Abortion rights beyond the medico-legal paradigm

Assis, Mariana Prandini; Erdman, Joanna N.

doi:10.1080/17441692.2021.1971278

Cited by 13 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…As such, advocacy strategies to legalise abortion should include accompaniment groups and ensure that attempts to legalise abortion do not criminalise self-managed abortion or accompanied SMA. 35 Funding to support interventions that expand the reach and services offered by accompaniment groups could greatly improve access to high-quality and supported medication abortion care. Future research is needed to understand the barriers people continue to face in accessing abortion care in the ongoing pandemic and strategies for expanding the reach of accompaniment group services to improve access to this preferred model of care.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A qualitative exploration of how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped experiences of self-managed medication abortion with accompaniment group support in Argentina, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Venezuela

Bercu

Filippa

Jayaweera

et al. 2022

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

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Globally, people self-manage their medication abortions without clinical assistance. Feminist activist collectives (accompaniment groups) support people through self-managed abortion with evidence-based guidance. We sought to understand the impact of COVID-19 and related restrictions on the need for and experiences of self-managed abortion with accompaniment support across varied legal and social contexts. Between May and October 2020, we conducted in-depth interviews with individuals who self-managed abortions with support from accompaniment groups during the pandemic in Argentina, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Venezuela. We conducted a thematic analysis to understand the impact of COVID-19 on participants’ experiences with accompanied self-managed abortions. Across 43 in-depth interviews, participants in all four countries described how the COVID-19 pandemic created challenges at each step of their abortion process, from confirming the pregnancy, accessing abortion pills, finding a private, comfortable place, and verifying abortion completion. For most people, conditions related to the pandemic made it harder to self-manage an abortion; for a minority, being at home made aspects of the experience somewhat easier. Nonetheless, all participants reported feeling supported by accompaniment groups, and COVID-19 and related lockdowns reinforced their preference for accompaniment-supported self-managed abortion. These findings highlight the essential role that accompaniment groups play in ensuring access to high-quality abortion care in a multiplicity of settings, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Efforts are needed to expand the reach of accompaniment groups to increase access to the high-quality abortion support they provide, filling a critical gap left by health systems and legal infrastructure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A qualitative exploration of how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped experiences of self-managed medication abortion with accompaniment group support in Argentina, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Venezuela

Bercu

Filippa

Jayaweera

et al. 2022

Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters

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“…The accompanist provides misoprostol (available over-the-counter in much of Latin America), misoprostol/mifepristone or instructions on how to obtain them, gives detailed information about how they should be taken to induce abortion, and follows along with the accompanied person—either virtually or in-person—as she undergoes the process. Of note, even where abortion itself is criminalized, providing information and pre-post abortion services are usually legal [ 6 ]. Relationships are often maintained with physicians in the community who are willing to respond to emergencies, or provide follow-up care, although often clinicians do not participate directly.…”

Section: The Critical Role Of Grass Roots Accompanimentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Accompaniment on the edge: What can the US learn from Latin America about contested abortion care?

Calderón-Villarreal,

Carrasco,

Friedman

et al. 2023

PLOS Glob Public Health

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The US has stood as a reference point for abortion rights in the Americas since 1973, however in 2022, the US Supreme Court revoked the constitutional right to abortion. Facing similar circumstances, a huge number of grass roots accompanist networks have arisen throughout Latin America. These collectives are typically organized loosely within state and national networks that provide training and medication/supplies and promote advocacy and the expansion of new collectives. Extensive evidence and lived experience support the safety and effectiveness of self-managed medication abortion. Much can be learned from the Latin American accompanist model in the modern struggle for reproductive justice in the US. Accompaniment networks in Mexico have provided transborder abortion services—via misoprostol delivery—to US-based women living in states that required long travel or high costs to access services. Now, these transborder services will take on a new level of significance. Guaranteeing safe and low-cost access to abortion services is a key tenet of reproductive justice. Instead of relying on the political process alone to eventually provide abortion access through legal channels, an accompanist model provides an icon of resistance to oppressive legal shifts, and directly provides services to women.

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“…The discovery of medication abortion originated nearly 40 years ago in Brazil in a self‐managed context. Seeing an opportunity in a warning label on the drug, misoprostol, that cautioned about a risk of miscarriage in pregnant people, Brazilian women in the 1980s discovered that they could take the drug, originally registered for the treatment of gastric ulcers, at home to successfully induce a miscarriage without the involvement of healthcare professionals 4,13 . This was particularly critical given that abortion is criminalized in nearly all circumstances in Brazil.…”

Section: Clinical Safety Of Self‐managed Abortion With Medicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Seeing an opportunity in a warning label on the drug, misoprostol, that cautioned about a risk of miscarriage in pregnant people, Brazilian women in the 1980s discovered that they could take the drug, originally registered for the treatment of gastric ulcers, at home to successfully induce a miscarriage without the involvement of healthcare professionals. 4,13 This was particularly critical given that abortion is criminalized in nearly all circumstances in Brazil. At nearly the same time, the abortion drug mifepristone was developed by a French pharmaceutical company for the purpose of being used with misoprostol for induced abortion.…”

Section: Clini C Al Safe T Y Of S Elf-manag Ed Aborti On With Med I C...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Self‐managed abortion: Aligning law and policy with medical evidence

Skuster

Moseson

Perritt

2022

Intl J Gynecology & Obste

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People have always and will always find ways to try to end their pregnancies when necessary. Many do so safely without the involvement or direct supervision of healthcare professionals by self-managing their abortions. In 2022, the well-established safety and efficacy of abortion medications prompted WHO to fully endorse self-managed medication abortion as part of a comprehensive range of safe, effective options for abortion care. But despite robust evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of the self-use of medications for abortion, abortion laws and policies around the world remain at odds with clinical evidence and with the realities of self-managed medication abortion in the present day. The present article considers legal issues related to self-managed abortion and addresses the role of obstetricians, gynecologists, and other healthcare professionals in promoting clinical and legal safety in abortion care through support of self-managed abortion.

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Abortion rights beyond the medico-legal paradigm

Cited by 13 publications

References 37 publications

A qualitative exploration of how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped experiences of self-managed medication abortion with accompaniment group support in Argentina, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Venezuela

A qualitative exploration of how the COVID-19 pandemic shaped experiences of self-managed medication abortion with accompaniment group support in Argentina, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Venezuela

Accompaniment on the edge: What can the US learn from Latin America about contested abortion care?

Self‐managed abortion: Aligning law and policy with medical evidence

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