I have downloaded the fact sheet on how to manage one's own abortion at home, and printed it out and put it in a safe place, and talked to my daughters about it: just in case.
6
Abortion pills are not safe. They should be used only by gynaecologists. One has to establish whether the pregnancy is in the uterus or in the fallopian tube( ectopic pregnancy).
This is done most effectively by a vaginal scan.
After vaginal bleeding has occurred, it has to be assessed whether the abortion has been complete or not, again by a scan through the vagina.
2
Decade after decade, the fear campaign never ends. I've been hearing that Roe will be gone since back in the 1970s. And while abortion is regulated, it remains in place.
Few people even know what Roe decided. Hint: it did not say abortion was suddenly legal. It is more nuanced than that. Here in New York, I am proud to say, we had reproductive freedom before the Roe decision.
Even Clarence Thomas is on record saying that Roe is settled law and will not be overturned.
And just last week the federal courts struck down the onerous new Mississippi restrictions on reproductive freedom.
It is not up to the federal courts to say if a law is "good" or "bad." They just decide if a given law is constitutional.
If people don't like what their state does with abortion law, or any law, they can change the law.
The promise to overturn Roe v Wade is as big a fund-raiser tool for the Right republicans as promising to end gun ownership is for the Centerist democrats (we have no viable Left in America). And just as big a fantasy. These rallies serve no purpose.
https://emcphd.wordpress.com
5
When I worked at an abortion clinic in Virginia, we had to deal with so many unnecessary legal hurdles trying to provide care for women in need. Being able to dispense a medication abortion as well as the surgical in the first tri was still incredibly impactful for the community.
Despite the ridiculous laws preventing access to care, there were other insidious forces at play. The presence of fake clinics which often made themselves at home across the street and down the road were some of the worst. They offered free sonograms (in Virginia, a sonogram needs to be done at least 24 hours before any type of procedure) but often misdated them.
Women would leave the fake clinics or even more unsettling sonogram vans believing they were only 3-6 weeks pregnant when they were in fact much further along. Many women prefer the abortion pill but it does have a time limit and these clinics knowingly misinformed women of their date of conception to prevent the medication abortion or even a first tri surgical abortion. Second trimester patients had to travel to DC or Maryland for a much more expensive procedure.
I’ve still never fully grasped the thinking of anti-choice groups and laws beyond religious views. The misinformation they spread and the restrictions they lobby for are dangerous and monopolize the time that could be spent improving our country’s maternal health care for women who are completing their pregnancy and for women who aren’t.
11
Outlawing abortions would not force women to self abort with coat hangers. That’s fear mongering at its worst. What are the stats on coat hangar abortions anyway. Is there any reliable data about the “days of coat hanger abortions” or are we exaggerating in order to scare people into an either-or choice here.?
3
Of course abortion pills, and morning-after pills, must remain accessible to all women, always, and at low or minimal cost. The same is true for birth control. Any man who says differently apparently doesn't have a mother or a sister.
That said: If Roe-vs.-Wade gets overturned, abortion rights fall back to the state legislators. There is a very good chance that woman in Massachusetts will continue having the right to good women's healthcare, including abortions. South Carolina - not so much.
That only means one thing: Women (and enlightened men) need to go to vote.
Why is it me, in Massachusetts, who pays $100s every year in support of Planned Parenthood to protect women's healthcare in states like SC, where people then don't vote.
Voting has consequences. Not voting also has consequences.
6
@TT Referring to the legal killing of the unborn as "women's healthcare" is the biggest scam that "feminists" have pulled on fellow women. I say this as a '70s feminist. Actual women's healthcare embraces so very much more: there is way more to life and health, than abortion, but the giant business that is Planned Parenthood, would rather the more palatable "women's healthcare" be the terminology: it hides the realities so very well.
3
It's nothing short of deliberate pot stirring and hyperbolic demagoguery to publish an article about a "post-Roe world", based largely on the fact that there is now, what some consider, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Even if a case were to come before the Court (which takes years), the "worst" that could happen is the issue is thrown back to the states. There should have been a companion article explaining how cases make their way to the Supreme Court, and maybe also containing a primer in the Constitution - it's apparent that a lot of people are unaware of these things, and seem to revel in this dystopian fantasy world. #StirThePot
1
My Great Grandmother used a coat hanger in New York after her 7th child. Abortion pills and safe abortions are a gift to women....restrictions only lead to infections and death. Fortunately my Great Grandmother survived.
11
Don't worry. The Chinese will be churning out abortion pills in no time and the cost will drop like a rock. I don't know about other countries, but the US doesn't have a particularly good track record on putting a stop to illegal drug trafficing. Your neighborhood drug dealer will be able to fix you right up. Abortion is out of the hands of the religious right now. Women will do what they have to do and there is nothing the religious right can do about it.
4
Eugene Patrick Devany,
I agree that it is a pity that men do not have a say in the birth of their child. So many would make wonderful fathers but are not given the chance. Also adoption would be far better than abortion. You would be sparing the life of the child and make a couple very happy.
What about the rights of fathers? I guess they do not count in the abortion debate. This is so unfortunate and there needs to be a campaign for men's rights. If men organized, they could be as successful as women have become. They should at least give it a try. They might be surprised at the number of men who are interested in joining this movement.
1
A man is not the “father” of a fetus. One parents a BORN child, not a potential child. Same with the pregnant woman - she is not a mother YET. If she were, we’d be treating miscarriages the same as the death of a child but we don’t. But it’s her body so she gets to decide what happens to it.
11
The weirdest part? Most anti-abortion folks are also against any type of gun control. Their argument is that "people who want guns will find a way to get one whether it's legal for them to do so or not." But not abortions?!
11
to eugene Patrick Devany,
I'm glad that you are glad for your life and I assume that you are white, male and not the product of a drug addicted biological parent. Not all fetuses are that lucky.Not all babies are wanted after they are born less than male, white or perfect. Also, many women do not really have the right to say NO to intercourse - pressure from a husband , boyfriend or worse - rapist. I hope you are adopting many special needs children in you beautiful life or fostering many.
18
Calling all Liberal Billionaires: The solution to this problem is for you to build factories in Copenhagen or somewhere and do nothing but produce free contraceptives of every kind, then give them away all over the world, flood the world with free contraception.
Donations to your endeavor will be enormous and millions of women all over the world would be willing to be deliverers, even into countries where they are illegal.
1
Or...males could finally figure out the user directions for condoms and put a raincoat on their precious lil' soldier.
6
Why not simply legalize infanticide? That should make these pro-choicers happy. Some of us may not be happy about all this killing, but what do WE matter?
4
How about some faith in democracy? If the majority of the American people want abortion to be legal, it will be. If the majority of the American people think abortion is the same as infanticide, it won't be legal.
But the fact is, most Americans support LIMITED abortion. Very few support totally unrestricted abortion and very few support a total ban on all abortions. So have faith in American democracy and convince your fellow citizens that your position is correct. That's a lot better than letting 9 unelected judges decide one year that there is a constitutional right to an abortion and then have another 9 unelected judges decide the Constitution says no such thing.
3
Bill of Rights ringing any bells here?
4
Have faith in govt and the vote, my Aunt Patootie! Have you been asleep during this administration? Men want the right to rape women and force them to carry their spawn. The vote of the people will work things out? Are you blind to gerrymandering and voter suppression ? No one, and I mean, no one, should interfere with PRIVATE medical decisions, period!
10
@J. Waddell
Even though I support women's rights, I admit it's overreach to say that the constitutions makes abortion a right. This is especially true now that having a baby out of wedlock isn't stigmatized in the general society like it used to be. But fairness would dictate more help for poor mothers from the government and better protections for pregnant women and mothers in the workplace then we currently have in this country. If the state is going to force women against their will, then they need to take some of the responsibility as well.
God bless you, Ms. Girard, and the IWHC.
6
@cynthiastarks Why is it okay to stand your ground and kill an actual living, breathing, thinking American citizen in various states of our nation if "killing a human being" were the only standard to guide our laws?
5
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, then the birth control cases which preceded it are also endangered as the reasoning is similar. Brett Kavanaugh's inaccurate statement during his confirmation hearings that artificial contraceptives are abortificants shows the dangers. All of the birth control cases and Roe are based on the theory that the Constitution contains a penumbra of privacy. Strict constructionists like Kavanaugh won't accept this theory, especially when Kavanaugh mistakenly believes that artificial contraceptives are abortificants.
I've tried to explain this to younger women who cannot grasp the idea that either abortion or artificial contraceptives could be made illegal or unavailable to them.
18
As the activist Gloria Steinem once suggested (and I hope I've got the essence of what she said), "It's the basis of democracy that you control your body; and it's the basis of hierarchy and totalitarian regimes that you don't."
25
Caroline@ Back in the day, 60’s and 70’s when Gloria first burst onto the scene, we women were proud to control our own bodies and destinies by purchasing our own birth control and not “ being used” as a plaything for the opposite sex. Perhaps today’s women need to realize they control that aspect of their life and no one else!
4
The right to control your body is a false argument. Society accepts many limitations to this “right”. You do not have the right to put into your body anything you want - ie. heroin or prescription drugs without a prescription, you cannot place your body wherever you want whenever you want. You can’t even walk around naked if you so desire.
1
At the end of the day... The rich will still be able to fly their daughter to Sweden to undergo a therapeutic abortion. Coat hangers will be left to the women and families without means .. Abortion is and always has been a socioeconomic issue .. Religion is just a sideshow..
24
That's how abortion and contraception were in the 1960's. If you had money, you could easily obtain either.
4
Absolutely! Outlawing abortion will NOT stop abortion. Poor women will die or be prosecuted and rich women will have access to safe birth control and abortions
8
In propaganda the US is the "Land of the Free, et al". We all know the irony of how things are supposed to work and how things really do work. There are those, most obvious those guided by their religion and politicians influenced by many factors, who feel the need to force their beliefs on others instead of concentrating on their own lives and whose life could not use some buffing. The Land of the Free really isn't and this is one piece of evidence. It would be of value if all of us kept our business to ourselves and trusted others that they are doing the best they can under their circumstances. All this is obvious. Note that this missive comes from Catholic, conservative Mexico, a stereotype, where people do trust in others generously, the whole subject of abortion is not discussed publicly.
5
Since the only justification for abortion - that a fetus is not human until it is 24 weeks old - is also a belief and not rooted in science, couldn’t it also be said that the pro-abortion stance is a belief that is being forced on others?
3
I have had to use the "abortion" pill twice - once to end an unwanted pregnancy and once to shed a very wanted one that miscarried. Neither time did the fetus actually leave my body - only ultrasounds detected the remaining fetal tissue, which had to be surgically removed. The first time, that procedure was done by an incredible doctor at a Planned Parenthood. The second time, it was done by my OB-GYN, in a hospital. In other words, both experiences with this pill required medical supervision, and without it I would have surely gotten a serious, possibly deadly, infection.
I am grateful for all of the people fighting to keep abortion safe and legal -- this married mother of three never thought I would need to use the "abortion" pill again, until I experienced a fetus slowly dying inside me, and not passing on its own. Every woman has the right to make this decision with her doctor.
20
First of all, why can’t the defense of Roe be the establishment clause of the 1st Ammendment? Those who oppose Roe do so because of their religious beliefs, which can not be imposed on me. Secondly, the five conservative justices are Catholic, which means they will rule based on their beliefs. Wouldn’t they have to recuse themselves?
12
No. The idea that a fetus is not human until the 24th week is just as much a belief as the idea that life begins at conception.
1
Medication for abortion is generally used right after intercourse. But some women need a medical abortion months into a pregnancy to save their lives. What about them? Is a coat hanger going to be the best option? I certainly hope not.
This is not about wanted or unwanted babies. It is about the health of women and women's right to choose.
6
@Barbara
You're confusing the "morning after pill" with medication abortion. The morning after pill, also called Plan B, is taken right after intercourse. It is essentially a higher dose of oral contraceptives and will stop ovulation if it has not occurred. It cannot interfere with an established pregnancy.
Medication abortion terminates an established pregnancy by blocking the body's production of progesterone and inducing uterine contractions.
Just a PSA.
11
@C's Daughter Thanks for correcting me.
2
Gratis,
You say a fetus is not a baby. Others would strongly disagree with you. It depends which side of the pro life/pro abortion debate you are on. A fetus is starting to develop and has many of the characteristics of a baby (tiny fingers, toes, arms, legs, even a heartbeat etc.) Sonograms of the woman's pregnant belly do not lie or deceive.
I will err on the side of science and say a fetus is a baby. If you did absolutely nothing to deter its growth a fetus/baby would experience birth. Life is beautiful and every life deserves to be born.
4
@WPLMMT Autonomy regarding the use of one's body should be considered a natural right. No one is forced to donate organs, blood or other tissue even if the would be recipient will die without them - and even if the would be donor caused the would be recipient to be placed in this position. (If you drunk drive and hit someone you cannot be required to donate to keep them alive.) Even a corpse cannot 'donate' without legal permission from the 'donor' or her/his trustee.
8
@WPLMMT Those who disagree are not in any way compelled to abort. What we know for sure is that the woman is a person, with all accompanying rights. She does not need to risk her health and life to assuage the concerns of strangers who would impose their opinions on her.
18
Pregnancy is not a sickness or a risk to the mother’s life except in rare medical circumstances.
People that get sentimental over embryos may be the same ones that squawk that we are having an immigrant invasion at our southern boarder. Where do people come from? With a warming planet that, if unchecked, may make a hell on earth, we should help to stem the population explosion with free women’s reproductive healthcare. Parenthood is a lifetime commitment - not just eighteen years. Anyone wanting to embark on this adventure should be prepared for the most important job on earth.
14
@Phyllis Mazik: Abortion is illegal in these places where practically everyone considers themselves refugees. They have overpopulated themselves out of their native lands.
3
@Steve Bolgerp. People still need access to family planning. The Trump administration stopped foreign assistance to family planning. Many areas are no longer sustainable due to overpopulation. It is a tragedy. Crime and wars often erupt when the quality of life disappear.
2
Why are women in the US paying $300 to $1000 for a pill that costs $5??????? And why isn't this available online and over the counter???????
11
Why is everyone assuming that Roe v Wade is going to be over-turned? It isn't even on the Supreme Court's radar screen at this time. This is nothing but fear-mongering.
4
Something to do with Trump and about a third if Congress saying that that’s the plan, I suspect. Good job they just got whupped outta the House.
11
When viewing an ultrasound of a pregnant woman at eight weeks there is a beating heart. The arms and legs grow longer and the fingers and toes though tiny are noticeable. At the end of 8 weeks your baby yes baby is a fetus and starts to look like a human being. This baby growing inside the mother is one inch in length and weighs 1/8 of an ounce.
Whether a woman chooses having an abortion in a clinic or using pills it is still ending an innocent life in the womb. Of course, the pro choice/pro abortion crowd do not see it this way. This living creature is just a clump of cells and nothing more to them. To those in the pro life arena we see it as ending an innocent human being who is not given a chance at life. We think this is tragic and a travesty. We feel all life has value and must not be ended in this barbaric manner. We are strongly opposed to abortion and will not stop speaking out against this inhumane treatment of the innocent among us.
2
Must be convenient to always see the issue in black and white. Being pro-choice is not the same as pro-abortion.
23
@WPLMMT I'm a mother. I had several ultrasounds. At no point, however, was I confused about the fact that the fetus was a potential until after birth. Even without an abortion, being pregnant is never a guarantee of an actual born child. I was also still a person in my own right, not a brood mare.
23
@WPLMMT
"t the end of 8 weeks your baby yes baby is a fetus and starts to look like a human being."
Sure okay. The fetus yes fetus also looks like lots of other embryonic mammals. Haven't you ever looked at a science textbook that puts different species side by side and asks you to guess which one is which? It's funny and illuminating. You should try it some time.
13
Ms. Gerard failed to memtion one other obstacle to obtaining a medical abortion: pharmacists who refuse to distribute the drugs on moral/religious grounds. The best way to reduce abortions is access to effective and affordable birth control.
9
This is a private medical procedure that should remain legal.
10
Unbelievable-- the pills came without instructions.
Abortions are not desirable but can be considered necessary for many many reasons. (Certainly, birth control is a necessity and should be free!!)
In a world where young men are sent overseas to shoot, kill and be shot at and possibly killed or injured-- and this is OK .. where women are treated like sex toys -- and this is OK... and the gig economy and investor economy are being hailed as achievements..and there may well be famine as a result of global warming.... (in part a result of population growth...)
Jailing women for having an abortion or miscarrying ... is insane. (and makes me so anti the patriarchy .. ) In NYS we must demand that that law be taken off the books pronto.
Informed is informed. Thank you.
6
No, but they would solve about 95% of the problem.
Education would make the campaign work faster.
This is the answer. No one wants an abortion. The morning-after pill will prevent an abortion.
Let's start as a nation to make this a reality.
1
Why do you say no one wants an abortion. This is like saying pro-choice is not pro-abortion. If the fetus is really not human why is the decision to abort such a painful one for so many women? Logically, it should be like removing a wart.
Only one more state is needed to pass the equal rights amendment.
7
With zero laws pertaining to limiting men's choices about their reproductive healthcare, this issue is as much about perpetuating patriarchy as much as choice. Using religion as your argument is self-defeating as we are still a secular country as of this writing. Again, old rich white men declaring what shall and shall not be done, because of their self-righteous indignation, is a poor excuse for a law. It sounds like the point escapes many, bearing a child affects only the female body. We are running headlong back to the 30's...back alley abortions, depression on the horizon, no women's rights, and isolationism.
11
Here is what I would most fervently wish for regarding this topic (and I will wait to be excoriated by proponents of both "sides" once it's posted):
I would like to see every girl AND boy of childbearing age (or somewhat younger) taught a rigorous, very straightforward, non-judgemental, standardized, and required course on all the forms of contraception/safer sex available to them and how to acqire them and use them properly every time. I would like them to be able to acquire them at no, or very low, cost, as easily as buying a pack of gum (better yet, be able to get them for free at school and elsewhere). I would like all parents to also be part of this program, learning that sex is gonna happen if it's gonna happen, regardless of what they think of it, and that supporting their children in making informed decisions is the best way to help them navigate their sexuality.
At the same time, in my perfect world, people would be taught that a fetus IS a living and divine creature who deserves protection, and that NOT bothering to take measures to prevent unwanted pregnancy because it's too much trouble in the heat of the moment (this applies to women and men) does not afford one the "right" to take that life.
I would want people to understand that pregnancies DO sometimes occur because of horrific circumstances like rape, incest, and the less likely (because of the education and access described above) failure of contraception methods, and legislate accordingly.
Have at it :)
5
@NGB
At a minimum, I'd suggest that people be taught the facts around fetal development so that informed discussions and decisions can be had.
2
“Sex is gonna happen if it’s gonna happen” do you really believe that humans have no agency regarding sex?
@Cold Eyei , I'm sure that you can do better than simply twisting my words there. Many teens have sex, regardless of what their parents would have to say about it. And not all have the maturity or the life experience that would make it likely for them to stop when things get to a certain point (nor do all adults). I'm just saying that it's better to assume that young people will be sexually active and give them the tools and knowledge they need to do it safely and responsibly, than to simply lecture them on abstinence and assume they'll just wait it out and wring our hands about what to do when a child is conceived. To believe otherwise is to ignore the realities of being human (not to mention the realities of hormones).
Ever notice that there seem to be a lot of teens with babies around, and adults who are sexually involved with people they "shouldn't" be with? "Just say no" never did a whole lot to address the way most humans actually function, unfortunately.
5
If men could become pregnant as well we'd not even be having this discussion. And there'd be more free contraceptive outlets than Starbucks.
15
So the argument here is that society should accept what half of its members find immoral, cheap, easy abortion on demand for whatever reason, so that women will not be forced to self abort with a coat hanger? Is that it?
2
@Cold Eye
Um, yeah, pretty much. We'd disagree with your characterization, of course, but most Americans, oddly enough, don't wish to return to the days of coat hanger abortions.
8
@Cold Eye, forcing an innocent woman to gestate an unwanted pregnancy against her express will and wishes IS immoral. And when the unwanted issue is produced through gestational slavery, the usual "pro-life" (NOT) suspects are cheap, cruelly consistently voting to continue to further marginalize and exploit those in poverty.
5
Agree that these medications should be FULLY subsidized by the government for all women of childbearing age who wants them. The cost would be far less than caring for the unwanted children that are otherwise born, often into poverty, doomed to repeat the process. There ought to be some restrictions to ensure patient safety (no bleeding disorder, early in the pregnancy, etc), but the world would be a much better place if free and easy access to these medications were available.
3
Rare. That’s the goal. Church’s and those that mimic them need to step up and become very proactive with unwanted pregnancies.
That means money. Wouldn’t be a great if all those who claim the higher ground put up, say, $10B, to fund solutions.
Solutions such as training, housing, education. These programs might not stop unwanted pregnancies but they sure would help us respect life by doing something rather than dictating.
4
Wouldn’t it also be great if people realized that having sex is a serious matter with lifelong consequences.
1
Maybe we can purchase these pills more cheaply from Canada. They seem to be a country with greater reserves of common sense. It's hard to believe in the "land of the free" that the freedom of choice and right to privacy of over half the American population is being denied. It's unbelievable that the pro-death party gets to mandate the denial of reproductive rights and healthcare for the nation's women. Perhaps if we prohibitively tax those states that limit access to contraception and abortion their need to control others may decline. If you don't want an abortion, don't have one. Leave those who may need one alone.
14
As someone who has been involved with the fight for women's reproductive freedom since the 80s, I believe the only ways to keep abortion safe and legal is 1) get many more women in the courts, in local politics and on the Hill and 2) teach our children about the imbalance of power between women and men, and what that encompasses. This cannot be a moment in time but a mainstay. The effort to thwart the Supreme Court in deciding this fate, means we've failed in everything else.
13
@Jonathan
your wife, your mother, your sister, your daughters, your office mates ......... all lucky women,
I would rather have a guy like you in office than, for example, a million Kellyannes or a Palins.
7
Where are the voices of protest and concern over the frightened, hungry babies, toddlers and small children down at the Mexican border who are being gassed by this administration?
The same place they were when other babies, toddlers, small children were being forcefully taken from their parents and put in cages - nowhere to be found or heard.
Hypocrites all.
26
The time is long overdue that people who choose to become policymakers, from local to state to national become licensed. Based on relevant knowing and understanding about...One needs a license to drive a car. Privately as well as professionally. Consensualized general information as well as passing a test which represent types and levels of agreed upon skills. MDs, whatever their specialty, are licensed. So are architects. Engineers. Teachers. Lawyers. And so on.Their principles of faith, of whatever faith, or lack of, are not a criteria for licensing. An "untested," wanna-BE policymaker, whatever their values, norms, moral and ethical States, makes UNLICENSED decisions about the complex physical, psychological, social, etc. health, and well being, and the equitable sharing of a range of resources necessary for developing and sustaining quality of life for the born, not yet born, as well as those not yet "created," based upon what? Beliefs? Facts? Alt-facts? Fictions and fantasies? Where can, does, this wanna-BE's history, or lack of, personal accountability for complicity in harmful words and actions fit in to his/her/their being permitted to be considered as a potential policymaker? Documented history of acts and words of omission for needed helpfulness to ranges of individuals and groups in documented as well as "hidden" needs? What is the position of the anti-abortion active, as well as wanna-BE, policymaker regarding "birthing" of damaged wellbeing?
3
Just as many Americans get Viagra by mail order from India for a dollar a dose with no diminution in quality, we can get the abortion drugs listed here for about $2 a pill the same way. The whole course of treatment could be under $30. I know because I just checked. It took about a 20 second Internet search. So let's be honest about pricing, please.
2
Yes, let’s. Perhaps we can start with the fact that article notes that $5 is a lot of money if your family’s monthly income is $40.
8
@Robert, and let's be honest that in a post-Roe America, Americans everywhere can still terminate their pregnancies safely and cheaply, or visit one of the many states where abortion will be legal, starting with NY, CA, and Illinois. Meanwhile, it is not for the United States to determine the abortion policies of Burma, Ecuador, or Taiwan, anymore than it is for those countries to determine the policies of America on anything.
1
@Robert. How can a person raise a child if they are too poor to even pay for birth control...
1
Just a reminder now that there is beginning to be more talk about Governor Kasich of Ohio as a more acceptable Republican presidential candidate. Kasich is adamantly opposed to freedom of choice. He has shut down more than half of Planned Parenthood clinics, required ultrasounds before abortion and sponsored legislation banning abortion after 20 weeks. Don’t forget.
22
Michelle Oberman in her great book Her Body, Our Laws writes about two Catholic countries, Chile and El Salvador, where all abortion is outlawed. These have both experienced much higher incidence of abortion due to these drugs, so they must be available and affordable for poor women. If that is true, what we really need to do is to break up Big Pharma here in the US.
3
Not just Chile and El Salvador. My state has enacted a law that bars abortions after about five weeks into pregnancy. No exceptions. It isn't in effect yet because it is being challenged in court.
3
We need a constitutional amendment guaranteeing
women the right to their own health and body and their right to an abortion. End of argument. If Ireland
can do it we can do it.
14
@SenDan
We don't need a constitutional amendment.
Roe was already decided on constitutional grounds in a 7-2 SC vote citing the penumbra of the 14th amendment and the constitutional and insoluble right to privacy.
What we need are "leaders" who can accept what has been settled law for over 40 years.
12
@r mackinnon
If it is a Constitutional Amendment, it is harder for the right wing to run against it.
But, it will never be an amendment.
4
New York State has an obligation to liberalize its laws on abortion medicines, since this would make these medicines more easily available in red states.
I'm a New Yorker now living in a deeply red state, where abortion rights are tenuous.
4
Abortion is used as birth control far too often. If we provide science-based age-appropriate sex education and birth control at no cost, our abortion rate will plummet. Those who oppose these measures appear to be more interested in punishing women for having, and especially enjoying, sex.
7
@SueG I don't think it is fair to say abortion is used as birth control far too often. Your last sentence is more accurate. The solution to reducing abortions is sex education, easy access to birth control and support for mothers and their children. If you can't support a child and get pregnant then what are your options in this country?
4
Eugene, all lives being equal then do I have the right to force you to undergo bone marrow testing if I develop cancer to save my life? How about forcing you to donate part of your liver if it is match? Both procedures are painful but you would recover if in good health. I only would high jack your life for a short time to save my own just like you seem to feel is permissible for a woman to undergo.
21
@Bridget
Agreed Bridget.
After all, Eugene's undergoing unwanted and painful bone extraction surgery or risky liver surgery is really a "small price to pay" for another's life.
Eugene? Time to man up !
11
@Bridget, well said! Eugene only needs one kidney, so it's a small price for him to pay to save someone's life.
3
Nobody’s talking about forcing anyone to have an abortion. What you’re really saying is that the baby inside the woman doesn’t have the same right to life that you do.
2
Judge not, lest thee be judged. This was preached by Jesus himself in the sermon on the mount according to Mathew. But now days Christians are concerned mostly with getting their judges on the supreme court so punishment can be meted out in this world for abortion. I suspect that is because they have little faith there will be any punishment in the next.
6
Although there are some useful insights in this column, it is a bit hysterical. First, Roe is still the law of the land, and I sincerely doubt it will be overturned. Second, were Roe overturned, it would not be a "new world". It is the law of the US, not the planet Earth, and even in the US it would only change abortion access in a few states. Hysteria does not help rational conversation, regardless of the side it comes from.
3
@QED
yes, the rich can go where they want. Who else really matters? No, Really, who else besides the rich?
6
QED, all one has to do to disprove your assessment is look at the history of Roe. Back then, a woman could obtain an abortion in any state during anytime in her pregnancy. Now, the red states have made it more difficult for a woman to have a legal procedure. Some states only allow it until 20 weeks. Restrictions to clinics have caused many to close. Some states have only 1 clinic. Medical science has advanced where you can visit with a doctor through Face time. With an abortion pill you have to physically be with a doctor. Ohio just passed a bill that outlaws abortion when a heartbeat is detected between 6-8 weeks. As women, we must fight this erosion of Roe. Abortion needs to be an available option for all women due to a variety of reasons including health, rape, or birth defects. It should not be a legal procedure that only the wealthy can afford.
7
@QED
Spoken like someone who has never been poor and pregnant.
12
What kind of world would this be if people who do not want to procreate choose not to have sex? Freedom without responsibility is dangerous and damaging. Think how few abortions would be necessary then.
4
@TD
You're welcome to only have sex a handful of times in your life, but most rational, healthy adults don't want to and should not be expected to live their lives that way. The rest of us are not interested in forgoing romantic partnerships, but if that works for you, then that's okay with us.
20
@C's Daughter
If what you propose is rational and healthy, why does it require a medical intervention to deal with the consequences?
2
@TD
Actually, it doesn't have to result in consequences if people use birth control.
Obviously, most Americans are using birth control or family size would be a lot more siblings.
I wouldn't be surprised if you have been in relationships with birth control.
But no matter what, if you want to reduce abortions, go help Planned Parenthood get birth control to all women.
7
Articles about abortion are similar to articles about immigration--they attract those zealots who want to outlaw both.
The anti-immigration zealots pretend that what they care about is the country's economic & cultural future; what they really care about is the future of white dominance.
The anti-abotion zealots pretend they care about "life;" what they really care about is controlling women.
If anybody has ever met a kind anti-imiigration zealot, or a kind anti-abortion zealot, please post his or her address so I can send a donation.
2
One especially galling aspect of this debate is that a Roe reversal may be decided not just by men, but by a Supreme Court that includes Kavanaugh and Thomas, two sexual predators, with substantial influence from televangelicals, a number of whom are themselves sexual predators.
17
Among the other times I worked in hospitals, I spent a year running ventilators in a children’s hospital, often working in their NICU. I’d like to shove every mouth-breather who blats about how everybody needs to bow down before their right-wing religious views into a year of that happyhappyjoyjoy.
One if the most charming experiences was when abruptly, Ed Meese changed some regs, and suddenly we had to “keep alive,” every “baby,” born anencephalic. My goodness, were the nurses who fought every day to help sick kids happy about that one. Cussing you wouldn’t believe.
I can’t be polite to the screaming right-to-lifers. They’ve helped create tens of thousands of “children,” who will never walk, never think, never see or hear, never get off a ventilator or CPAP or trach, never have a life. Likely have seizure disorders and a feeding tude, too. Constant pneumonias, line infections, and so on. In and out of hospitals their whole short “lives.”
Very commonly, their parents disappear after a year or so. I still recall the name, look, and exact room of a “kid,” who “lived,” his whole, “life,” in the NICU, blind, deaf, dumb, seizing, trach tube in, no meaningful brain activity after the third or fourth Grade IV brain bleed. “He,” was about three when he got lucky.
If you open your eyes, you see the “survivors,” in some wheelchair, trach and tubes and all, being pushed down the street or hoisted into a bus by some exhausted caretaker, usually in the poor part of town.
28
@Robert - if this post doesn't make the NYT Picks, I'll be sorely disappointed. Thank you for the cold, hard FACTS.
3
If all the women voters in the country voted to eliminate abortion restrictions and make medicated abortion available to everyone the problem would be solved.
Stop blaming men.
1
@Al Luongo
Gerry Mander is a formidable man.
8
A little wrinkle about adoption that I haven't seen mentioned -- modern DNA testing and databases such as Ancestry.com are making it easier than ever before for people to seek out their blood relatives.
As this technology improves and gains wider use, one has to wonder whether it will be possible to have a "closed" adoption at all. How do prospective adopters feel about having their children be able to locate their birth parents whenever they wish? How do parents considering giving up a child for adoption feel about that? I'm sure no one answer is right for everyone. I think putting a child up for adoption is an incredibly selfless, noble thing to do, but I don't judge those who make a different choice for a variety of reasons.
2
I think abortion wins over adoption. Lots of people who adopt are not right. They want a baby to fill some kind of need THEY have. It’s all about THEM not the life of the child they are adopting. And please spare me the whines and cries of the infertile. If you can’t have a baby there’s probably a good reason why. Having been the orphan and then adopted child, I was given to a family with serious mental illness and sex abuse. And I was adopted through a falsely reputable Christian agency, still in business today. I will always encourage abortion over adoption—be willing to save a child from a lifetime of suffering and let them get to heaven sooner! It’s one of the most humane things you can do for an unwanted child.
6
@Jude Parker Smith, well-said. I consider infant adoption of surrendered children to be nothing less than human trafficking. In addition, in the case of unwanted pregnancy, women who surrender to adoption suffer far more for far longer (usually all their lives) than women who opt to terminate the pregnancy.
3
I believe all women should be able to access abortion pills or procedures at any point as long as a medical professional is willing to help.
The human population is way too big for the planet. I would never advocate for China-style forced abortions, but it’s common sense that any woman who wants to avoid becoming a mother should be given the tools to avoid a birth.
From a religious perspective, the net result would be less human suffering because unplanned pregnancies rarely have a super-happy ending anyway. (I was unplanned. Most people would have had an abortion in my mom’s situation, but I’m sure religious ‘pro-life’ ideas had been hammered into her head, so she couldn’t do it.) My own two children were planned and it’s obvious that they have so many advantages (that every child deserves).
9
It is tragic that this article needed to be written. Why shouldn't women decide what to do with their own bodies? With any luck at all these new women in Congress and even the Senate will prevent such a terrible future.
16
@Pajaritomt
Why? Because women may not use their own bodies deliberately to destroy an innocent human being. And remember that more than one woman in three believes abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. http://www.pewforum.org/fact-sheet/public-opinion-on-abortion/
3
@Fred Wild
You appear to be confused. Abortion is not about a woman "using her body to destroy an innocent human being" it is about the woman deciding whether she wants to use her body to gestate a fetus.
The fetus has no right to use her body. I don't understand why this is so challenging for you to understand. Yes, it dies, but people do not have the right to use other people's body parts to keep themselves alive.
19
@Fred Wild. The 'one in three' would support abortion for themselves. I actually know women who have said (to me) that 'their abortions were different'. No one should be used as a life support system without their consent.
5
The comments from people who were "unwanted children" always defy logic. If you are glad you are here today, then so am I! I would never, ever begrudge you your life. At the same time, if I had been aborted by my mother, it would pretty much be fine with me, since I wouldn't be here to know about it or suffer over it. Someone else may have been born later instead of me, and the joy that life can bring would be theirs, not mine. But what is the difference? I would hoard a joy I didn't even know I was missing?
22
I was told by someone recently to keep my pro life views quiet. That same person was very willing to listen to a woman who is an animal rights activist. She spoke about how animals are being abused and treated unfairly. I finally told this person that I would not remain silent when millions of fetuses have been killed in the womb.
There is something terribly wrong when we place animals lives and rights far above those in the womb. We are talking about human beings. As a woman, I will speak my pro life views as long as abortion exists in the US and in other parts of the world. To me babies are precious and should be cherished not destroyed in the womb. I would risk my life for a child but not an animal and I do like animals. It is just that the lives of innocent fetuses deserve to fight for. I will keep speaking out for them as will many others. This is a continuing battle that pro lifers feel is important and we have made great strides in the movement. Many people today see abortion as a travesty.
4
@WPLMMT
In my view of the world, human beings breathe on their own, and fetuses do not. Babies are precious, but fetuses are not babies. But that is not why I am pro-choice.
The reason I am pro-choice is that anti-abortion laws punish ONLY the poor. I am against such harsh, long lasting and devastating economic discrimination.
26
what happens after you have forced a woman to have a baby she neither wanted nor could care for at the time? will you take it in? do you care the baby could be dead in a few months or a year because the woman didn’t want it? foster care & orphanages are full of pro-life babies that you people do nothing to help. you just want them born & don’t care what happens after that.
at least I can spay & neuter animals to stop unwanted puppies & kittens.
13
And many people insist on trying to stuff their right-wing religious views down everybody else’s throats, whatever the Constitution and the laws might say.
Thanks, though, for making it clear that if you get abortion banned, you lot will go right after contraception next.
13
If you are pro-life, you should be against war not abortion. That said, if abortion became illegal in the US, drug cartels will be smuggling abortion pills instead of hard drugs and big pharma will lose it's market share. I don't see this happening.
8
Keep your government hands off my body !!
16
OK. So, let’s abolish Medicaid, Medicare, the ACA, and while we’re at it stop licensing doctors. Is that what you want?
Just fifty years ago, I held the hands of two friends who had to have abortions. One met the doctor in a sleazy hotel room, had to give him cash, and no means of contacting him. She had to take a bus home and was hemorrhaging the entire way. That night her boyfriend called me to stay with her. He was married and thought he was doing right by paying the "doctor". He left me alone with her, tasked with saving her life. The other friend was also the victim of a back street "doctor", and while I was trying to get her fever down, she died. Thank God I never had to have an abortion. I was lucky because I'm certain had I an unwanted pregnancy I would have done anything to terminate it, and no doubt, I would have died. When a bunch of old white men decide to make laws, I can't believe they think it will stop a frantic woman from trying to terminate a pregnancy. It won't. The only result is that more women will die. God bless America.
34
@Mae B Haynes
This is very unlikely. According to the CDC, maternal abortion mortality in the US dropped sharply after the introduction of antibiotics following WW2. The CDC reported thirty-three women died from legal and illegal abortions in 1972, the year before Roe vs Wade.
3
Or, we could try actual numbers.
https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2003/03/lessons-roe-will-past-be-prologue
3
@Fred Wild
Those are the numbers of people that reported such incidents. That is not the number of incidents.
12
Perhaps you missed this New York Times article because of the holiday.
Title: "Trump Proposes a New Way Around Birth Control Mandate: Religious Exemptions and Title X".
Author: Robert Pear.
Date:Nov. 17, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/17/us/politics/trump-birth-control.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Read it. It's a simple tale: the Republicans are setting it up that non-governmental employers can dump the part of the ACA that mandates BC.
However, you can still go to Family Planning - no matter how much money you make.
Poor women will have First Dibs on appointments, then comes you.
No abortions will be performed or all funding goes away.
That funding is, right now, $286.5 MILLION.
....to be spread over 50 states....
....and over 51% of the population.....
In Ca. that comes out to 28 cents per female.
This is an evangelical man's pipe dream.
However, it is not an evangelical woman's pipe dream.
Those Roy Moore/Orrin Hatch wives, daughters and mistresses will lose their covering, too.
This is who the Republicans are.
All of them.
Please: Read the article! They are setting a war up that will pit woman against woman. Women of means against women who have nothing.
Don't buy it!
This is illegal - as proved by the fact that the government is forbidden to do the same. Only the private employers will do it.
How's your company?
Do you trust it?
Really? Hobby Lobby is jumping for joy....
No Republicans!!!
Abort that party!
23
But trump & gop want to defund Planned Parenthood & other programs. Planned Parenthood does few abortions but do have birth control programs & medical services like testing for cancers, STDs, HIV. What will women do if the old white evangelicals close the very clinics trump wants the women to use?
5
@No Where To Run
I suspect that that is the plan.
Democrats and Independents must stop them.
I hope that you read the article - it's a real jaw-dropper.
4
So many anti-choice comments here, still snarling that women don't have a right. So.....
If a person needs an amputation, you don't scream that they are murdering a part of God's creation. You also don't make that person perform their own amputation with a wire coat hanger, then sneer at them because they didn't keep their arm out of a bear's mouth at Yosemite.
If you don't want an abortion, don't have one. If you don't want to be a Muslim, don't convert, but leave Muslims alone. If you don't want to drive an electric car, don't buy one, but don't sneer at those who move away from fossil fuels. Can you see how America works? My daughter's life was saved this year because of an abortion. That doesn't mean she murdered my grandchild, you dolts.
It's America, keep your pointy nose out of others' complicated lives.
41
Deb,
If you read the comments on this thread, you will see the majority are pro abortion in nature. I find this very sad and unfortunate especially for the babies. They have no say whether they live or die. I know a young woman whose mother was contemplating abortion but was persuaded by her minister to choose life. It was the best decision she ever made. Not only is this young woman very glad to be alive so is her mother. Her abortion would have been a tragic mistake and one that can never be reversed.
1
So if you don’t want to murder someone, don’t. But leave the murderers alone.
1
This is why all women, and all men who care about their wives, daughters and granddaughters should vote Democrat up and down the ballot until Republicans are forced to let go of this issue.
Remember the prohibition of alcohol? How well did that work?
28
I'd love to see the Times do a deep dive on the core of this issue, when does life begin and what life deserves to be protected? There are big scientific and philosophical questions to dig into. If a fetus is not life and does not deserve to be protected, then we should encourage abortion on demand and recognize that "pro-lifers" are nothing but religious zealots imposing dogma. But if the reverse is true, we should be restricting it everywhere and recognize that "pro-choicers" are nothing but selfish narcissists who would butcher children when inconvenient.
Everything else around this debate is just pure noise. While most seem to view viability as the defining line for life, we will soon get to the point when an embryo can be grown into an infant entirely outside of a uterus. At that point, the viability standard will be rendered meaningless. The Times should plunge into the scientific and philosophical issues here with the same zeal it has for Trump's tax returns. We as a society need to spend more time dialed into the core question behind the abortion debate, instead of allowing activists on both sides of the debate manipulate public opinion with fear and emotion.
7
@Greg
If a fetus is life, what about the sperm? the egg? It is all life.
Perhaps the question is, when is it a human being.
Historically, like from the beginning of conscious man, it has been defined as first breath, at the earliest. In some cultures, the baby is not human for a week. Or a month. Or several months. Traditionally, a living person is no longer considered a human being when breathing stops.
All this science just confuses the issue. Let us go with the original intent, breath.
10
@Greg
Love that you wrote this entire comment about the true philosophic issue behind the abortion debate but not once did you use the word "woman."
However, you did reference a uterus. Do you understand where the uterus is located?
Do you think that might have any philosophical weight in the discussion?
12
@gratis
I think you're actually on to something really interesting here. Why breath? Is there something truly different about a being based on its location when separated by 30 seconds?
As you note, when a baby is not considered human for months or years after birth, consciousness seems to be the guiding principle. An infant and a fetus both lack consciousness. It seems pretty consistent to me that we could allow both abortions and infant abandonment. Of course, one we could see and one we couldn't, so the only real change is our viewpoint.
Re: Eugene Patrick's comment that men have a right to procreate. Where did you learn such a ridiculous idea? In church? First, the world is currently overpopulated. Second, when a woman (or child victim) is impregnated and is unable to care for an infant, that pill can save two lives. You seem to think all pregnancies are equal. They are not. I hope you spend most of your days and your money taking care of the unwanted children in the world.
26
@Daphne
Incels.
5
If men could get pregnant, these topics of birth control, abortion, reproductive rights, etc. would not be a topic.
31
Until contraception is completely safe, universally available at reasonable cost, and infallible, men should not be allowed to interfere in a woman's right to choose.
15
@Genie wheelwright
Actually, "men should not be allowed to interfere in a woman's right to choose" EVER.
It is HER body, not his.
He can beg, cajole, plea, sweet-talk or point-blank ask, but it is her right to say, "No."
It doesn't matter if he is her husband, father, king, priest or some dude hawking apples on a street-corner.
It is HER body - not his.
10
Women. Stop messing around and DEMAND that the Equal Rights Amendment be added to OUR U.S. Constitution.
Women's higher power gave them the inalienable right to choose what to do with their own bodies. No man or institution has a right to try to take it away.
Never did. Women and socially conscious men must not allow it to continue. Don't want an abortion? Don't have one.
26
@njglea
In strict numbers, women out number men in the US. Kaiser Family Foundation says 51%.
Yet act like a minority.
1
Sad truth is that many anti-abortion campaigners are too young to remember the horrors of underground abortion clinics and won't trust their elders that abortion needs to be legal and safe. As long as there are unwanted pregnancies, there will be terminated pregnancies. One of the oldest medical procedures known to womankind, making it illegal has never, will never stop it from happening.
20
" In the United States, abortion pills are similarly costly — from $300 up to $1,000."
But misoprostol only costs $1.49 at the pet store.
https://www.chewy.com/generic-tablets-200-mcg/dp/173652
4
What about adoption? There are many couples who would be very willing to welcome a baby into their homes. So many are unable to conceive and are unable to have a child of their own. There are even couples with children and single people who would be happy to take a baby rather than abort it. This is certainly a better alternative to ending the life of a fetus in the womb.
3
@WPLMMT: The risks of adoption are understated, both from the standpoint of the adopter and the adoptee. The adopter risks undisclosed congenital conditions in the child, and the adoptee may be abused in countless ways by the adopter.
18
@WPLMMT
If there are so darn many couples willing to welcome a baby into their homes - why are there so many kids living in foster homes while available for adoption?
According to childrensrights.org, over 400,000 children are in foster care and some 13% of them are adopted yearly.
One woman's (or couple's) desire for a child has nothing to do with another woman's desire to not have a child.
24
@WPLMMT
Why should the fetus be considered a life worthy of protection?
6
We are so accustomed to taking pills to help with medical problems such as high blood pressure and diabetes and other ailments that save lives. Now we are discussing a pill that will be used to end life in the womb and some see this as normal. This is akin to murder and it is a travesty. Do we need to add to the more than 60 million fetuses who have already been lost to abortion. Certainly not. We must not allow this to happen. Those who are opposed to abortion and there are many must speak out against this devastation. And they will not remain silent but do so in a civil but determined way. This is not the end of this discussion.
2
In the very early stages of pregnancy it's not even a fetus, it's a fertilized egg, then a blastocyst, then an embryo. The pill only works in the first 11 weeks.
6
@WPLMMT
More than 60 million? Name your source. Also, does overpopulation mean anything to you? You claim to live in NYC. Isn't it crowded enough?
4
@WPLMMT. You can choose to continue a pregnancy if you want to, and I won't interfere. So please don't try to infringe on my rights to decide what to do, if my birth control were to fail.
5
It is laughable to think that women who really need the so-called morning after pill have access to it today in the U.S.A.
Without universal healthcare, women will continue to be forced to back alleys and uncertain, often fatal outcomes.
13
As long as men impregnate women who don’t want to become pregnant, access to abortion will be an issue. Women have every right to satisfying sex lives without being burdened by an unwanted pregnancy. We are not only vessels for children. Birth control, emergency contraception and abortion need to remain affordable (or free) and easily accessible.
21
Tracy, stop it. You present it as though all women are forced to get pregnant, and that's just a lie. It's not true in an overwhelming number of abortions. Abortion is largely being used as birth control by women who had sex willingly.
1
@Citizen, consent to sex is not consent to pregnancy.
4
Considering that when you have a period normally and you don't use birth control, you expel more fertilized eggs than you ever would if you 1) used birth control and 2) you had the occasional abortion (check the analyses, it's rock solid) it's unpersuasive that any of the hubbub is about the unborn zygote. The whole of the forced birth industry--because an industry it is--is about controlling the sexual destiny of those awful, nasty women who have sexy times, both inside and outside marriage. The power-hungry co-opt "good people" who really do mean well and really do care about the zygote, although they have little interest in children once born, and then use those "good people" for their own aims: to give huge tax cuts to the rich, to pillage the environment, to pollute as they see fit, and to hammer the little guy with screwdrivers.
Forced Birth isn't about zygotes, the vast majority of which would be flushed out naturally without anyone knowing. It's about 1) controlling women and 2) about otherwise compassionate people to vote Republican.
Because think about it, compassionate people *vote Democratic!*
If they really cared about children, they'd make it possible for those children to be born, stay healthy, and grow up in a clean environment with good jobs and well paid parents.
They don't actually care.
25
The Democratic Party has been dominated by radical feminists on this issue for 40 years. It’s why Hillary was nominated by a rigged primary system and we now live with Trump.
Also, compassionate people can also be against abortion.
Freedom. Freedom to choose vs. state-sponsored reproductive control. How can a Tea Party member or even a run of the mill conservatuve give over to state power in this way? Freedom is what's being aborted by the anti-choice crowd.
19
Not only should abortion be more widely available, abortion medication should be available just as widely. The fewer unwanted pregnancies, the better off society is.
10
As the ability of women to easily and relatively inexpensively terminate their pregnancy increases, it seems that men are the real winners. They get sex without consequences which, as the Metoo movement has made spectacularly clear, is what many men want. Some of these men will take the aggressive Weinstein/Cosby approach, while others will take the insincere “I love you” approach. But is there any doubt that many, even most of these abortions are being done by women who, had they not been pressured by men, would have far preferred a bit of romance and a hug? Abortion is not a good thing for most women and certainly not a good thing for the recently conceived human being that will never grow up.
@ehillesum Ah yes, the time honored "giving women freedom over their own bodies and lives is bad for them" argument. Thanks for demonstrating so well that the issue is not really about unborn "babies", but about controlling women's sexuality and autonomy.
18
You're right, Mr. Girard. Pills wil not solve the abortion problem.
Post Roe v Wade? Are you assuming it's going to be overturned?
If so, get ready for the largest, most vocal demonstrations you have ever seen in the world. Women will not stand by while the catholic chruch's operatives in OUR U.S. Supreme Court destroy our right to choose what we do with our own bodies and lives.
The only thing that will protect women in this man-made world is to pass the Equal Rights Amendment to OUR U.S. Constitution that says, "NO LAW SHALL BE PASSED BY ANY GOVERNMENTAL BODY IN THE UNITED STATES OR IT'S TERRITORIES THAT DISCRIMINATES BASED ON SEX.
NOW is the time for Socially Conscious Women and men to DEMAND an end to this instituitonalized sex discriination.
15
How come far right never crows about the fact that...Abortion is at a historic LOW since Row.
The reason is threefold:
- better access to birth control( for now)
- better sex ed (for now)
- destigmatization of out-of-wedock births.
Want fewer abortions ? We all do.
Then keep it safe, avaiable and legal.
36
Sure would be nice if all abortions were a thing of the past.
2
Make contraception freely and easily available and the number of abortions will decline.
18
@Mike
Would it? Seems to me that if a fetus is just a bunch of cells that are not life that deserves protection, abortion would be an incredibly cost-effective way of reducing children that would otherwise suffer from neglect and grow up consuming a disproportion amount of government services.
3
@Zejee I couldn't agree more!
2
Uh, coat hangers?, seriously? There are way too many abortion clinic nurses, general practice P.A.'s, online videos, abortion helplines, do-it-yourself pamphlets, not to mention sympathetic pharmacists, and abortion physicians, and deep blue states, to realistically hypothesize that the coat hanger is ever coming back.
2
@Richard Mclaughlin It already has come back in countries that outlaw abortion, and in Red states where all the things you mention have nearly disappeared.
14
@Richard Mclaughlin
Let me guess... you have never been a terrified teenage pregnant girl.
How privileged that you can have such a view.
4
The religious right-wing has no interest in science, it doesn’t fit into their method of keeping their flocks brainwashed and women prisoners of their reproductive system.
11
"...In South Africa...mifepristone... costs about $16...In India...a $5 tablet...can be out of reach. In the United States, abortion pills are...from $300 up to $1,000...
This 20-1000X global disparity in pharma pricing at least as immoral as the arbitrary prohibitions and obstacles to abortion...
Find one other industry that tried to maintain a 20-1000X pricing differential for their identical wares (besides some SW companies), and wasn't – justifiably – undercut by a global grey market...
If US citizens weren't systemically gouged for pharma pricing, many other situations like this – where an American can’t afford the US price, but could easily pay the price elsewhere – two-thirds of the concerns you mention here would be resolved...
PS
So here comes John K, vying to be a “reasonable Republican” choice for 2020...
As things trending now in the Buckeye State:
> Medical marijuana been legalized – recreational not far behind
> Opioids freely enough available, to create enough addicts, so recovery centers will have enough patients and future counselors to keep busy spending Federal money
> Naloxone will be free
> Abortions of any kind will be a felony – possibly a homicide
PPS
GOP might win big in 2020, by making “Regressive” their label...
It’d put the lie to “Progressive” as a euphemism for public-sector-based redistribution...
After all, isn’t that what $5 vs $16 vs $300-1000 per dose drug pricing is...
Redistributing American wealth to other countries...
2
Wealthy women will jump on a plane, to get an abortion where it's safe and legal.
It is curious that the "religious right" never addresses the mostly
indiscriminate casual sex that causes pregnancy in some many cases.
Also, not a peep out of the theocrats regarding the millions killed by smoking.
6
@Stephen. It is interesting that crowds of pro-lifers don't seem to show up at fertility clinics. This, plus the fact that this lot is anti contraception, shows their true motivations. Women must always want to be mothers, or to 'welcome' any birth control failure. If they are attempting to become mothers through IVF it is irrelevant that embryos die.
2
What an odd debate.
1
The left’s obsession with Roe v. Wade will be its undoing. As a legal decision, it is atrocious and indefensible, not to mention an insult to democracy. Medicated abortions have the potential to make a dangerous surgical procedure obsolete. Roe v Wade is nothing but a symbol of outdated versions of feminism. Let it die.
2
So you think only “left” women have abortions. Haha haha. Sure. Republican women never have abortions. Haha haha.
11
@Greg
Surgical abortion is extremely safe. Why do you think it is dangerous?
Think about it-an early abortion is a simple out-patient procedure that takes a few minutes. No anesthesia is required, but local is sometimes given. Women can go home basically immediately after. No follow up visits are required. Many women report that they take it easy for a day or so. No sex for a week.
Compare that with what happens during childbirth and tell me which one is safer.
10
@Greg: "dangerous surgical procedure"? A safe and legal surgical pregnancy termination is safer than ANY full-term pregnancy, and is safer than a routine colonoscopy.
3
How far back in the dark ages are they going to take us. How can these pills run from $5 to 1000??? How dumb do they think we are. The pharma industry is a thiefdom but that is no news here but yet it continues thru republican control and democrat control. Duopoly safe guarding the haves and leaving us have nots out to hang.
4
I just have to say - I feel like the tagline about coat hangers was in poor taste.
1
My astonishment after reading an article that is currently entirely on a hypothetical in the US:
Author states: In the United States, a patchwork of state-level restrictions perpetuate the falsehood that medication abortion must be taken in a clinical setting to be safe.
But then a paragraph later states: Then, even when women can afford to obtain high-quality pills, there is no guarantee that they’ll have access to accurate information about how to use them effectively, causing additional stress and decreasing the likelihood that the abortion will work.
Couldn't we almost guarantee women having access to accurate information as well as how to use the medication correctly and decrease stress and increase the likelihood of the abortion working by requiring doctors to be consulted within a clinical setting? It seems to me here that something has to give here.
2
@Dave, most women have a doctor, if not a gynocologist. The problem is that anti-choice people throw a lot of lies around. In fact, Dave, they have their own 'clinics' which are supposed to give women acurate information, right? Except that they are actually there only to misinform and provide medical lies that put women in danger.
That's why abortion needs to be between a woman and her doctor. Men don't need special clinics for their health, and neither do women. There are specialists in colon cancer, and there should be specialists for abortion.
Not that hard.
11
This is an important article. However, some additional information I wish it had included:
• Unlike surgical abortions which can be legally be performed up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, medication abortion is only an option in early pregnancy – up to 10 weeks from a woman’s last menstrual period (i.e. just 8 weeks post- conception). While the overwhelming majority of abortions in the US are performed in the first trimester, medical abortion/abortion pills, for a variety of reasons, will not be an alternative for many women.
• Medication abortion is 98-99% effective. However, for the 1 – 2% of women for whom it is not, in-clinic surgical abortions need to be legal and accessible as an incomplete abortion can result in serious, potentially life-threatening complications.
• If Roe v. Wade is overturned, it is likely that, in some places in the US, both medical and surgical abortions will become illegal. Women of means will find ways to access safe abortions. It is poor, younger and less educated woman will bear the burden of dangerous alternatives.
• Several posters seemed to be confused about the difference between emergency contraception pills and abortion pills - entirely different medications used for different reasons: Emergency contraception pills taken within 5 days of unprotected intercourse PREVENT /reduce the likelihood of pregnancy while medication abortion pills are used to TERMINATE an early pregnancy.
25
People aged from their mid-sixties and up can well recall the horrors of "back alley", coat hanger abortions. There are many born since that may not quite appreciate this reality and its effect on Roe v Wade. I don't believe it is presented enough; it seems lost in the argument over woman's rights. Back then, a pregnant child of wealth could be escorted into a doctor's office, and with a wink-wink and exchange of cash a safe abortion was achieved. Children of the poor were left with the horrible alternative. I wonder if making a greater point of that discrepancy might sway some of today's moralists into accepting the unfortunate truth that abortions will not simply disappear. Maybe they need to see the butchery in full living color. If we truly want fewer abortions, we should support Planned Parenthood!
24
This article makes no sense. Both abortion pills AND medical abortions are legal in all 50 states.
And medical abortions -- in an office -- are not free, nor covered by any Federal program (like Medicaid). They cost roughly $500, so the cost is in line with the abortion PILL....I think convenience and privacy are mostly the factors in women's choice here, not cost.
The author is assuming that "medical abortions are free, while using abortion pills is costly" but that is factually untrue.
5
There will be no post Roe.
Too many of us will take to the barricades!
15
Another thing that struck me ... $300-$1,000 in the US ... $5 in India for what I presume is the same pill????
136
A capitalistic medical system; charge what the market will bear, especially with desperate women.
21
@rino It is exactly the same pill! The Hepatitis C cure, a 12-week one pill a day treatment, costs $100,0000 here and less than $600 in India. Thanks to our government, our pharmaceutical companies rob us blind while other countries regulate drug pricing.
45
@rino Welcome to for-profit healthcare!
7
This is how the destruction and deconstruction of public education in so many of American states has left a new population of extremely ignorant and very frightened children to poison one anpother's understanding with so called Urban Myths and all the other intelllectual destritis that passes for knowledge in the USA of today.
I recall that in the late 60's and into the seventies, any MD could and would tell a pregnant teen in search of an abortion to go to her local hopital where the law as it as consitituted then would never leave them on they're own . Many girldl I knew whose shool and boy friend had all but abandoned them still were supported in a kindly and efficient manner by local city hospitals. Even where not all nurses and doctors liked or supported the laws, all were in favor of the allowing the CIty and State to prevent the schoolgirls from trying to go at themselves with bent coathangers.
2
If you are saying that NYC women in the 1960s could go to their friendly local hospital and get a legal abortion, let me assure you that is not what was happening elsewhere.
12
@Madeline Conant, it wasn't happening in NYC either, except for the wealthy and connected.
1
Focusing on abortion is a malign misoynist cramped duplicitous deception from reality. The focus should be on the biological DNA genetic evolutionary fit one human race species reality that there is only one procreative human gender with ovaries, eggs, placentas, uterus, vaginas and breasts.
Neither abortion rights nor pro-life political partisans treat women in all of their divine natural created equal with certain unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness personhood and humanity.
Until the advent of DNA maternity was the only certainty regarding human ancestry. Women should have the right to decide about their own healthcare, procreative and sexual life choices without any significant and substantive government interference and meddling.
Advances in science have increased the survivability of human fetus. But a fetus is not a person. The health of the mother should always take precedence over a mere fetus. A fetus conceived by incest or rape is a lesser thing. A fetus who threatens the health of the mother is a lesser thing. Women's lives matter.
11
I can think of a dozen or more medical reasons for late-term abortion - heart attack, kidney failure, eclampsia, pregnancy-induced diabetes, etc... and a dozen more if the woman is a hemophiliac. But pro-choice theocrats would kill the woman.
As for life beginning at conception, it's a zygote with less life attributes than an amoeba, so proscribing abortion is just senseless. Unless you're talking about the soul which is a religious word for the mind, that is not yet formed in a zygote. That would be the soul that Christians, , claim is inserted by god at quickening which is the indication of an operative, if not fully formed, nervous system. Regardless of religious opinions, "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion," so please don't attempt to inflict your superstitions on others (including most Christians) who don't share them.
Abortion is, and should remain, a matter of choice between a woman and, as needed, her health care provider.
37
Men have a right to procreate and their unborn should not be destroyed without their consent. Some women may feel empowered by easy access to abortion pills but they should focus on their right to say no to sexual intercourse. Nine months of hard labor is a small price to pay to save the life of a child that is wanted by someone. Those of us who were adopted as infants know how beautiful life can be.
34
@Eugene Patrick Devany if I've ever read a one sided view of things this is it. Women do say no. They also say yes. And men can be awfully irresponsible when it comes to supporting their offspring. As a woman I resent your implication that I was put on this earth to make babies for adoption if I don't want to have one but wind up pregnant anyway. Men don't risk their lives having children. Women do.
Have you ever asked a foster child who was not adopted how s/he feels when it comes to his/her life? No because you don't seem to realize that not every unwanted child is adopted. Some of us, myself included, are not given up for adoption. We're kept even though we're unwanted because our parents can't bear the thought of dealing with what their friends and neighbors would think of them for allowing their unwanted child to be adopted. We suffer because of a society that is too stupid or blind to understand that being unwanted more painful than not being born at all. If we weren't born we'd never know what it's like to watch others being loved and cared for while we aren't.
214
@Eugene Patrick Devany
Nobody has a "right" to procreate - only the possibility thereof.
If your kidney was a match for someone, and that kidney would save their life, does that someone have the right to force you to have surgery? I think not.
Similarly, no man has the right to force a woman to assume the risks of pregnancy and childbirth.
230
First, to procreate is not a right. It’s a responsibility.
Men who have committed to a woman by law may have some say in a pregnancy, but no other man or woman does. And even if married, the pregnancy is still the sole physical responsibility of the woman.
137
Pro-choice forces should start buying abortion pills and stockpiling them in the red states covertly. All the advisory services can be handled on encrypted online communications. If the cartels can provide all the illegal drugs Americans can consume, Pro-choice forces can find a way to provide all the abortion pills necessary. Especially since they’ll be able to use the blue states as staging areas. All sorts of things are illegal, and yet they all happen everyday all over the world.
11
There must be concrete efforts from supposedly 'liberal' billionaire philanthropists such as Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet, Blumenthal, and Soros, and from supposedly libertarian philanthropists such as the Koch Brothers, to make the contraceptive pill, morning-after pill and chemical abortifacients freely available in high quality pharmacological vehicles for purchase to all US residents.
Hilary and Bill Clinton could donate their Goldman Sachs generous speaking fees, along with the Obamas'. Set up a factory in the State of California to supply girls and women over the Internet in the whole of the USA.
Teenage pregnancies in particular are disasters for the young mothers, disasters for their kids, disasters for schools, social services, the juvenile courts, law enforcement and society at large. Only private prisons, for-profit adoption agencies, and the organised religions in the USA benefit, plus of course those many US employers who rely on a cheap, unskilled, unschooled and uneducated workforce.
7
@Colenso: These "philanthropists" are evidently in denial that cutting death rates requires cutting birth rates.
2
@Colenso, why do liberals have to do all the work of keeping Americans free? Does Sheldon Adelson not have a responsibility?
6
@deb If you read my post more carefully, then you will see that I also included libertarians such as the Koch Brothers.
2
A $5 pill is prohibitively expensive so a $5 surgical abortion is considered safe. Next.
1
So, a woman's body is still man's propriety.
10
Let's get real.
This column presents a specific POV: It is the antiseptic, bland, polite little world of the 1900's, where all ladies uncomplainingly accept the dictates of their menfolk, and never voiced their protest above a murmur.
Well, that was then.
This is now.
We are not El Salvadore, or India, or Brazil.
This is the United States and we are not a Banana Republic.
Coat-hanger abortions?
I think this country has forgotten the flip-side of that.
It was called a "shotgun wedding".
A man took his responsibility for a pregnancy or he took a load of shotgun pellets where he would never forget the what-for.
The last half-century has caused men to forget who they are.
This is what righties would term "Second Amendment Solutions".
Well, too bad.
So, here's what we do:
1) Void both the Hyde and Helms "amendments".
2) Print out every word you can find on abortions, all kinds of abortions.
3) Vote every Republican out. If we are to be a 2-party system, then have that second party be Independents.
4) Pass the Equal Rights Amendment. That will end this happy-horse.... ummm.. stuff.
5) Stop paying your taxes until you are fully equal.
6) Buy the abortion medications now - the Republicans will be out of office before they expire.
7) And, check the stats. The only state that is wildly out of whack is Utah. All other states, Ca to Al to Ga, have the same stats. There's a LOT of Evangelical women getting abortions and using birth control.
Add to this.
POST-ROE?
NO!
11
For the 100th time in my life: KEEP OUT OF MY PRIVATE BODY!!!!
22
Where can we give to make these pills available to women who need them and cannot afford them?
8
I love the sign "IF IT'S NOT YOUR BODY IT'S NOT YOUR DECISION".
Some message right next to the STATUE OF LIBERTY!
14
The one you are aborting is not your body. It is a host which requires its mother to survive.
This drug combination that enables “at home abortions”, while offering an additional or alternative treatment option for women, are no substitute for abortion under the care of a medical practitioner. I took these drugs to induce abortion after a missed miscarriage, and wound up in the emergency room two weeks later, hemorrhaging as a result of an incomplete abortion, and losing so much blood that I required a blood transfusion. I had ready access to outstanding medical facilities, living in Brooklyn and being treated at a well regarded hospital in Manhattan. I was probably a few hours away from hemorrhaging to death, and shudder to think of the fate of women who experience this without easy access to a hospital that can treat them urgently.
6
It still amazes me that we have to continue having these conversations.
Having an abortion is a very personal decision for the people involved. No State or Federal Government should have the right to be involved in this decision.
It is time to put this issue on the ballot, if our government continues to make personal decisions for women concerning their rights to make what they consider an informed decision about whether or not they should have an abortion. And that is how the ballot question should be framed. "Should the State or Federal Government have a right to interfere with a woman's right to make personal decisions affecting her life."
No one takes the decision lightly when it comes having an abortion. Yet the so called "pro Lifers" act as if women make this decision willy-nilly.
Seeing that we are a pseudo-capitalistic society, maybe there should be financial incentives or free birth control pills to end the argument.
Keep these decisions out of the Governments purview.
118
@Jean
You didn't mention any stats, Jean, but the right to abortion is now, and has always been, about 75% in favor that it be legal, in one way or another, to one degree or another.
This stat has remained constant for decades.
The Republicans know that.
They think they can gerry-mander my uterus the same way they crookedly gerry-mander the vote.
Abortion: YES!
Republicans: NO!
24
@rosa
The 75% consensus is that abortion should be legal during the first trimester, rare during the second trimester and illegal after the point of viability [~ 22 weeks] unless the woman's life is in danger.
The 75% consensus also believes that women should have access to safe and appropriate medical care, not rely upon medications that are only 80% effective via mail order without professional care.
Republicans are on the right side of the debate. Pro-abortion advocates are on the side of government largesse and supporting high prices for drug cronies.
3
@Jean
No. It should never be put on a ballot. The right to one's body is a fundamental human right. It should never be subjected to a vote by strangers.
10
Methotrexate can also be used for early pregnancy termination. Cytotoxic is also used with the methotrexate. Methotrexate is pretty cheap, about $25 and cytotoxic costs about $10 at my local pharmacy. I worry about Rh negative women doing home abortions. More info at https://5aa1b2xfmfh2e2mk03kk8rsx-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/protocol_recs_meth_miso.pdf
3
@Diane there is a drug called, "Cytotoxic"? That's some frightening truth in advertising right there.
1
@Diane
Spell checker turned cytotec to cytotoxic. Sorry.
1
Why can't we just give women birth control?
It will probably reduce abortions by 90%.
Evangelicals use birth control.
And just be looking at the number of children they have, all the Supreme Court Justices have used it.
Including the conservative Catholics, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, and Kavanaugh.
11
@Independent Evangelicals and Catholics may use birth control, but they don't want to admit it and certainly don't want poor women to have easy access to it.
8
@Independent: I do not know of any Evangelical faith that prohibits birth control.
And birth control has been 100% FREE under Obamacare since 2010....and was always 100% FREE for the poor under Medicaid for the last 50 years or more.
How much cheaper can we make it than 100% FREE?
90% of American Catholics use contraception. It is really not your business who does or does not use contraception. The question here is not contraception at all, but "abortion on demand".
1
@Concerned Citizen
You sound very logical.
And I agree, it is nobody's business who uses birth control.
But the reality that you ignore is that conservatives have been doing there best where ever they could to deny women coverage of birth control.
As for the question of abortion on demand, that question goes away if we eliminate unwanted pregnancies.
If you are against abortion then support Planned Parenthood. Help them get birth control to women and stop unwanted pregnancies.
Probably your family uses birth control. Go give that same privilege to others and stop abortions.
4
this is such an obvious idea, I can't see why it's controversial. I guess there many conservatives out there
1
This may be a tangent but I find it scandalous that the same abortion-pill tablet costs $5 in India and between $300 and $1000 in the U.S.
8
How much is a human life worth? Anywhere
It is ridiculous that we are talking about this in 2018. Between Brett Kavanaugh and Ohio HB 565 which calls for death penalty for women who go through abortion republicans have launched a new war on women by turning the clock back to 1800's.
17
How about we put morality back into the equation. You know, objective truth instead of whatever suits anyone's whim.
2
@Bob, how about Roe v Wade? Totally objective. I think you meant: "How about we use men's whims instead of women's knowledge?"
How about Joshua 24:15? Especially in America.
4
@Bob
There is no "Truth".
There are facts, and there are points of view.
"Objective Truth" is a point of view that agrees with me.
"Morality" is totally a point of view.
1
@deb 24:15 does not support your position. As for Roe, most scholars will tell you it is a fatally flawed decision. That includes pro-abortion scholars. But more to my point, why is killing a baby a good thing? How did you arrive at that decision? And what if you're wrong at the end of time? Eternity is very long.
The laws are written by men. The pricing for the pills are excessive - who is taking in the profits? Birth control is also expensive. The men father the children the take off leaving women with a houseful of mouths to feed. There is no logic other than using women as breeders. A policy supported by Betsy Devos in the legalizing sexual assault.
12
If you want women to have access to family planning instead of using abortion as a method of family planning i.e. contraception, then please join 34 Million Friends of the UN Population Fund, (www.34millionfriends.org ) going since 2002 when George W. Bush defunded UNFPA of $34 million. How about giving a woman access to controlling her fertility at this gift giving time of the year! I am the founder of this grassroots movement for women''s health and equality.
15
One part of the solution to this problem requires, merely, fair play.
Whenever a self-righteous conservative state legislature chooses to hound or even prosecute women who seek to end a pregnancy, federal law must require that law enforcement track down the man who inseminated her and haul him in. The careless, carefree inseminator should:
1) Be put in stocks on a raised platform in the public square and ridiculed.
2) Spend a little time cooling his heels behind bars.
3) Be required to wear a scarlet BD on his clothes for twenty years. The red letters can be stamped on his workout sweats, embroidered into his collars, imprinted on his ties. “BD” stands for BAD DADDY.
Somebody please inform Mike Pence this is the plan. It takes two to tango.
23
@Deborah, how about "CI" for "Careless Inseminator"?
6
How can progress be made toward a rational national policy on use of the abortion-inducing pill when fanatical clergy (with worse problems of their own to address) lead their obedient mind slaves in threatening protests even before family planning clinics that offer information on contraception? America needs first to emerge from the dark ages.
12
Many anti-abortion advocates are not motivated by religion
The middle class and wealthy will always have access - even if they have to travel to get it - but the poor will be the ones who are deprived of a safe abortion, and will be charged and sentenced to jail if they get caught self-aborting.
As usual it is a case of capital punishment, i.e. those who have the capital don't get the punishment.
America; what gives?
155
What if we just gave women birth control.
It will probably reduce abortions by 90%.
Evangelicals use birth control.
And just be looking at the number of children they have, all the Supreme Court Justices have used it.
Including the conservative Catholics, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, and Kavanaugh.
6
Ugh, ugh and more ugh. Abortion is taking the life of an innocent human being. Instead of promoting more ways to obtain abortions, we should be hoping and praying that more states restrict abortion leading to it being outlawed in total. O Happy Day will it be when abortion is illegal everywhere.
9
@Cynthia Starks If that ever happens, abortion rates will rise, because they do in very restricted areas, and women will die. If "life" was really the issue, nothing has been solved.
122
Oh, happy day when you personally take care of all the unwanted children, provide health care and daycare for them and save for their college funds. Still up for your happy day?
113
@Cynthia Starks do you support fact-based sexual education, easy access to all kinds of birth control in order to minimize unwanted pregnancies?
That would be much more effective than your prayers at minimizing the number of unwanted pregnancies.
101
The time has come to be sure you can protect your right to control your body through state law protecting abortion rights. States have already made laws in preparation for Roe being overturned both protecting rights and not. Do not let your state decide without reasonable debate. Get ready to have this argument in all states.
7
Affordable and local. There is NOT affordable, local reproductive health care for women in large part of the country. Right now, thanks to Obamacare, there is mandatory coverage of birth control pills. The result? the lowest teen pregnancy rate on record. This, for some reason, is not said in the article. Those that are for planned parenthood, those for women's reproductive rights, are against abortions, its just that the decision to have an abortion, or not, is not in the hands of the courts. Strong women with choices don't hav abortions. Giving them access to affordable birth control, and shame free checkups is the road forward. Most women who have abortions already have a child, and are making care for their children a factor. Let's take the shame, lack of access and lack of affordability out of their decisions. The anti abortion people have Obama as their champion, in real decreases in teen pregnancy.
9
All discussions regarding abortions neglect to address the second half of the equation which are the men. If boys, young men and adults were educated there would be personally responsibility if a pregnancy occurred as a result of sex, the choice being raising a child until 18 or an abortion there would be no argument regarding funding, expense or availability. Not wanting the responsibility of raising a child, the prospect of a wife, other children, church or employer, parents finding out abortions would not be frowned upon, burden and shame not soley on a woman as if loose morals we're the cause of the pregnancy.. Aborting an unwanted fetus due to financial strain or realizing you can not assume the responsibility is overall a much better solution than reading of neglect or abuse of babies or children. Those stories are horrendous and many could be avoided by easy access and affordability. Discount the myth that would lead to abortions as birth control.
7
If or when the courts overrule Roe V Wade, It will be a very very short step for them to ban abortion pill. Those whose political objective is to overturn Roe do not care about the rights of people to manage their own bodies, any more than they cared about a comatose woman being kept alive without her consent.
Those who see themselves atop the moral high ground do not concede for an instant the idea that other people have rights and privileges equal to theirs. They cannot believe in Equal Justice Under Law because they see themselves as answering to a Higher Law than the laws of We, the people of the United States. As such, they are not patriots, they are zealots.
21
There is no such thing as a safe abortion whether it is performed surgically or taken in pill form. The objective is the same no matter the procedure. And that is the taking of an innocent human life in the womb.
Pro life groups have also been effective in administering assistance to women who have regretted taking the first pill and have been able to reverse the procedure. They will just have to work a bit harder to get out this information. These women have been given a second chance at giving life and many are so thankful they did not complete the final procedure. They just needed this information and those in the pro life movement are there to help.
2
@WPLMMT
"Pro life groups have also been effective in administering assistance to women who have regretted taking the first pill and have been able to reverse the procedure."
To date, there have been no reliable studies that show that, if a woman does not take the second medication, a medical abortion can be "reversed". Even more concerning, it is not known if mifepristone is teratogenic, i.e. if in utero exposure increases a fetus' risk of birth defects.
7
If only this commenter would tell us what percentage of women and girls wanting medication abortions change their mind after the first pill.
And, of this undoubtedly small number, what percentage came to desperately regret changing their minds as opposed to “being thankful they did not complete the procedure.”
3
@WPLMMT: Abortion is considerably safer than carrying a pregnancy to term.
12
The Jane Collective, a group of 1970s activists, had a device they called the “Dirty Little Machine” that used vacuum suction to perform first trimester abortions relatively safely. The information on how to make one is out there, and I believe it was fairly simple to build.
7
@O. Clifford, I know it involved a mayonnaise jar....
There's something else about misoprostol-only abortions (the method of choice for illegal non-surgical abortions, since they only use one drug and it's pretty cheap and very commonly used for other indications) which people don't seem to be bringing up. Misoprostol-only abortions fail in one out of five cases--more if the women don't know how to use it correctly--and although you can try again if it fails, women don't always know that it has failed until later. AND, when it fails, it can cause the surviving fetus to be born with birth defects, including some very bad ones. We don't know how frequently this happens--we don't have numbers for the risk yet. (We don't know the chemical/physiological mechanism either, or even which it is -- whether it's a chemical or a physiological effect.) But there will likely be SOME uptick in birth-defect rates in red states.
This small study suggests that one in twenty failed misoprostol-abortion attempts will cause birth defects.
* Misoprostol exposure during the first trimester of pregnancy: Is the malformation risk varying depending on the indication? *
Auffret M., Bernard-Phalippon N., Dekemp J, Carlier P., Gervoise Boyer M., Vial T., Gautier S.
Eur J Obstet Gynecol Reprod Biol. 2016 Dec; 207:188-192.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27865944
3
The subtext of this column - something sentient humans have known for a long time - is that abortion in America is not so much about killing fetuses that are sick or the result of rape. Rather abortion has become a primary method of birth control.Those of us who question Roe V Wade are troubled by this, and this alone. We have no issue with aborting babies from women who have been raped, or of babies who would be born with serious defects. But the wholesale extermination of viable children simply because a woman was sloppy is immoral and indefensible. In light of the evidence it is imperative that Roe v Wade be re-examined and that legalized abortion should be limited to cases where it is morally justified.
2
@JJ Gross "But the wholesale extermination of viable children simply because a woman was sloppy is immoral and indefensible. " This is false on every level. Well over 90% of abortions are in the in the first trimester. No viability, certainly no "children," involved. Unless you're in the room during coitus, you have no idea who was "sloppy," or even if anyone was at all.
13
@JJ Gross In the of unwanted pregnancy, it's not just the woman who was "sloppy".
4
Where are your stats on abortion becoming a primary method of birth control?
As to allowing abortion only when it's "morally justified," we can all agree on that! As long as the pregnant woman gets to decide that question for herself.
5
All of the comments so far seem to miss the fact that the right has a stranglehold on much of the country because it’s opposition to abortion. The populace falls obediently in line behind the most uncaring and even vile politicians who promise to ‘end abortion’. Democrats, any Democrats, are seen as unforgivable, as baby-killers. Trump’s obscenities are, in contrast, ‘forgiven’ because he claims to be anti abortion. Democrats lost in my area in the midterms because churches bussed in voters, ‘souls for the polls!’ to vote against demonic Democrats. Many had never voted before; the elderly man next to me at the voting table had never seen a ballot before and had a helper (legal). The helper was saying ‘that’s the Republican’...’no, that one’s the Republican’... The conversations outside the polls were exultant. No one cares that they will lose their healthcare, social security, decent education or jobs, as long as legal abortions are ended. There is only one issue. Coastal and college town leftists need to stop talking to themselves and start thinking of ways to navigate this reality.
12
If you want legal abortion, lobby your state legislature. Don't ask the Supreme Court to dictate it. That's not how a democracy is supposed to work.
4
@Jonathan Katz A woman's right to control her own body should not be subject to the vagaries of the religious views of the legislators in her state. Your suggestion is equivalent to suggesting that the Civil War need not have been fought - just let the states decide whether or not slavery would be legal within their boundaries.
4
So why does a pill that costs $5 in India cost $300 to $1000 in this country?
8
More than half of our adult population consists of women. Add those voters who subscribe to an alternate life style and you have an unbeatable voting bloc.
This being the case , why are we being ruled by mostly male politicians that are rampantly misogynistic and homophobic ?.
Why do we have a Supreme Court that features five male neo-conservative Justices that not only subscribe to the Catholic religion , but uphold that church's rules as superior to the Constitution to which they all swore fealty to.
Two of these justices have been accused of sexual misconduct . Justice Thomas is married to a high official in the Tea Party and his decisions frequently reflect her views. Justice Kavanaugh has indicated a venomous hatred towards one of our major political parties and went so far as to warn the constituents of the party that " What goes around , comes around."
No Democrat will ever get a fair shake from either of these Republican weapons cleverly disguised as " impartial. "
It is an abysmal disgrace. Yet there they sit on our highest court. Steadfastly ruling for corporations and the wealthy upper 2%. And just as steadfastly , ruling against women's rights. Against the rights of anyone that is not a heterosexual Christian. And against the idea that any concept branded as " Progressive " should prevail.
1885 , here we come.
Unless you ladies and alternate life style folks enjoy being treated as second class citizens and criminals.
14
" In the United States, abortion pills are similarly costly — from $300 up to $1,000."
Most web sites show the cost to be quite a bit less than $300. More in the range of 50 to 100.
3
All the ancient patriarchal desert peasant cults need to get out of the business of controlling half the population that's female, especially women's breeding choices.
No nation does its duty to its citizenry - specifically all age females, infant to granny - by opening its polices and processes to the ancient patriarchal desert peasant cults.
It's 100% misogyny that women in America pay taxes into a system that holds them and their bodies hostage. There's a reason Jefferson and Madison specifically wrote into the nascent United States of America Constitution and Bill of Rights freedom from religion.
15
Thank you Ms Girard, for the excellent work you, and your organization do.
13
It is a simple matter to subsidize abortion pills to the point they become as cheap and accessible as condoms. A fund should be set up to pay for these pills. That is the right response to the Catholic Church, evangelicals and the packed Supreme Court.
99
@Irving Franklin. What you suggest is a secondary response. We need to keep government out of these personal issues because not everyone agrees that a fetus has or ought to have the same “right to life” as an already extant woman uponwhose life several other already extant children depend! BTW can anyone show us where the “right to life” has been codified in the Constitution as a right pertaining to the federal government or to the states’ Constitutions?
10
@Irving Franklin
There is no need to subsidize abortion pills. They are off-patent. The pro-abortionists need to break their financial dependence on big medicine and advocate for generic competition rather than advocating for the government to provide price supports for big medicine.
5
@ebmem Since the morning-after pills are not protected by patents, it will be very cheap for a private fund, supported by non-tax-deductible donations, to purchase and distribute to all women who want these pills at virtually no cost. Keep big-pharma out of this issue. Keep the government out of this issue. The morning-after pill can nullify the abortion issue in the US through private donations by all those who support Roe v. Wade and a woman's right to choose.
3
The idea that a group of men in the Supreme Court- who don't even know me- may have the legal right to have total control over my uterus, and force me to carry an unwanted, unplanned, and unaffordable pregnancy to full term- then give birth to this baby, then raise it as a single parent, when I can't even support myself on the current minimum wage, is outrageously predatory and perverse, and has no bearing whatsoever in dealing with reality! The idea that this half-inch embryo attached to my body has more rights than I do, is nothing more that a twisted desire for controlling us women, made by insecure cowards, who are fearful of us, and feel threatened by our strength and our intelligence. It's so easy to see right through people like Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas, etc, as they grasp at trying to save their patriarchial dominance, as it breathes its last dying breath, under the idiocy of our pathetically deranged leaders, Donnie Trump and Mike Pence.
33
I have never understood why anyone would care if someone, anyone else, chooses to terminate a pregnancy. I have never been that interested in what other people do in and with their lives, I have had my own to live and my own major life decisions to make. I have never really given two flips if anyone else approved of what I did or did not do, if it did not directly involve them and I assumed they felt the same about my opinion and their life choices. Don't want an abortion, don't have one, simple.
22
@Carl
Anti-abortion people think a fetus is a human and abortion is murder. If you found out there was systematic mass murder every day, what would you do to stop it?
That is why they want to redefine what a human being is.
And that is why they are so ardent.
(for me, a fetus becomes human with the first breath)
1
So you’d be OK with an abortion at 8 months?!
Why would Roe being overturned in the US affect abortions in other countries?
3
Terrified girls will try to find some way to abort. At age 14 in the late 1950s I was seduced by a man of 32. Pregnant and parentless, I went to a drug store and bought multiple medications labeled “Not to be taken by pregnant women" and took them in large quantities. The miniscule fetus was aborted. I was fortunate that I neither died nor had a deformed child, and that 12 years later I could bear a wanted and loved child -- who would not otherwise have been born -- within a happy marriage.
257
M Anderson,
Thank you very much for your story. It is all too easy to forget the many people who owe their very lives to women who were able to control their own fertility and wait until they were ready to be great mothers. No one should intervene in that decision.
16
@M Anderson
What a story. Brave girl and a fortunate one.
16
Throughout history we humans have shown that we never seriously consider any problem until after it has become a catastrophe. That World population is rarely mentioned in such discussions is another example. Abortion, climate change, fires and floods, shortages of food and water, political divisions and wars all relate to the growing population. Who thinks we will effectively deal with this in time to avoid disaster.
3
I had a child come into my house, unexpectedly, as I had left my front door unlocked, and he was really annoying. I mean - it's my house. He was homeless and had no food, so he broke in - unexpectedly and needed to stay for nine months. He was very inconvenient. He was mute and couldn't explain himself. He ate my food, and drank my water. Sometimes he moved around at night and made me uncomfortable. I kept asking him why he couldn't just leave. After all, it was my house. Sure I had left the front door unlocked, which was my responsibility, but really - why was I obligated to take care of him for nine months? Sure, after nine months, he'd leave, but he was very inconvenient to me. Fortunately I had some pills in my medicine cabinet and I gave them to him. They were expensive and cost somewhere between $16 and $1000, but it was worth it. I feel better now.
3
1. It's not a child.
2. Sometimes locks don't work.
10
@Jason McDonald Fun metaphor. So in your version: A woman is a house. The door is her vagina. It is her responsibility to keep the door locked. If she doesn't lock the door, it's her fault if someone barges through it. Babies live in the woman house for nine months. This causes only mild discomfort and annoyance to the to the fuzzy female consciousness that also inhabits the house (the one who's supposed to be locking the doors, I guess?). Eventually, the baby just walks on out of the door - "after nine months, he'd leave" - easy peasy, and the house is as it was.
Such a great metaphor, Jase. And yet those crazy feminists keep saying that the "criminalize abortion" crowd sees women as objects and incubators. Ha ha. Those crazy broads.
11
@Jason McDonald
Please leave us your address, Jason. There are people in your neighborhood right now who want to check to see whether all your doors are locked.
10
@Butch Burton
PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT CONFUSE EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION (EC) AND MEDICATION ABORTION. Plan B and other types of EC, taken within 5 days of unprotected intercourse, PREVENT/dramatically reduce the likelihood of pregnancy. Abortion pills utilize completely different medications to TERMINATE an early pregnancy.
11
The pro-choice movement would do much more for women if they spent their resources providing medical abortions by legal and quasi-legal means, as cheaply as they can make it. This will bring more change than lobbying and grandstand politics.
3
I don't see why pro-choice women don't start talking about men taking more responsibility to stop unwanted pregnancy. This has been a "women's issue" for hundreds of years. Rarely is there mention of men's role in preventing pregnancy. Vasectomy should be a topic that moves to the forefront as more and more laws are passed to prevent abortion. It should be of particular interest to men who have already produced children and are in a stable relationship. Many men claim affinity with the "pro-life" movement. They would have much more credibility if they could claim they had done their part to ensure they could not be the cause of any abortions. As the laws continue to suppress women's access to abortion, and even to contraception, women must start to make it clear that their male partners have to share equally in preventing pregnancy.
43
Not once in the article did I see the word "democracy"or "vote". The presumption of the article is that in a "post-Roe world" women have no way of fighting abortion laws except to violate them. How about voting for politicians who promise to the repeal the laws? This is 2018. A lot of liberals won elections less than a month ago because people realized that they could vote.
Of course, maybe the votes aren't there, and the majority of the electorate supports abortion restrictions. But I don't think I'll see editorials on that subject soon.
6
Voting is a good choice but the process might seem kind of too slow for someone w a positive pregnancy test who chooses not to continue a pregnancy.
9
In today's world I do not understand the male obsession with regulating women's reproductive lives. There are few things more demeaning than being told that one is not trustworthy enough to be able to decide when, where, and how she wants to have or not have a child. As an adult woman I am quite capable of knowing my own mind when it comes to having a child. Yet there are men and institutions out there that have decided for me that I am incapable of handling such a personal and life changing decisions. So are they.
If you want me or any woman to have a child we aren't prepared to have, for whatever reason, you'd better start to support universal health care, a universal basic income so that the child, wanted or not, can be fed, sheltered, properly educated, and receive the health care it needs until it can take care of itself. Most of those who wish to deprive women of the right to decide are against helping them once they have the child.
Please note that claiming to be pro-life involves more than just prohibiting abortion, access to contraception and sex education. It means putting money behind those words and providing for the children that are born and grow up.
57
Legal access to birth control should be a top priority for every woman. It's safe, not expensive and available to anyone who wants to take the time to use it properly. Certainly it is the best alternative to abortion. The same is true for men who are of a mind to behave responsibly. Maybe abortion opponents should spend more of their time promoting the use of birth control and less trampling on the rights of those who are in need of the procedure. Religious constraints aside, this should be a no-brainer.
19
The world has finite resources. The richest countries in the world have homeless, malnourished and people without access to safe drinking water. Why wouldn’t we want every woman to have access to a safe legal way to end an unwanted pregnancy?
Despite claims of being Christians, rich white powerful men thrive on keeping women poor and in disadvantaged positions in the US. And rich powerful men in other countries.
My heart is heavy for every child brought into this world to parents who do not want or are incapable of lovingly raising a child.
It’s all a ruse because a nation who is OK with Capitol punishment, mass gun violence, tear gassing children and separating children from their parents and losing them in the system cares not for the sanctity of life.
36
For years I have been warning fellow women friends that we should learn to drive school buses in order to help women in certain States get to other states where abortion is available and affordable. Never on my worst, most pessimistic day, did I ever believe that Roe v. Wade could be overturned. I now see that possibility. If abortion is outlawed then there’s no looking for hope in the abortion pill, it’d be just as illegal. I guess I should have warned my friends to study chemistry. We who believe that it is ourselves, not a government or anyone, man or woman, that has jurisdiction over our bodies, must not allow the horrors of women bleeding out in seedy hotels to ever return. It’s bad enough that our sexual education classes are the laughingstock of ‘first world’ countries, but to repeal a basic civil right is worse than appalling, it’s fascistic, short-sighted, and a cruel joke to a woman already facing one of the most agonizing choices of her life.
181
@jtmasters
There is zero chance of Roe v Wade being overturned. What is much more likely is that it will be enforced, which means that abortion will remain legal during the first trimester, which is true in every state in the nation, and that it will be limited to cases where the mother's life is in danger after viability of the fetus, which occurs during weeks 20-22.
The states retained the power to protect women's health during the first trimester.
It might be of interest that first world countries generally do not allow elective abortions after the first trimester unless the mother's life is in danger.
2
It is of little value that abortion remains technically legal if the state has regulated all or all but one provider out of business.
16
@ebmem
Even if abortion is technically legal in the first trimester in all states, it doesn't mean that it's accessible. States make all kinds of restrictions that are designed to shut down women's health care clinics to prevent abortions. 20% of US women have to travel 43 miles or more and take off several days of work/caring for existing children and pay thousands of dollars to have one. Republicans know they'll never have the support to legally reverse Roe, so they sneak these things in that effectively reverse it.
Re: your point about the mother's health, there are many situations where the laws defining risk to a mother's health are so extreme that helpless doctors have to wait days watching a woman slipping away and succumbing to sepsis before they're legally allowed to intervene, sometimes causing irreversible damage or death that could have been avoided. Virtually no one seeks a late term abortion whose health is not at risk, this is not a pressing issue that needs to be legislated. Government officials do not know better than doctors what the risks are to their individual patients.
14
Abortion will not likely be outlawed, but in certain states it will become nearly impossible to get one, now that Kavanaugh is on the Court. If Justice Ginsburg becomes incapacitated during Trump’s Presidency, abortion may be made illegal. Women will die, as they once did, in self-administered abortions or in botched illegal abortions. The abortion pill will be outlawed. Unwanted children will again be born into poverty stricken families, and take to drugs, crime and self destruction, driving the crime rate up to what it was before Roe vs. Wade.
Abortion is not a moral issue, but an economic one. Wealthy women will always be able to get an abortion, by traveling to where it is legal, even if it means Europe or Canada. Poor women will produce babies they are incapable of caring for, reinforcing the cycle of poverty.
Meanwhile, the anti-abortion Christians will sanctimoniously congratulate themselves on saving the lives of children who are bound for violent death, jail and crushing poverty.
44
When I lived in Manhattan in the late 60's, on every flight back to the city, there would be several young girls with their mothers coming to the city to get their abortion. When visiting Central Park, one would see several young women waiting for their scheduled abortion somewhere on the west side.
When RU-486 became available, there was an article in the NYT about a top women's private school having RU-486 available in vending machines. There was a big row about this - WHY - these girls were all over 18.
Told a work associate who had got a degree from a small Colorado church school and lived in Houston. Well he went into a tirade over the phone. He was not Catholic.
I remember how NYT news stories told about how hard it was in prior years even to get condoms on MA.
Yes there are problems with Plan B pills. In red neck IN where I was brought up, it was standard practice for at least 10% of girls to be showing and not attend graduation from high school. In my graduating class of 1959, there were 6 of 36 young women pregnant when they graduated.
9
@Butch Burton
PLEASE, PLEASE DO NOT CONFUSE EMERGENCY CONTRACEPTION (EC) AND MEDICATION ABORTION. Plan B and other types of EC, taken within 5 days of unprotected intercourse, PREVENT/dramatically reduce the likelihood of pregnancy. Abortion pills utilize completely different medications to TERMINATE an early pregnancy which has occurred.
4
I wish someone would collect and disseminate information about prominent politicians who are publicly opposed to abortion, but who have had them or helped other people to obtain them.
21
In a world where abortion pills can be purchased over the internet the debate moves from the back alley to the police station and courtroom. What will criminalization of abortion look like? Will every miscarriage be investigated as a suspected illegal act? Will women be forced to prove their pregnancy terminated naturally? These are questions the pro-birth crowd never answers and the media, which presents "pro-life" as being "anti-abortion" end full stop, never asks.
116
@SouthernBeale
Criminalized abortions will look like punishing poor women, because that is all it is.
10
@SouthernBeale
And what will men do when women decide sex isn't worth the risk?
14
@SouthernBeale
Three words: Forensic Vagina Inspectors
https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/09/magazine/prolife-nation.html
1
Wait! These pills cost $5 in India, $16 in South Africa, and up to $1,000 in the US?
How has Trump not added the president of THAT company to his cabinet?
36
@Green Tea
He probably has.
Once again, this is an issue of rich vs. everyone else.
The rich can afford the abortion pill no matter how much it is. If abortion and the pill become illegal in the US they can just do what they did in the early 60's, go to whichever country where it's legal and get it done there.
Or, have their private doctor take care of it.
If the hypocrites who are trying so hard to make it illegal would just use their heads and make effective contraception legal, available and inexpensive or covered by insurance, there would be a thousand times fewer abortions.
But, I suspect this issue is just one more where an old, white male patriarchy wants to keep women down. They yearn for the 1950's where they ruled the roost and women were mothers and homemakers.
It's primarily an economic issue at this point.
Women need to fight hard and loudly and not stop fighting till we have the choices we want and deserve.
9
@Green Tea
Yet another example of what happens when we, as a country, fail to regulate pharmaceutical companies who put profits before people.
Years ago, I was the clinical manager of a family planning program and was responsible for ordering contraceptive supplies for a network of health centers. At that time, most birth control pills cost $25-$35/month at a retail pharmacy. I was able to negotiate a price of $1-$3 for the identical brand name (i.e. not generic) pills.
And, I'm guessing that, even at such dramatically reduced prices, these companies were still making a profit.
9
Many people I know feel very strongly about a woman's right to an abortion.
I would suggest that instead of donating money to advocacy groups (who, after forty years, are still fighting the same fight, and not doing too well) that they use their resources to help those in need who are unfortunate enough to live in one of those abortion-hostile states. The cost of the drugs and the necessary professional care, perhaps even transportation to a legally safer state and a quiet place to stay for a week.
If the Pro-Choice people came down off their soapboxes and were seen to be helping, caring for the welfare of women who aren't blue state liberal feminists they might make enough new friends and allies to break the stalemate. Finally.
3
The primary problem with medical abortion in the US will be that people can be prosecuted for using it. The secondary of course will be that black market pills will become a primary source.
We need agreement on what can and can not be abortion policy, and are less and less likely to reach it, as with all other things political, the outlook is winner take all. That leaves old fashioned illegal abortions looking for a comeback.
2
Do it yourself medical abortion is not as dangerous as do it yourself surgical abortion. However, by making both procedures difficult and/or illegal to obtain, legislators put women's lives at risk. A woman experiencing a complication from a self induced medical abortion will often delay care due to fear of criminal prosecution--a fear which Pence helped instill in women with the notorious case of the young woman jailed in his state. When they finally do seek care, they will often lie to providers. For instance, they will say "I have a fever" but will not add "From my abortion" which can then lead to a medical wild goose chase/delay in treatment/loss of fertility or even death. Or they will complain of heavier than usual bleeding/pelvic pain without adding "It is from a miscarriage" which will cause doctors to dismiss the seriousness of their problems. How can a health care provider help these women who absolutely will not say that they have self induced an abortion? By taking a detailed menstrual history--and realizing that when a sexually active fertile woman (not teenage girl) using no birth control misses one or two periods and claims that the possibility of pregnancy never crossed her mind that she is lying. At which point, you must ask yourself "Why would she lie about something this important?" Do it yourself medical abortion should be at the top of the differential. For her sake. It should not be this way, but it is.
13
I have experienced both methods in Alabama and I was lucky enough to be able to take off work to jump through the hoops and drive 90 miles for multiple visits required. Since I came alone to the surgical procedure I was given no anesthesia - Demerol is standard there. It was a gross, blood-spattered room I wouldn't take my dog to. The clinic bystanders were a nominal presence and the relationships seemed almost cordial. I thought it was better to just get through it fast and I did.
Medical abortion at home alone takes days and is agonizingly painful.
13
The attack on Roe v. Wade is a First Amendment issue precisley
because it is a moral issue grounded in belief in God. "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The issue of protected privacy, grounded in the Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments, extends not only to a decision between the woman and her doctor, but also the women and her God, her higher power or no spiritual power at all.
28
You can make that argument about anything then. My god tells me it's okay to rob banks so you cannot prevent me because it's a first amendment issue. The fact is that with the exception of situations in which there is a medical problem the vast majority of abortions today are abortions of convenience and neither a doctor nor God is consulted. It's simply something that a woman wants. You may be for or against abortion but you cannot argue that the state has no right to regulate it.
2
Come on. By that logic, any decision to engage in any conduct that is illegal is between the person and their “god”. Does that mean robbery or murder cannot be regulated because the Ten Commandments forbid them? Nonsense. There are far more compelling reasons for the government to stay out of a woman’s decision about what happens to her body.
2
@JerseyGirl The state has no right to regulate it. Women are people with full rights of autonomy and self-direction. No one gets to decide "convenience" for anyone else. You aren't there. You don't know all the circumstances. It's sheer assumption and no little amount of arrogance.
10
The “right to life” faction chooses the “rights” of fetuses over the rights of women in full agreement of patriarchal religions. Laws and efforts to make laws to prevent abortion, abortion pills, birth control, sex education, and gender equality are fundamental religious causes. As such, these causes violate the “establishment clause” of the First Amendment. These causes impose the religious beliefs of the few on us all.
There is no Medical, or Scientific basis to preventing abortion as a method of birth control. There is no Psychological basis other than that afflicted on women by their oppressors. There is only a religious basis for denying women the right to decide for themselves and that is unconstitutional. Roe was based on privacy. The SCOTUS must confront the inequity of using religion to deny women their rights. The SCOTUS must rule on the “rights” of fetuses and the rights of women. Do fetuses have rights? Are women’s rights equal to that of men? Can fetuses own property or be factored into inheritance property law? Can women be reduced to property during pregnancy? Can the Court rule in favor of religion in the face of the “establishment clause” prohibition or should it adhere to scientific medical evidence? Will women recognize that the anti-choice movement is religious oppression?
91
@Joseph Huben The basis for the right to life is enshrined in the Declaration of Independence as the first inalienable right. The right to abortion has arisen as a convenience to those who choose to have sex but are unwilling to accept the consequences; this is a much less pronounced right than the right to life. It would seem that the abortion pill is a perfect compromise between those who would end abortion and those who insist that a woman has a right to end the life of the unborn.
4
@Dr B
"The right to abortion has arisen as a convenience to those who choose to have sex but are unwilling to accept the consequences."
By "those," I assume you mean "women," since men don't suffer the risk of illness and/or death from illegal abortion.
The right to abortion also arose because of awareness that illegal abortion often caused women to become sick and die. Apparently those "consequences" are acceptable to you and many others.
31
@Dr B: In the 19th century in the US abortion was completely legal. The the medical profession figured out that doctors were losing money by women's ability to get easily obtained abortion- inducing medications. The battle between female midwives and male doctors for the lucrative business of delivering babies became politicized, and so abortions had to be outlawed because women ending their pregnancies lost money for male doctors.
But you don't know much either about how women and girls might become pregnant aside from their own lazy choice not to practice birth control. Clearly you have never been raped.
13
The abortion issue has become so politicized that it is hard to tell exactly what actually motivates our politicians the most on this issue.
I don't doubt Girard's genuine devotion to protecting women from a world where abortion isn't safe and easily available to all women.
I don't doubt that many people on the other side of the issue have a genuine desire to protect the fetus endangered by abortion due to their religious convictions.
However, I question whether all politicians would want this issue to be clearly resolved, particularly the GOP donor base, who would lose a lot of the motivation for Evangelicals to get to the polls should Roe be overturned.
The same could be suggested of liberal politicians, but there is much less evidence that this issue helps motivate their base the way it does the other side.
My point is, that I doubt that the true power in either party actually wants to see Roe overturned and especially those of the GOP. The Republican party would likely end up the larger loser politically if this happened.
There would be no stopping women who want full reproductive rights from getting to the polls should that happen.
Roe will likely not be overturned unless the majority of American voters actually want it to happen. The Supreme Court usually roughly conforms to public opinion.
15
@alan haigh I agree with you that neither party wants to spearhead overturning Roe. But one party, the Republicans, are happy to whittle away at abortion rights on the state level. And sadly, wealthy women will always have abortion access; it is poor women who most suffer when abortion rights are curtailed.
25
@margaret "sadly, wealthy women will always have abortion access;... poor women who most suffer"
Yes, and that has already happened in the Bible belt and other states controlled by the GOP that relentlessly seek to restrict abortion.
Liberals need to be focused on this, not only because of the injustice of it to the women, but to the children born into poverty with a mother who isn't prepared to care for them.
Republican policy ruthlessly imposes unwanted children on poor women while stripping government support for such women to care for their children.
They suffer, their children suffer and all of society suffers the consequences in a multitude of ways. If you are going to force women to bear unwanted children, (which I think is wrong) you should at least assume some of the responsibility in raising the child without forcing adoption.
2
It is the FDA that ruled the abortion pill must be administered in a physician's office, not state or local governments, and that the patient must be evaluated by a physician two weeks later to ensure that the afterbirth and fetus has been expelled.
Anyone who cared about the health of women would make sure that a woman would have adequate counselling to ensure she wouldn't have another unwanted pregnancy and would want to make sure that her health would not be challenged because of a botched medical abortion.
This is not a third world country, where foreign agents want to reduce population of poor people.
11
I am not sure what the point is? Sure, abortion pills have a cost but I have to assume abortion doctors and clinics have a similar or much higher cost?
3
@Whatalongstrangetrip
The 'point' is not about cost. The point is that pills are nota panacea to look to if Roe v. Wade is overturned. That is, that pills also have risks and costs. This is not a comparison of pills to clinics, but an exploration of the usefulness & availability of pills if clinics are all closed.
35
@Whatalongstrangetrip
ACCESS!!ACCESS!!MONEY!!!MONEY!!!
That's the answer and the problem....if women were the only ones to decide the answers for themselves what would the vote be????
What kinds of barriers stand in the way? The biggest one I can think of are powerful men who will want to control womens' bodies and refuse to accept the equality of men and women. They are responsible for passing restrictive birth control laws, which is unconstitutional because it discriminates against women, especially poor women. Roe v Wade unequivocally established that whatever men decide to do with their bodies women must have that same right. And whatever a man or woman decides is his or her business and nobody else's, especially the government.
92
@qiaohan. In fact, there is no other circumstance where a person is required to give up a part of their body to save the life of another.
16
@Jennifer
You bring up a good point Jennifer. I think if we start talking about organ donation lottery, with the number linked to pregnancy complications, we’d get folks thinking. C section is about the same as a kidney donation. Some women will die from forced pregnancy, I guess we have to talk about a lottery for heart donations too.
7
@Diane-"lottery" brings to mind Shirley Jackson's iconic short story. Interesting parallel.
2
The morning after pill and medical terminations of early pregnancy have greatly improved womens' health in most of the U.S. An international effort to provide low cost generic drugs is needed along with the fight to keep all abortion modalities legal.
This fight is not going to go away in our lifetimes.
47
As a previous commentator mentioned, medical abortion pills are the logical continuation of the morning after pill. Both prevent late stage abortions, where the fetus is more likely to feel pain and ethical considerations are more serious. For instance, I would rather abort six weeks after conception than ten, which is possible only with medical abortion (with surgical methods you have to wait until about ten weeks).
It is important to note though that these methods are not bullet proof. The morning after pill is thought to be only sixty or seventy percent effective if conception has indeed taken place (only about 1% of women who take it will progress to pregnancy but most women who take it may not have actually conceived). Medical abortion is more effective but likewise some women will still need a surgical abortion afterwards (the pills are about 97% effective which means thousands of pregnancies do indeed continue).
10
Surgical abortions can be provided as early as 5 weeks. As long as a gestational sac is visible by ultrasound (usually by 5-6 weeks) a surgical termination can be performed. I am not sure if this is different in Canada (i live in the US)
8
@C - Actually, the morning after pill (Plan B) is not effective at all if conception has taken place. It is not an abortifacient.
Pan B is thought to prevent pregnancy by delaying ovulation, so that the sperm will be dead by the time the egg appears. If ovulation has already taken place, conception can still occur. Since most women would not know whether they have ovulated or not, it is worth a try.
A previously existing pregnancy would not be interrupted (i.e., it does not induction abortion).
2
“In Indiana in 2015, when Vice President Mike Pence was governor, Purvi Patel was sentenced to 20 years in prison after her miscarriage was suspected of having been induced with medication. Her conviction was overturned on appeal, but the prosecution was an ominous sign of where agressive enforcement could lead.”
Mike Pence may not trust himself to be in a room alone with a woman who is not his wife, for professional or social reasons, but he sure wants to be very much present in the bedrooms and the doctors’ offices with America’s women when they make the most private decisions about their reproductive health care.
I hate the idea of Donald Trump being president for another two years, but as a woman, the idea of Mike Pence taking over the Oval Office, or even worse, being on the ballot in 2020 is even worse.
328
Basically, all that is needed is for one state or a few states to legalize a system where abortion pills can be sold on the Internet with online doctors to supervise their use. Even if this is initially limited to women who live in that state, the underground market will eventually figure out a way for women who need the pills to get them. This is why anti-abortion crusaders talk about horrible punishments -- they know once the genie is out of the bottle, there's no putting it back.
This has basically happened with medical marijuana, and the need for safe abortions is equally great.
129
@Chris NYC
The need is greater for 170 million females versus a handful of people with anxiety issues, bad reaction to chemo or seizures they'll outgrow. An unwanted pregnancy ruins a female's life for 18+ years, often kills her and certainly wrecks her economically as well as emotionally, physically and psychologically.
9
@Chris NYC: and yet neither New York State nor California -- the two most liberals in the US -- have done so in all these 45 years since Roe v. Wade.
Also, I have never heard anti-abortion crusaders talk about "horrible punishments" for women who had abortions -- so which "horrible punishments" do you mean? Execution? life sentences? a scarlet letter "A"?
2
Abortion pills should, of course, be widely available and subsidized for those who can’t afford them. As a taxpayer, I’d rather pay for a 16-dollar pill than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on unwanted children’s eventual incarceration, drug treatments and all the other social interventions that cannot make for the fact that when you force a woman to have a child she does not want, you ruin two lives: hers and the child’s. But the abortion pill is not a panacea. It is useless in cases where the pregnancy has to be terminated because the fetus has a defect like Down’s Syndrome or any other serious health issue. So we need to fight both for the availability of abortion pills and of surgical abortion.
235
@Mor I agree with most of what you say, but it is alarming to read "the pregnancy has to be terminated because the fetus has a defect like Down’s Syndrome." In case like that, the pregnancy does not "have" to be terminated. It is up to the pregnant woman to decide, and some women choose to continue pregnancies with fetuses that have Down Syndrome. This condition does not pose a special threat to the pregnant woman.
15
@Mor It's not a $16 pill, it is a $500-$1000 gift to drug companies that raised the prices once they were covered by insurance.
How about if leftists: push the FDA to approve generic substitutes to reduce the profits to the drug companies.
Next, they can get the FDA to change the instructions that call for the approved protocol to not require three office visits: one to administer the first pill, one to administer the second pill and the third to evaluate whether the fetus and afterbirth have been expelled. Leftists have zero interest in ensuring the health of women.
The states that are accused of restricting access to the abortion pills have made it illegal to prescribe the drugs for off-label use. Get the FDA to change the label.
While they are at it, get the FDA to make the morning after pill and oral contraceptives over-the-counter. Leftists do not pursue these activities, preferring to expend their resources on the false narrative that Republicans are anti-women. The reality is that of you follow the money, the "activism" and lawsuits are funded by drug companies that are socialist cronies attempting to guard their government largesse. They have no interest in making available a $16 abortion pill or $5/month oral contraceptives.
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@MS I consider it unethical deliberately to create a life doomed to suffering or a human being who could never live up to their full potential. A fetus is not a person; at best, it is a blueprint for a person. Would you build a house knowing its blueprint is fatally flawed? As a mother, I know we always try to do the best for our children. I’d see it as a dereliction of my parental duty NOT to abort a defective fetus. However, you are right that it is every woman’s decision. I may express my personal opinion based on my understanding of ethics but I’d be against a law compelling women to abort .
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Thank you for this article. We need to keep attention on women's health worldwide and at home.
When women are educated and empowered the community benefits. Hillary said, "human rights are women's rights " , this includes rights over her body.
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@L. Finn-Smith
A lack of education is not what determines how women feel about abortion and birth control. It's religion and their inability to think for themselves which allows for the patriarchy they were raised in.
Moreover, a lack of empowerment is not even a valid conclusion given these same pro-life women have successfully changed state laws and Dept of HHS regulations as well as funding from Congress.
These religious women have led the charge since Phyllis Schlafly (and Jerry Falwell) took over the GOP in 1992.
They are educated and empowered. They're just wrong.
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@Mimi
I agree with you , but look at Ireland. After a woman there died because of their draconian
" abortion laws ", the women ( and men ) of Ireland were galvanized into action and they changed the law to enshrine a right to abortion in their constitution -the Catholic church had no say in the matter.
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This form of “women’s rights” is no form of human rights if the life existing in the womb isn’t recognized for what it is: human life. We should be less concerned with coat hangers and more concerned with the lack of moral clarity in your argument.
Easy access to "morning after" pills is a safe and logical stop gap against unwanted pregnancy, especially in cases of rape or causal unprotected sexual intercourse. More should be done to subsidize their sale and increase the availability. It's about time men and women acknowledge their responsibility to terminate unwanted pregnancies ASAP to avoid abortion at later stages. For someone who is pro-life, but also understands the necessity of abortion under certain conditions, I think this should be common ground among the pro-life and pro-choice contingents. While obviously a continuum, later term abortions are not a morally acceptable alternative for birth control, and the exigency of recognizing this fact is the key to thoughtful birth control/abortion policy.
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@Rain Parade
You are confused. This is not the morning after pill, which is administered during the 48 hours after unprotected intercourse and is an over-the-counter drug except for children under the age of 18.
This is the abortion pill which is used after a woman has become pregnant and is available for two to three months after conception. It involves giving the woman a pill that kills the fetus. Two days later she is given a pill that causes the fetus and the afterbirth to be expelled, and a doctor's exam two weeks later to verify that the products of conception have been expelled. Like all drugs, it is not 100% effective. If either pill is unsuccessful, the fetus is very likely to be born with birth defects.
If a woman you cared about was going to use the process, wouldn't you want her to know that the fetus had been killed before taking a pill to expel the fetus? Wouldn't you want her to know that the products of conception had been expelled two weeks later?
The pro abortion advocates want the drug to be available without a doctor's supervision.
@Rain Parade The fallacy that abortions are used for contraception is one lie te right uses to vilify and justify their extreme positions on abortion.
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@Rain Parade. Late term abortions are not used as “birth control.” They are performed to save the life of the mother or to remove a pregnancy gone horribly bad because of a fatally defective fetus. Look up the stats. The kind of abortion you are talking about occurs in fewer than 2% of all abortions and does so for fetus abnormalities not compatible with life. The vast majority of abortions occur before 21 weeks so don’t you think it’s time to stop the political/religious spin about late term abortions as birth control. It is 100% baloney.
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As a former manager with Texas' welfare department from 1973 to 2001, I never figured out why pro-life organizations didn't confront lawmakers on the administrative roadblocks intentionally or obliviously established to inhibit persons from seeking AFDC (now TANF). The roadblocks led many to turn to abortion as a last resort. Not only were women provided a pitiful amount of money, ($86 for a mother with one child for much of my career) but cumbersome paperwork, plethora of verification requirements, woefully inadequate child support enforcement, six month to several year waiting to access public housing, non-existent training or and other supportive services for much of the time.
Hopefully, with a new Congress, our elected leaders will finally work together towards having people in crisis feel abortion is the only viable alternative to survive. You can help by calling or writing your state and federal elected officials and say it's time to work toward a common goal of respecting all life in concrete ways. Action, not lip service, is what's needed.
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@Jay
"I never figured out why pro-life organizations didn't confront lawmakers on the administrative roadblocks intentionally or obliviously established to inhibit persons from seeking AFDC (now TANF)."
That's easy - because they really don't care about women or potential or existing children. Many so-called "pro-life" people and organizations are more motivated by wanting women punished for being sexual and independent than by anything remotely connected to the health and well-being of women and children. I figured that out in 1977 when I was 15 years old. The anti-choice element that want women punished and kept under male control has always co-existed with the anti-abortion movement, and they've been pretty obvious throughout the years.
As far as "work toward a common goal of respecting all life in concrete ways" by elected leaders, dream on. Let's not forget the fundraising aspect of all of this for conservative political candidates. Criminalizing legal abortion and contraception is bread and butter for these candidates, as is the promise of ridding the US of a public safety net. It's been the default mode of conservative politicians for the last 40 years.
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@eheck Oh yes, punishment ranked high on the list of hospital personnel when dealing with young unwed women. As a college student I did field work in a county hospital and discovered that unwed mothers to be were admitted in labor, put into rooms all alone, and allowed to just scream it out until the baby was finally emerging. Then, since no episiotomy was done, and she was torn from delivery, she was sent home in that condition in pain and with torn skin hanging down. The medical personnel talked about how it was the policy to ensure that these young women were punished and maybe would never allow themselves to get into that position again.
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@grmadragon
In her memoir "Just Kids," Patti Smith tells a frightening story about her mistreatment during labor at the hands of nurses who wanted her punished for being an unwed teenaged mother.
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Of course short shrift is given to health outcomes for women including effectiveness of the procedure and follow up intervention/care. Abortion pills are necessary, but at this stage in development- never a panacea. The effectiveness (complete evacuation of the uterine contents) varies widely - with some large cohorts (read study linked in article) only achieving 80%! success- meaning follow up care and surgical abortion were absolutely required. Even at 90%- proper guidance and care are needed for correct use of this "major medical advance". You cannot safely get out of the need for access to abortion services and comprehensive women's health services.
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This is a strong, ongoing carryover from 1980 through the present, when the GOP decided to tie themselves to Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority" and their anti-abortion, uber-religious campaign. This was the only way that they could get enough votes to win anything.
Their creed of lowering taxes for the wealthy, then trying to cut benefit programs because of the rising deficit that comes about because of their supply side nonsense is not nearly enough to garner them enough votes. So, they have to gin up people's rage about social issues, thereby getting them to vote against their own best interests. By the way, they're not "entitlements" and never were. We pay into these programs every single paycheck.
You think that the GOP really cares one whit about the rural poor? If you do, I've got a nice bridge downtown I'd like you to buy.
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@Von Jones “when the GOP decided to tie themselves to Jerry Falwell's "Moral Majority" and their anti-abortion, uber-religious campaign” is very important but must include the strange adoption of the Catholic ensoulment at birth by the anti-papist Evangelicals. The union of Republicans and Catholics was unimaginable in the 1960s. The New Deal 25 years earlier had virtually wrecked the Republican narrative. Republicans were given new life by adopting the Southern Strategy racism and Southern Baptist racism and then joining the backlash of the War on Poverty by resentful whites. Joining Catholic anti-women’s movement, anti birth control, anti-women’s right to decide what to do when pregnant sealed the deal.
Now the stark racism and white male supremacy has infuriated women. Trump, a poster boy for sexual assault, exploitation, became anti-choice to satisfy the desperate white male base.
The effort to end Women’s rights is a Catholic religious dogma and has become an Evangelical cause. It is based entirely on religion. There is no Medical or scientific or legal basis for it. It is barefisted male aggression against women and Republicans need it to maintain their coalition. White male supremacy, White Nationalism, Patriarchal religions are anti American, anti-democratic, and they all rely on subverting the establishment clause of the First Amendment.
The right of women to be free to believe what they want to “choose” their religion or no religion is what is under assault.
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They're still imagining themselves as the Moral Majority even after electing a man who compared fighting in Vietnam with avoiding STDs in Manhattan. That just blows my mind. They have zero moral high ground to stand on after that.
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@Joseph Huben Evangelicals and some Catholics are virtually anti-Jesus. They violate the core principles of the Sermon on the Mount, the parables, and many of Jesus' instructions. I read about Evangelicals and think about Jesus' own words on the cross: "forgive them for they know not what they do."
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If abortions are made illegal, cost restrictions on the abortion pill will be meaningless. The pill will already be illegal and so its use will be illegal too. Hence laws restricting the use of the pill would have no effect on its cost. An illegal pill has no price since it can’t be legally obtained.
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@michjas : Oxycodone must be prescribed. Otherwise , it is illegal to possess. Yet the cost of the readily available , illegal oxycodone is prohibitively high.
So high that people addicted to Oxycodone are resorting to the use of heroin as a substitute.
Heroin is also illegal and yet it is hardly free.
And so forth. What is your point ?
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@Laurence Voss For people with chronic pain, oxycodone is increasingly unavailable. Many are funnelled to pain clinics with long wait lists and higher "specialist" co-pays. Once they finally get seen, they have to agree to things like random pill counts, random urine tests, and refills at only one pharmacy (not just one chain, one location).
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@Laurence Voss
I think you missed her point. If abortion (generic) is made illegal it matters not what method would be used - the point is - they would all be illegal whether procedural or medication-based. Unless her use of "the pill" seemed to refer to birth-control pills as opposed to the medication utilized to effect the termination of an unwanted pregnancy. Once the pro-life people understand that women can have an abortion outside of a visit Planned Parenthood they will go after doctors in clinics just as hard.
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