first 2 weeks and people don’t even know. What seems to happen is genetic errors. The cells stop dividing.
https://theconversation.com/most-human-embryos-naturally-die-after-conception-restrictive-abortion-laws-fail-to-take-this-embryo-loss-into-account-187904#:~:text=Around%2060%25%20of%20embryos%20disintegrate,don't%20survive%20to%20birth.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101003205930.htm
ok the 2nd one didn’t link but it’s interesting. There were more but I don’t want to over link
dnfree
@Argiope:
@WaterGirl:
EMTALA is not specific to pregnancy. It primarily originally applied to patients without insurance, or ability to pay. Hospitals would receive for instance a gunshot victim and would not treat the person, but would send them via ambulance to a public hospital. Sometimes the patient died on the way, but oh well, these things happen. I think the last straw was a victim literally dying on the steps of a hospital that refused to admit him. It’s important in the mental health field also.
dnfree
@Pink Tie: The right has radicalized me. My current position is that I value a particular embryo or fetus exactly to the same degree the pregnant person does. If they’re delighted with the pregnancy and would be devastated at losing it, or having an abortion if the fetus wasn’t viable–I’m with them. If they’re horrified or dismayed to find out they’re pregnant–I’m with them also.
Kay
@The Pale Scot:
UPS and FedEx are “common carriers”under federal law so subject to the Comstock Act.
One could use a private courier but the moment it went interstate you’re back under federal law again.
Argiope
@lowtechcyclist: A really old study (1959) did the counting, and I imagine it would be struggle to get it through an IRB today, but contemporary studies using mathematical modeling have supported it. Here’s the original if you’re inclined to read more.
Kay
This is interesting Argiope – thxs
During the Ohio abortion rights ballot campaign I spoke with probably close to a hundred women about their vote and the women who had used medication abortion were the most fiercely protective of their right to privacy and autonomy.
When Right wingers started to go after it I thought of them and thought “oh,poke that bear – go ahead – it’ll bite” :)
not women to mess with
Argiope
@Pink Tie: I’m so sorry. As a person who has attended hundreds of births, it’s abundantly clear to me that no one should be forced to remain pregnant or to give birth against their will. In an era of growing acknowledgment about our history of obstetric violence, when clinicians are increasingly committed to shared decision-making with patients, it’s an outrage that legislators bypass patient choice about ultrasounds just to increase burden and anguish. It’s not right, and I’m sorry it happened.
Argiope
@Kay: I think Dobbs changed many of us. There’s something about being told your body isn’t your own –or at least won’t be as soon as implantation happens — that affects how you see your country, your government, and your relationship with both. I think Dobbs was a radicalizing experience for a lot of people, and for those who responded to “you can’t have an abortion anymore” with “yeah, let’s see you try and stop us”? Those women are going to change things. Dobbs moved women as a group into Frank Wilhoit’s bind-but-not-protect category, and that shift has consequences. I hope we don’t ever forget.
Argiope
@Sally:
Nominated!
wjca
Assumes facts not in evidence.
You can’t really fail at something you aren’t trying to do in the first place. And the evidence that they are trying to be human beings is unconvincing at best.
Pink Tie
Thank you for your kind words. I really didn’t have second thoughts about ending my pregnancy, but I was very shocked when I went to my ob/gyn and said “I’m pregnant and I don’t want to be” and his response was that he couldn’t help. WTF, aren’t you a doctor? This was in 2010! I said WHY NOT and he explained that their practice made a group decision that they couldn’t do abortions due to unwanted attention and protests. This is in Houston, one of the largest cities in America. I had to go down to a different floor of the building (because of course they did have someone to refer) and ring a little doorbell on an unmarked, locked suite, and the woman who let me in made me prove I’d been referred. Then a transvaginal ultrasound and a 24-hour waiting period. The doctor who took care of me & my family nearly 14 years ago was pretty old at the time and my guess is he is not practicing now.
I still see and appreciate my ob/gyn, but there is no way I’ll be sending my teenage daughter to a practice that refuses to provide abortion care. I’m supposed to see him soon and plan to ask about it
ETA: I am willing to write a guest post about this if it seems useful or relevant.
RaflW
Late to this, but (un)holy heck “discouraging fruitfulness” is itself all the reason I need to oppose the agenda of Ben Zeisloft and his ilk. Beyond creepy.
Another Scott
ICYMI, Angry Black Lady has a good TikiToki on this subject.
:-)
Very well done.
Cheers,
Scott.
lowtechcyclist
@Argiope:
I realize this is a dead thread, but if you’re still checking in on it, I’m beckoning for a translator:
The “maximum fertility rate at X” – that would be the proportion of fertilized ova that survived to that point?
If so, I’m confused about the max rate at implantation v. the max rate during the pre-implantation stages: there’s nothing in between, so any fertilized eggs that survived the pre-implantation stage would have made it to implantation, so shouldn’t the numbers be the same?
Still, that’s just a detail. The basic fact is, the ‘pro-lifers’ (in quotes because they aren’t) apparently are far more ‘pro-life’ than the God they claim they are serving. It’s pretty obvious what’s wrong with that picture.