Category: Health

Leigh Vogel / Getty Images for Women's March Inc

“We Have Had Abortions” Petition Relaunches 50 Years Later—With Support From Original Signatories

With Trump’s three recent appointments, the Supreme Court has once again lurched to the right, and women’s rights are in danger. Given the dire circumstances, Ms. is once again relaunching its “We Have Had Abortions” petition, with the encouragement and support of some of the original 1972 signers—including Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, the author of the original “We Have Had Abortions” article that appeared in Ms.

“While the Supreme Court may, because of the machinations of the one party, eviscerate Roe v. Wade, now is not the time to give up,” said Diamonstein-Spielvogel.

From the Vault: Between a Woman and Her Doctor (Summer 2004)

From the Vault: Between a Woman and Her Doctor (Summer 2004)

On November 6, 2003, President Bush signed what he called a “partial birth abortion ban,” prohibiting doctors from committing an “overt act” designed to kill a partially delivered fetus. One of the unintended consequences of this new law is that it put people in my position, with a fetus already dead, in a technical limbo. 

We told our doctor we had chosen a dilation and evacuation. But I didn’t realize that pressures extending all the way to the boardrooms of hospitals, administrative sessions at medical schools and committee hearing in Congress, were going to deepen and expand my sorrow and pain. 

Online Abortion Provider and “Activist Physician” Michele Gomez Is Expanding Early Abortion Options Into Primary Care

As we await the fate of Roe v. Wade, Ms. will spotlight the wide range of new telemedicine abortion providers springing up across the country in response to the recent removal of longstanding FDA restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone.

“It’s easy to target Planned Parenthood, but much harder to target every primary care office in the country,” said Dr. Michele Gomez, a self-proclaimed “activist physician” supporting fellow doctors who want to offer abortions as part of primary care.

Courtesy of Choix

Online Abortion Providers Cindy Adam and Lauren Dubey of Choix: “We’re Really Excited About the Future of Abortion Care”

A range of telemedicine abortion providers are springing up in the U.S. in response to the removal of FDA restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone—like Cindy Adam and Lauren Dubey, nurse practitioners and owners of Choix, a virtual clinic offering asynchronous telemedicine abortion services to people in California, Colorado and Illinois.

“It feels really cool that I can do this on a day-to-day basis,” Dubey said. “Cindy and I are at the forefront of telemedicine abortion, teaching other people how to do it, helping more people to do it and exposing the world to this new type of care. It is incredibly fulfilling, not just being an abortion provider and not just doing it via telehealth, but being at the forefront of abortion care in a new way.”

Telemedicine Abortion Provider Dr. Deborah Oyer of Cedar River Clinics Supports Patient Autonomy and Control

Telemedicine Abortion Provider Dr. Deborah Oyer Supports Patient Autonomy and Control: “No Different Than When They’re in Clinic”

A range of telemedicine abortion providers are springing up in the U.S. in response to the removal of FDA restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone. Meet one provider: Dr. Deborah Oyer, the medical director of Cedar River Clinics, who has seen a 79 percent increase of medication abortion since adding telemedicine abortion, versus in-clinic only before COVID.

“I cannot begin to put into words the honor and privilege of being an abortion provider. People let me into their lives in the most intimate way. In some ways, there is a little more intimacy doing a telemedicine abortion right now versus an in-person one, because I actually get to see their unmasked faces.”

Don't Fence Me In: Reproductive Freedom and Women Workers

Don’t Fence Me In: Reproductive Freedom and Women Workers

For centuries under common law, a daughter or a wife was the property of the family father or husband or, upon his death, the closest relative with a penis. Whatever was theirs was his, but most importantly the family patriarch oversaw her most valuable asset: her womb. In earliest medical thought, a womb was fertile ground in need of guarding and fences to make property rights clearer, and she to be plowed and planted with seed, quite literally semen.

We thought such laws and cultural metaphors were behind us. But now the cowboys of Texas have put a bounty on women’s wombs. The stakes are women’s civil rights as citizens, surely, but also financial ones.

‘Marea Verde’ Feminist Collective Defends the Right To Decide in Mexico: “Sick and Tired of Seeing Our Sisters Go to Jail”

The Marea Verde—or “green wave” in English—is a collective of feminists based in Mexico. The group provides legal, psychological, moral and social support with the goal of eliminating and eradicating violence against women and advocating for the decriminalization of abortion.

“Thousands of women die every year from clandestine abortion because it is seen as a crime here in Mexico. We are sick and tired of seeing our sisters go to jail and being made to look like second-class citizens,” said Yunitzilim R. Pedraza, legal counsel to the group. “Abortion is a personal decision. Women should be supported and not criminalized for it.”

Knoxville Planned Parenthood Clinic Burnt Down by Anti-Abortion Extremists: "A Huge Loss for the Community"

Knoxville Planned Parenthood Clinic Burned Down by Anti-Abortion Extremists: “A Huge Loss for the Community”

On New Year’s Eve, anti-abortion extremists burned down the Planned Parenthood clinic in Knoxville, Tenn., the organization’s only branch in East Tennessee. Fire department officials confirmed Thursday the cause of the fire was intentional arson. No suspects are yet in custody.

This is just one example of increasing violence against abortion providers. Anti-abortion extremists are no doubt feeling emboldened by the unconstitutional six-week abortion ban in Texas (in effect for over four months) as well as a likely ruling against abortion rights in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Online Abortion Provider Robin Tucker: “I’m Trying To Remove Barriers. ... It Feels Great To Be Able To Help People This Way”

Online Abortion Provider Robin Tucker: “I’m Trying To Remove Barriers. … It Feels Great To Be Able To Help People This Way”

A wide range of telemedicine abortion providers are springing up across the country in response to the recent removal of longstanding FDA restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone.

Meet one provider: Robin Tucker, a nurse practitioner of women’s health and a certified nurse midwife who offers first-trimester medication abortion by phone call, video visit or online intake forms to patients in Virginia, Maryland and Maine.

“People say, this seems too good to be true, this just seems so easy, there has to be a catch.”