In response to the Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to abortion in June 2022 and many states banning and restricting abortion access, abortion advocates have created volunteer-run, donor-supported, community-based mutual aid groups around the country to provide free abortion pills to people living in states restricting abortion. These groups serve people of all ages and gestational stages, using different protocols for people in later pregnancy. As they start their third year of operations, they have mailed abortion medications to over 70,000 people in total.
Tag: 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.
Abortion pills are extremely safe. Serious adverse events occur in less than one-third of one percent of medication abortions. Abortion pills are over 95 percent effective when used within 10 weeks of the first day of your last menstrual period.
The organization Plan C has a comprehensive guide to finding abortion pills on their website at www.plancpills.org. Select “Find Abortion Pills” and then select the state where you are located from the drop-down menu. The website is continually updated and has all the latest information on where to find abortion pills from anywhere in the U.S.
She Said, He Said: Your Fast Feminist Guide to the Harris-Trump Debate
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris had their first and only debate on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. According to CNN, Trump spoke for about 42 minutes and 52 seconds, while Harris spoke for 37 minutes and 36 seconds. Trump spoke 39 times to Harris’ 23 times.
Here’s what each candidate said on some of the issues feminists care about—including access to abortion and other reproductive healthcare, the Affordable Care Act, childcare, immigration, racial unity and the economy.
Misogynist Manifesto: Project 2025 Says Yes to ‘Biblically Based Marriages’ and No to Reproductive Rights
Part one of a three-part series about the 900-plus-page right-wing “misogynistic manifesto”:
Project 2025 promotes traditional heterosexual marriage, stigmatizing single parenthood and same-sex spouses, and cutting programs to support single mothers and their children. It directs the next president to develop policies and programs to “maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family.” Proposals to restrict reproductive rights pervade Project 2025’s policy agenda, focused not only on abortion but also on contraception, sex education and gender-affirming healthcare.
(This article originally appears in the Fall 2024 issue of Ms. Join the Ms. community today and you’ll get issues delivered straight to your mailbox!)
The Courts Are the New Frontlines in the War on Abortion
As abortion access is increasingly being decided by state and federal courts, two reproductive rights attorneys make sense of past rulings and the ongoing fight for reproductive healthcare.
Keeping Score: Court Blocks Student Loan Relief Plan; Former N.Y. Cop Sentenced 10 Weekends in Jail After Child Rape; Trump’s ‘Tampon Tim’ Jab Backfires
In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.
This week: Kamala Harris reaffirmed her candidacy for president at the DNC; Republican-appointed judges strike down Biden’s student loan relief plan; a new law bans women from speaking in public in Afghanistan; working moms earn just 71 cents per dollar earned by dads; understanding the orgasm gap; gold-medalist boxer Imane Khelif fights back against racist and sexist abuse; new reproductive rights bills signed into law in Illinois; and more.
Democratic Party Platform Centers Women’s Rights
At the DNC in Chicago, party leaders approved the 2024 Democratic party platform Monday evening, promising to protect and strengthen women’s rights. The 91-page document is a stark contrast to the Republican platform, which promises to continue the dismantling of women’s rights started during Donald Trump’s first term in office.
Here are some of the parts of the Democratic party platform focused on women’s rights—including restoring abortion access, protecting contraception access, and making the Equal Rights Amendment the law of the land.
How an Antiabortion Doctor Joined Texas’ Maternal Mortality Committee
Texas’ maternal mortality and morbidity review committee was created in 2013 to track and study maternal deaths and near-misses. Dr. Ingrid Skop, a San Antonio OB-GYN, was chosen to represent rural areas on the committee, over an obstetrics nurse from the Rio Grande Valley.
Skop is not just any antiabortion doctor. She is the face of a small but powerful medical lobby that has helped restrict abortion access across the country. Skop has testified to state legislatures and before Congress, and been called as an expert witness in court cases. She is one of the doctors who sued to have mifepristone, a common abortion-inducing drug, moved off the market, a case that ultimately failed at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Abortions Up Over 20 Percent Since Dobbs, Driven by Telehealth
A new report revealed the number of abortions in the first three months of 2024 was significantly higher than abortions in the first three months of 2023 and 2022.
Before telehealth abortion became available, patients had to travel hundreds of miles to brick-and-mortar clinics, walk a gauntlet of protesters and pay on average $560 for medication abortion. Now they can obtain abortion pills by telehealth from the privacy of their own homes and have them mailed directly to all 50 states with prompt delivery.
Project 2025’s Holier-Than-Thou Plans for Your Health
Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership is the radical vision for America’s future under the next Republican president. If you’re like me, you’re curious about where the $22 million to produce its 900-pages of planning and policy came from. The project claims it’s the product of over 100 organizations, headed by The Heritage Foundation, a tax-exempt nonprofit. It has a long and influential history with deep monied roots.
I focused on the health-related parts of Project 2025’s chapter on Health and Human Services—our nation’s department for medical and family concerns—as its authors rail against the Center for Disease Control, abortion access and abortion pills, childcare, fertility treatments, what makes a proper family, and more. It’s dystopian, to say the least.
Massachusetts Abortion Provider Serves Patients Living in States Banning Abortion
Since Dobbs, an increasing number of abortion providers are providing telemedicine abortion services to women living in states banning abortion.
Today there are four practices with over two dozen providers that provide telehealth abortion services to people in restrictive states. One of them is the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, called The MAP for short. Ms. spoke with the medical director of The MAP: Dr. Angel Foster, a Harvard-trained obstetrician/gynecologist and health sciences professor at the University of Ottawa, where she leads a large research group that’s dedicated to global abortion work.