More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Pregnant and need not to be? You have options—no matter where you live. Here’s what you need to know about how to find abortion options.
For help, please look to these trusted groups:
Safe websites to buy abortion medication: Aid Access, Plan C Pills, Abortion Finder, I Need An A
If you need help affording abortion care, contact an abortion fund near you.
To protect your digital privacy when planning your abortion, click here.
For free legal help as a patient or doctor, call If/When/How’s Repro Helpline: 844-868-2812
For medical advice, contact the Miscarriage & Abortion Hotline: 833-246-2632
If you need to know the abortion law in your state, look to the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Since the fall of Roe, at least 66 clinics have stopped providing abortion care. Many people have found essential care by purchasing abortion pills online and having them delivered by mail.
As we continue into the post-Roe future, we must address the inequalities that limit these innovations in states where telehealth is legal, but also in states where it is illegal.
As an obstetrician and gynecologist providing abortion care in the Midwest, I’m fervently hoping mifepristone will remain available—not only for my patients seeking to end a pregnancy, but also for those who have miscarried.
In a shadow docket ruling late on Friday, April 21, the Supreme Court has decided to block a previous ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from taking effect, allowing the abortion pill mifepristone to remain on the market under current rules.
“While SCOTUS offered temporary relief, the fate of a medication approved by the FDA more than 20 years ago should have never been before the Supreme Court to begin with,” said Kirsten Moore of Expanding Medication Abortion Access Project.
In a divided opinion issued late Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the abortion medication mifepristone will remain approved for use throughout the United States, but only up to seven weeks of pregnancy when a doctor dispenses the medication in person. This ruling, if allowed to stand and followed, would significantly impair access to abortion throughout the United States.
“The Fifth Circuit’s decision to roll back recent measures that have ensured greater access to medication abortion care undermines the FDA’s authority and science, all while real people pay the price,” said Morgan Hopkins, president of All* Above All.
As people wait nervously for an anti-abortion judge to rule in a Texas lawsuit aimed at removing the abortion pill mifepristone from the market nationwide, Democratic attorneys general from a dozen states are fighting back with a lawsuit of their own.
On Feb. 24, attorneys general of Washington, Oregon, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), asking a Washington federal court to declare that mifepristone is safe and effective and that the FDA’s approval of mifepristone is lawful and valid. Experts see the lawsuit as an attempt to produce a contrary ruling from the Texas judge, whom observers predict will order the FDA to remove mifepristone from the market.
A Trump-appointed judge in Texas will soon decide whether to force the abortion pill mifepristone off the market in all 50 states.
While mifepristone’s future is shaky, women and pregnant people can still access misoprostol, a highly effective and medically safe method to end an early pregnancy.
Providers of reproductive and gender-affirming care have long been pushing for an increase in the use of telemedicine. Patients want it too. Telehealth implementation comes with decreased costs, wait times and travel. For stigmatized issues like abortion and gender-affirming care, it also ensures patients and providers alike face less harassment and makes niche treatments more widely accessible.
To understand the telehealth landscape and how it impacts reproductive care, Ms. spoke with telehealth abortion, contraceptive, and gender-affirming care providers to understand how the fall of Roe has affected their work.
Reported abortions have drop sharply post-Dobbs, while self-managed abortion numbers soar. Many Americans, especially those living in the most restrictive states, have turned to telemedicine abortion which can be shipped to all 50 states from abroad.
As abortion bans mount in states across the country in the wake of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, abortion seekers in states where the procedure is banned are increasingly turning to online telemedicine providers.
“It really helps to alleviate the stress and the barriers that come with accessing such a highly stigmatized and politicized form of care, even in the states where abortion care remains legal,” said Cindy Adam, co-founder and CEO of Choix, of telemedicine abortion. “It puts that power to decide back into the hands of the person seeking care.”
Before Roe v. Wade, one of the ways women bypassed the medical system to get necessary abortions was a technique feminists called “menstrual extraction,” using a syringe, flexible plastic tubing and a mason jar to extract the contents of the uterus.
Ms. spoke with activist Carol Downer about her experiences teaching people to perform menstrual extractions and how the procedure could help post-Roe.
“How in the world can that Supreme Court sit up there and deny this thing to us? How can they get away with that? You can guarantee that Amy Coney Barrett has not seen her own cervix.”