The resistance against the restrictive abortion laws in the United States is large. Activists inform about abortion and how a woman can do-it-yourself. From Washington To Helena Humphrey.
The Scenery could not be more inconspicuous: a quiet meeting room in a library in Washington, D. C. It is an evening in the middle of the week. Everywhere young people sit together in learning groups. What is the group in which I sit, is different from the other, is the ratio of women to men in the 25-to-one. And the flight leaves, you hold in your hands can be carried out information about how to have a abortion without medical assistance, with a pill called Misoprostol. The drug is mainly used for the treatment of gastric and duodenal ulcers. In many countries where abortions are illegal, swallow women on the pill to end an unwanted pregnancy itself.
Such a future, many women look forward to in the USA. The concern is justified, since then, some U.S. States in the South and the Midwest are extremely restrictive abortion have passed laws, and the conservative Supreme court threatens to overturn the landmark “Roe vs. Wade”-decision-in-principle, with the 1973 the right to abortion enshrined in law had been. The exchange of alternative methods of information events such as this seems to mark a new front line in the fight for the bodily autonomy of the woman.
“Roe vs. Wade” secured so far, the constitutional right to abortions. But for how long?
“Informs you about how you can a pregnancy safely and independently to finish, because “Roe” is already dead in 2016,” warns Erin Matson, the audience in the unyielding tone of a campaigner. I quickly got the impression that the Co-Director of the group, “reprogramming action,” which fights for the right to abortions, not to defend their Conviction for the first Time. “The reality is that women will always find ways to end their pregnancies.”
That used to mean that desperate women were getting involved dangerous visits to the back rooms of illegal abortionist or with hangers made of wire tried to put your unwanted pregnancy in a cruel way to end. In Alabama, one of the Federal States, in which the possibilities to have an abortion will always be low, told me a Doctor from a young woman who was so desperate that she swallowed bleach to end her pregnancy.
It is cases like this that the participants in the discussion, including policy advisors, Directors of abortion funds, and youth social workers, mobilize, exchange about safer options for a up to the twelfth week of pregnancy, self-performed abortion. Guide to the requirements of the world health organization (WHO).
In Alabama, there are hardly any clinics that perform abortion
Online Resistance
Also in the network has been formed the resistance against the criminalization of abortions. On the Online platform “Reddit” I come across for the first Time on notes for the revived so-called “Auntie Network”, an underground movement from the time before “Roe vs. Wade”. There women help each other, abortions across state boundaries.
“I, your cousin/best friend, Andreya, would you like to visit here in good old Nebraska/Western Iowa. You’re welcome to stay as long as you want. I’ll take you wherever you need to want to/” I read in a post. Translated, this means that the Reddit user would like to make your home as a shelter for women who have had to leave your home state for an abortion. Also a “birthday card” could be sent, the report says. A map of the are pills as to Misoprostol beige.
The revival of the “Auntie network” on the Internet, however, is not seen in all Pro-abortion activists are fond of. They argue that the existing abortion funds are already a well-organized and safe framework for assistance would require women not been created, while women get in trouble in the Vastness of the Internet, the support they actually need.
“This is not something that can regulate a Person alone. We achieve more when we work together and connect to the collective strength to build,” said Lindsay Rodriguez from the “National Network of Abortion Funds,” a kind of umbrella organization for all the funds, the women support financially and logistically in the implementation of a abortion. “We fear that duplication of effort for a thing that is already funded already, it makes the people who want to have an abortion, even harder.”
In may, people in eight States protested for the right to abortion. Even before the Supreme court in Washington
Many of those abortion Fund, manage, suggest that a collective, such as the “Auntie Network” picks up the women, but not the cost of the abortion itself carries. Therefore, the Fund is seeking especially to raise awareness about abortion and its funding are still possible – the ban wave that seems to roll over the country, in Spite of.
As I at one of the funds calls, I’m greeted with an automated phone message. “Hello, you have reached the ‘Yellowhammer’ Fund. Although Governor Ivey has signed the bill HB314 are abortions in Alabama is still possible and legal. If you need financial assistance for an abortion, please press One.”
New Risks
Nevertheless, the outrage over the abortion restrictions, as well as the individual offers of help remain. “Dear Sisters. There’s nothing we can do about it, as you will in your home state treated,” wrote Shelly O’brien last month on Facebook.
She runs a small Hotel in the state of Michigan, in which the so-called “Heartbeat”bill soon also for sharp restrictions on abortions could be. “If you can make it up to Michigan, we will support you with accommodation and Transport,” promised O’brien in your post.
You have online to a torrent of abuse endure, says O’brien, but you have to offer. “It only changes something if people are willing to risk something.”
Figures show that abortion bans do not lead to fewer abortions. Just to dangerous
In fact, it looks as if the “Aunties” and the women, a self-governing abortion in consideration received, a risk: the criminalization.
“I want to say clearly,” emphasizes Erin Matson of the group turned, gathered in the library in D. C. “There is no blood test that can be demonstrated, that Misoprostol was swallowed. The symptoms are the same as in the case of a miscarriage. You will receive the same treatment, as long as you’re talking about a miscarriage. As soon as you mention however, the abortion, you are risking a criminal prosecution.” Also distributed leaflets urging caution: “at Least 20 women were arrested, because they have finished their pregnancies.”
In the further course of the discussion, it is also clear that Even the Internet could give law enforcement new ways. “If you have a miscarriage, but through Google for information on self-administered abortion’re looking for, you could be punished,” warns Brooke Butler from the “D.C. Abortion Fund”. “This is where we’re headed.”