Is there any measure of the number of pregnancies that go to term in less than acceptable social, cultural and economic circumstances that condemn the child to years, if not a lifetime, of punishment by neglect and abuse. Will the religious community step up to protect them with the vigor they seek to protect the unborn?
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It's about time that the "Scarlet Letter" antiabortionists were rendered powerless by a simple pill, and thus kept from violating the inalienable right of women to decide their own health issues! In full disclosure I'm a man who believes in the sovereign rights of women.
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No surprises here. The important point is to make sure that those women who want abortions have access to safe, high quality services as part of high quality primary and reproductive healthcare.
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We should also thank social media for finally doing something positive by providing guidance to women who in earlier times would have been in the dark concerning this valuable option.
“Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family”
- Kofi Annan
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There's really nothing new about home abortion medicines. I grew up in a small town in Minnesota during the 1960's that had a facility that processed rye ergot for medicinal purposes. For example, they sold ergot to Eli Lilly to produce drugs like Warfarin, and allegedly LSD. The rumor at that time was that the owner of the company would routinely get inquiries from 'herbalists' for rye ergot to produce abortion. Note that the term 'herbalists' was interpreted by some townsfolk as a code word for 'witches'. This use was confirmed by Wardleworth (1844): "I must further unhesitatingly state, that the ergot of rye possesses the power of producing abortion..." (p. 78)
Cite:
Wardleworth, Thos. H. Effects of Ergot in Producing Abortion. Prov Med Surg J (1840). 1844 May 8; 8(6): 78–79. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2558386/
23
Hard to believe we're still talking about abortion rights and restricted access in 2019....
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We knew this would happen. Abortion cannot be regulated and the act of aborting has to be between the person and their conscience and God just like drinking, smoking, using drugs, etc. has to be between a person and their conscience and God. Let’s stop with the laws that try to legislate personal decisions. And, the world is too interconnected. Women can go anywhere they want to go, poor and rich, and do what they want to do. Why, because such personal decisions cannot be regulated or legislated. Women have a choice as all humans do. It’s between her and God.
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Ironically, the reactionary far-right's lust to reproductively enslave women, deprive women of their constitutional and human rights, and deprive their doctors of their right to provide them with reproductive care, including abortion, may ensure that women go back to aborting in private, out of the view of their doctors, out of the view of politicians, and out of the view of their would-be-slavers.
78
so we go from a safe, mon
itored procedure to diy... abortions are going to happen. the technology is out there and available. would prefer it was done under medical supervision. but alas, gop healthcare
43
I've never understood the GOP fixation on abolishing abortion. It's understood that the GOP wants fewer blacks, browns, and poor in America. So why would they want to do away with something that accomplishes that very goal? One would think that that they would want an abortion clinic on every corner of the ghetto.
51
The current restrictions on medical abortion are politically and religiously motivated and not based on sound medical science. There is no reason not to allow people to buy mifeprestone at a pharmacy just like any other medication, with a valid prescription from a doctor. There's no reason it should have to be administered at a clinic that may be hundreds of miles away from someone's home. Being able to self administer tested, effective medications and have a medical abortion in the privacy of a person's home at a low cost gives people control of their bodies and prevents the need for abortions later in pregnancy. Forced birth is slavery.
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A woman who want an abortion will get it. The only question is whether it will be safe and legal. The people who have been fighting abortion access (rather than fighting the reasons a woman end up needing an abortion) - have succeeded in building a self-abortion industry that will grow the more they manage to lift access to safe and legal abortions.
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@Ivan
If one is rich, safe and legal is guaranteed.
If one is poor, good luck.
32
Women have been self-aborting since the beginning of time. Pro choice advocates have been explaining for years that demand won't slack off just because the anti-abortion zealots close down the clinics and defund Planned Parenthood.
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These are incredibly positive developments in a climate of abject backward GOP absurdity and provocation. Much like midwifery, abortion itself should be 'de-medicalized' and organized around community health providers, nurses, midwives, and online consultation and vendors so that pills are easily available and followup care is within reach when needed.
One strategy to marijuana decriminalization was to 'out grow the government' and similarly, to circumvent irrational and theocratic anti-choice policies, puts the meds in women's hands and support organizations like Aid Access.
52
This is great news. However, surgical abortions are still necessary in cases of fetal abnormalities that cannot be diagnosed before second trimester. I am all in favor of women taking charge of of our own bodies but abortion, especially later in the pregnancy, is still a medical procedure and requires medical supervision. No woman should be ashamed of not wanting to have a baby, or aborting a pregnancy gone awry. Driving abortions underground is not the way to go.
123
Republicans, or at least some of them, ought to be delighted by this development: The free market working for health care!
87
This is a chilling reminder of what happens when women are denied control over their own bodies. Making contraception safe, widely available, and free will reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, which in turn, will reduce the number of women who are seeking abortion. But the republicans don't want that. They view women empowerment as a zero sum game. If women are empowered, they fear the men will lose power.
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@Kalpana. I saw a protester recently on a corner with a sign about how abortion denies men their fatherhood. I couldn’t stop to talk to him, but I wondered why these men who so want to be fathers don’t take some responsibility for themselves, for example, by finding a willing woman who want to be mothers to marry and commit to, and then beginning sexual activity. Seems that this would be a better way to ensure all these men who are desperate to become fathers could fulfill their dreams, rather than random encounters with women they don’t know or aren’t committed to.
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one of the advantages of the ACA is coverage of birth control methods. previously they were not covered. it is critical that women have access to highly effective birth control methods including long acting reversible methods including mirena iud and nexplanon insert which are FDA approved for 5 and 3 years and good quality data that they are effective for 7 and 5 years. keep the ACA, it is part of the strategy for effective family planning.
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@mnemosyne
Hi. Back in the 70's when I was the right age, birth control was covered by insurance.
16
I don't know how an accurate count can ever be made. As a student 60 years ago I saw an average of 5 incomplete (self-induced) abortions every night at Kings County Hospital. When abortion was made legal in New York there was an overflow resulting in Saturday OR work for weeks.
If restrictions on safe methods and on birth control are increased the "Good Old" days will return with death and disease as the cost.
47
I am cheered by this information. Women are not going back to the time they were thought to be nothing more than children under the "protection" of men let alone the property of men.
Their bodies belong to them, not to the backward state legislatures under the control of the right wing nuts of this country. They refuse to be reduced to brood mares tied up in the barn until they drop their foals. I am so glad these medications are available and that women are able to use them in private, as they should be allowed to do.
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Duh. Because at the end of the day women are in control of their own bodies (sorry Republicans). You can make abortion safe and legal, or you can make it dangerous and illegal. You cannot legislate it away.
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Good for female female sovereignty !
And infuriating to old, white male Grand Old Patriarchy !
Of course if those Grand Old Phonies were actually interested in reducing the abortion rate, they would support the #1 way to reduce abortions: free/low cost modern contraception for all....which has the added benefit of decreasing welfare expenses to poor mothers and their newborns....but of course, the GOP has no interest in such common sense solutions or actually reducing the abortion rate.
Decent Americans don't support hypocritical men and their Christian Shariah law public policies.
November 3 2020.
Vote out the misogynists !
159
what’s up with the nonsensical headline for this article?
4
Give them to school nurses to pass out. Our generation , both left and right can be so melodramatic . Solve one's own problems with completely private medical professional consultation and referrals . Does it take an East coast elite education to know governments should back off and be a little smaller.
9
This is one of the factors that make repealing Roe such a disastrous goal for the Right. They won't succeed in stopping ‘self-managed’ abortion. in fact they'll make this the standard protocol, with a black market so transparent and obvious that its opponents will be overwhelmed and neutralized immediately. Short of stopping the mails, inspecting vehicles, and even testing women as they cross state lines, abortion opposition is doomed, and if they even try taking those extreme measures, they'll end their own political influence.
They've already lost this fight. Pride and sanctimony stop them seeing it. It'll be worse for them if they prolong it. Let them try.
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Women need to take independent control over abortion and the combination therapy should be in every medicine cabinet, all adolescent backpacks and vending machine everywhere. Take the pills underground and switch off the data set entirely.
48
@terry brady. While backpacks and medicine cabinets are not the safest places to keep medicines, I get your point. I think we could start with widespread contraceptive use, first.
16
@terry brady
I’d say there also should be a condom in medicine cabinets and backpacks.
18
Some people, some time, just don't want to have a child.
43
My Republican friends: Legislating morality is not a winning proposition. Please stop forcing your code down other's throats.
105
Did anybody really expect that this would not happen?
49
Hopefully, the Trump-Pence administration will (through the DOE) order all U.S. college professors and school teachers to explain to their students how terrible it is that women can administer a safe and inexpensive abortion, at home if they wish, by ordering the medication at URL such-and-such.
31
Stock up, Women. If not for yourself, for your friends and Daughters. I am, before the GOP outlaws this practice.
71
@Phyliss Dalmatian They tried outlawing alcohol once. It stopped nothing, and permanently discredited the advocates of that prohibition. This version of it is nothing to fear.
18
GOOD. No more wire hangers.
36
The forced-birthers have never wanted the coathanger/back-alley abortions to become common, but were willing to have that reality as the consequence of an end to legal abortion.
The pharmaceutical method is a safer and self-empowering option which negates the need for illicit or dangerous abortions.
I fear the forced-birthers will try to ban the requisite drugs for this safer method.
71
I'm the last person to obsess over internet privacy concerns and our government but how far-fetched is it to speculate that with an increase in medicated abortions we won't see anti-abortion fanatics and their organizations putting pressure on the government to either legislate this issue or even worse, place some kind of controls on access to websites that provide these services?
47
@Robert M. Obviously the Republican response will be the Pregnancy Registration Act of 2019, requiring all women who miss a period to file a form with the state and submit to weekly checks to ensure that they are still pregnant.
37
@Robert M. Worse still, selling counterfeit pills.
7
@Robert M.. They have already tried https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.vice.com/amp/en_us/article/vb5vzd/fda-abortion-pill-regulations-controversy
4
The right wing has gotten a lot of mileage out of abortion as a wedge-issue motivator over the last 50 years. Expect them to fight anything that allows women more privacy and autonomy in this regard because they don't want to lose this valuable political tool.
132
These news stories are very important to let as many people out there know there are still options as the right wing attempts to close down clinics.
101
This is great news. As soon as the Democrats get control of government, we can make sure these pills are freely available without prescriptions in the USA.
Then the anti-choicers can spend ALL their time shrieking about why women with ectopic pregnancies or severe pre-eclampsia shouldn't be allowed to have abortions.
81
I can’t help enjoying the thought of hypocritical anti-choice zealots gnashing their teeth over the impossibility of harassing the women who are able to control their bodies in private.
200
Bravo! Go Women! Choose what you want for yourself and go get it!!!
This nation and the Earth will be a better place when only wanted babies are born.
146
As someone who believes a woman has the right to manage her reproductive choices, this is very good news. To those of you who are "pro-birth" and oppose these medications, I have some advice: don't take them.
184
It is likely that self-abortion by drugs will eventually make the "abortion wars" a quaint historical artifact. Then the ethics police can move on to more important things like saving the world from politicized religion.
130
@Mister Ed... only if taken within the first 10 weeks.
13
@karen
Women should be using birth control to begin with, and be aware of what is going on with their bodies to begin with.
I think that abortion should be legal in all cases, but also women need to take control of their own bodies and responsible enough to use birth control, and if that fails or they forget be ready to take a pill that will induce abortions.
You should be responsible enough to take the pills within the 10 weeks.
Abortions available later should only be where birth defects are found and the mother will have to have a procedure with a doctor.
We need to have all types of birth control available and abortions but women also need to take responsibility of their bodies, as an actual abortion is not easy on the body or the psyche, I have never had one, but a college friend did who was the most blase going into it but it took her awhile to recover, both physically and mentally.
10
@marie
What makes you think women aren't already doing those things? Having or needing an abortion doesn't mean women aren't taking responsibility for themselves or the choices they make. And let's not forget, that not all sexual encounters are consensual anyway.
46
US just catching up with the rest of the planet. Except for the right wing evangelist politics and except for the medical doctors’ wish to keep a tight grip on their professional guild, this is a not a story. Just a matter of knowing what is commonplace virtually anywhere else in the world.
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