Posts Tagged: abortion access
How S.B. 8 Impacts Undocumented Immigrants Seeking Abortions In Texas
The passage and eventual enactment of Texas Senate Bill 2 (S.B. 8) has people rightfully concerned over abortion access in Texas. S.B. 8 limits abortion procedures past six weeks, before most people even know they are pregnant. As researchers and reproductive advocates have already pointed out, S.B. 8 creates several barriers for people seeking abortions beyond the six-week limit. For people seeking abortions after six weeks, they must travel to the nearest state that performs abortions. Consequently, the clinics in these states are being overwhelmed with patients traveling from Texas in addition to their usual patient load. Most notably, there is also the ten-thousand-dollar reward that people who report individuals who help someone receive abortion care after six weeks can receive. However, something that is less talked about is how… Read more »
We Are Gay & We Are Pregnant: How Unpregnant Combats the Stigmas Surrounding Abortions
***SPOILERS MENTIONED. This past weekend, while in my humble dorm room eating a bag of frozen cotton candy grapes, I decided to start my 7-day free trial on HBO and watch the recently released movie Unpregnant starring Barbie Ferreira and Haley Lu Richardson. I remember quite vividly when the trailer first came out and based on my initial reaction and Twitter’s; I thought I had an idea of what type of movie I’d soon be watching; another coming of age film that’s centered around teen white girls. And yes, it was precisely just that. But I wasn’t entirely disappointed. In this movie, we follow 17-year-old Veronica (played by Haley lu Richardson,) as she and her friend, Bailey (played by Barbie Ferreria), travel across state lines to the nearest abortion clinic…. Read more »
#NoGagRule: Ohio is just the beginning
Last week, Senator Sherrod Brown expressed concern over access to reproductive healthcare in Ohio. He estimated that nearly 100,000 Ohio women are in danger of losing their healthcare as Planned Parenthood was forced out of the Title X Family Planning program and lost federal funding. For residents in Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio, losing access to healthcare has just become a real problem. This week, two Planned Parenthood clinics serving nearly 6,000 patients in Cincinnati, Ohio are forced to close their doors after providing services like birth control, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and STI testing and treatment for almost nine decades. This is devastating news to patients who relied on these two clinics for their reproductive healthcare, as there is no infrastructure to immediately absorb them at other health centers. The closures will… Read more »
Abortion Shouldn’t Be Rare and It Isn’t
From the most recent data available from the Guttmacher Institute and the American Journal of Public Health, approximately 1 in 4 women will have had at least one abortion by the age of 45. While this statistic does not include research around trans men and non-binary people that obtain abortions, it still goes to show that this is a very common procedure; but people do not choose to talk about it that way. I’ve seen protesters outside of clinics with signs that say “women regret abortion” and “men regret lost fatherhood”, and other anti-abortion phrases. In my early exposure to organizing around and for abortion rights, I found that many people I worked with, and even myself, would say things like, “No one wants to get an abortion…it is such… Read more »
Abortion In-Access
The Roe V. Wade decision recently had its 46th anniversary January 22. Though reproductive rights have constantly been the point of contention between old, white men and other old, white men, I am grateful this decision still stands today. Old white men, especially those in Texas, have tried their hardest to shut down as many clinics as possible through TRAP laws requiring obscene equipment and “regulations”. In 2014, the only abortion clinic available to my community of the Rio Grande Valley was in San Antonio-a four hour drive away. Having a clinic so far and passed a check-point can be terrifying for some people from the Rio Grande Valley. In a community where over 68% of the population lives below the poverty line and ⅓ of people and ½ of… Read more »
The Science Behind Telemedicine Abortion: Filling in Health Care Gaps
For people seeking abortion care in rural areas and/or states with few abortion clinics, telemedicine abortion is a way to increase access to this particular form of health care. Telemedicine abortion involves the prescription of the two medications that induce an abortion before 10 weeks gestation when the provider and the patient are in different locations. How does this procedure work? First, we must know how medication abortion works. Medication abortion is a non-surgical means of terminating a pregnancy. According to the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, medication abortion, also known as the abortion pill, can safely be used to terminate a pregnancy up to 10 weeks. The method was approved by the FDA in 2000. The “abortion pill” actually consists of two different medications taken at two separate times…. Read more »
Abortion Doulas Provide Much-needed Support
Abortion doulas! What are they, why do I love them, and where can you find one? To understand the role of an abortion doula, we should start with what a doula is generally. According to ATX Doulas, a doula service based in Austin Texas, a doula “is someone who provides continuous emotional and physical support … before, during, and after birth.” Doulas can be trained in relaxation techniques, prenatal activities to ease birth, initial breastfeeding, and can act as an advocate for their client at their birth location (be it home, hospital, or birth center). There are several organizations that offer doula training and certification, such as DONA International and Ancient Song Doula Services. While birth doulas may be the most popular type of doula (as evidenced by google search),… Read more »
Writing Abortion 20 Feet High
This article originally appeared on the blog at Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes. Growing up in a small Kansas town meant a few things for me. I would forever be haunted by Wizard of Oz jokes whenever I told someone I’m from Kansas, going to Sonic with friends would be an early teen right of passage, and any road trip I took with my parents would mean driving past multiple anti-abortion billboards. These billboards varied in language, size, and quality but they all had the same message: Abortion is bad. As most people know, Kansas is notorious for its negative outlook on abortion. Although much of our state legislature is rabidly anti-choice, the majority of fellow Kansans I know are okay with abortion. One of the reasons I believe Kansas still… Read more »
My journey as a Catholic Reproductive Justice activist
I’m what you would call a cradle Catholic. I was baptized as a baby and I have been Catholic since. I go to Mass, read my Bible and say the rosary. I went to Catholic school from the time I was three years old until I was 14. I am also a reproductive justice activist. It is no secret the Catholic Church has always been very openly against abortion and, in a lot of cases, contraception. I don’t really know if there was ever a time where I decided and openly said that was incorrect and I was going to go against the teachings of the Church, I think it has always been a part of me. Deep down, I always knew it was wrong to deny abortion and birth… Read more »
Reproductive Justice and the Single Lady
My latest read has been “All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation” by Rebecca Traister and it is amazing. I seriously recommend this book to everyone. The book is about the history of marriage and how as it changed and women became more and more independent, society changes with it. Single women have changed the political landscape in many ways. This book got me thinking about how single people today impact the reproductive justice movement. For one, Traister points out in her book people are staying single in college verses getting married in or right out of college. This means there are younger single people and there is no denying how vital young people are to reproductive justice and activism. Single people have impacted abolition,… Read more »
