By: Jessica Wang
After Roe V. Wade was overturned, women are self- managing their abortions, or obtaining the items necessary to have an abortion without the supervision of a clinic or medical professional by getting abortion pills online.
Medical abortions account for more than half of abortions in the U.S. Before the pandemic, an in-person visit was required for abortion pills to be mailed to patients. Now, in-person visits are not required, and women can order the drugs online without anyone knowing. That also means that even with states outlawing abortions, women can still receive the pills.
Taking the abortion pills without a doctor could be tricky though – there are many complications women can miss, like gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, preterm labor, or ectopic pregnancy. Dr. Christina Francis, who opposes abortion, says, “All claims that abortion is safe are based on flawed and incomplete data, which prioritize convenience and cost over the health and safety of patients.”
However, medical professionals who do support abortions say otherwise. Dr. Beverly Winikoff, the founder of Gynuity Health Projects, states, “It’s quite safe and effective based on studies we’ve done, national data provided by the states and the Guttmacher Institute, and the experience of other countries.”
The abortion pills are controlled and managed by the F.D.A., but the pills are not made to be “self-managed” or taken without being under a doctor’s supervision.
A 20-year-old adult named Cassie ordered some abortion pills. When the drugs arrived, they were already 12 weeks along the pregnancy. After they took the pills, they had heavy bleeding and awful cramps. Later, Cassie went to the hospital to treat the symptoms and pain with their boyfriend. “That was its own horrifying experience of praying that they wouldn’t know or suspect I’d caused it myself,” Cassie remarked.
Many young women are not physically, mentally, or financially prepared to have a baby. Self-managing abortions is a smart way to get an abortion, because doctors cannot distinguish the difference between the abortion and a miscarriage – they have the same symptoms and same treatment.
In most states restricting abortions, doctors are legally not allowed to perform abortions. Only in three states is self-managed abortion a crime – South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Nevada. Back in 2015, a woman named Purvi Patel was sentenced to 20 years in jail for a self-managed abortion.
Currently, if any medical professional discovers that a patient is self-managing an abortion, they are not required or told to report them. Still, it is uncertain that self-managed abortion is safe or the right thing to do.
Sources: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1659883885874x501016440637083400/Some%20Women%20Turn%20to%20Self-Managed%20Abortion%20as%20Access%20Recedes%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf