Join us live (or RSVP and tune later!) to learn everything you need to know about abortion pills on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023, at 4 p.m. Pacific / 7 p.m. ET.
The decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last summer sent shockwaves around the country. Today, at least 13 states completely ban abortion, and the Guttmacher Institute estimates the number of states with bans is likely to jump up to 24 in the coming months.
At the same time, demand for abortion pills is on the rise, growing more and more urgent: Requests for pills that allow pregnant women to have their abortions at home increased 33 percent in the 30 most restrictive states.
But how do abortion pills work? Are they safe? And how are people getting them? Tune in to a conversation with reproductive health advocates Lauren Dubey of Choix and Melissa Madera of Plan C, moderated by Ms. editor Carrie Baker, to learn. Register now. (Can’t attend the event in person? RSVP anyway and we’ll send you a post-event recording and transcript you can watch or read later!)
Hear from…
Lauren Dubey, MS, FNP-C
Lauren Dubey is the co-founder and chief nursing officer of Choix, a telehealth clinic founded by experienced family planning clinicians with a vision of using technology to expand access to abortion care. She is a nurse practitioner in Los Angeles.
Melissa Madera, Ph.D.
Melissa Madera—a.k.a. the abortion diarist—is a queer, first generation Dominican-American, originally from Washington Heights, N.Y. An expert on abortion story-sharing and listening, she works to center the voices of people who have had abortions and end abortion stigma in all facets of her life. She is the founder and host of the podcast The Abortion Diary, the only audio archive of abortion stories, which she created in the summer of 2013 after being inspired by the deep impact sharing her own abortion story (13 years later) had on her, her family, friends and complete strangers.
She works as an independent consultant and is currently a special projects consultant at Plan C Pills, a public health campaign that normalizes the self-directed option of abortion pills by mail. She is also a researcher on Project SANA (Self-Managed Abortion Needs Assessment), an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Texas at Austin that researches self-managed abortion in the United States.
She is the former director of research and partnerships at Choix.
Moderated by…
Carrie Baker, Ph.D., J.D.
Carrie Baker is a Ms. contributing editor and the Sylvia Dlugasch Bauman professor in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College.
What Are Abortion Pills?
Medication abortion uses two FDA-approved oral medications to end a pregnancy: mifepristone and misoprostol, commonly referred to as “abortion pills.” Mifepristone interrupts the flow of the hormone progesterone that sustains the pregnancy, and misoprostol causes contractions to expel the contents of the uterus. You can use these pills in combination or use misoprostol alone.
Up next:
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