The ways of talking about the “war on women” that leave people out
So it seems that some people think we cannot talk about the reproductive war against women happening in the US without including teh trans, cuz you know, that’s eviiil.
However, they need to face the reality that not every bloody battle is theirs and that sometimes they’ll need to play support instead of centre stage in order for FAAB persons to be helped. When they want to stand in the way of that because it makes them feel “left out” (not exceptional enough - see http://noanodyne.com/2011/02/male-trans-exceptionalism/ [STRONG TRIGGER WARNING: THIS IS A HATE SITE -tal9000]) they are being an enemy to women.
The fact is that this needs to be talked about and fought, and how it makes people feel does not matter so long as it helps the real world circumstances of the people involved.
I’m sorry, did you just pull the “CAN’T WE HAVR THIS TO OURSELVES” on dfab trans* people?
Because in case you haven’t noticed, the entire fucking WORLD works in the favour of cis people over trans* people. Fixing your language so you’re not hurting and misgendering trans* people during your discussions on reproductive rights DO NOT HURT YOUR CAUSE. AT ALL. IT JUST MEANS YOUR CAUSE ISN’T HURTING TRANS* PEOPLE ANYMORE.
I was so determined to believe that first paragraph must be sarcastic that I read this five times over but no YOU ACTUALLY WERE BEING A CISSEXIST, ERASIVE ASSHOLE.
OH SHIT I THOUGHT THIS WAS SARCASM
GOING TO DELETE NOW
/also everything singing-it-for-tumblr said
/also fuck feministing for being cissexist assholes
Did the OP seriously dismiss putting access to reproductive health care behind gendered barriers (dysphoria triggers at least, and sometimes actual hard access limitations) as “feelings”?
And accuse trans people who wanted to be counted at all of trying to take center stage?
Also, I don’t know how bad the link is. I read literally just enough to tell that it is a hate site. It proved itself in the first sentence of the linked post.
TW for self-induced abortion by a trans* person
See, this is the type of shit I refuse to tolerate. It’s real ironic she called it a bloody battle. I know she meant it as a slang curse word but in actuality this is a bloody battle for us and because of exclusionary rhetoric we don’t know what our body count is. What I do know is this fucking nonsense of yours absolutely harms trans* people (newflash, we’re not all men, either!). Your fucking nonsense keeps us from accessing medical care. Your fucking nonsense leaves us in the gutter because you like to play gender essentialism as much as antis do. Your fucking nonsense leads to trans* people self aborting with fucking paint thinner in a country post-Roe where abortion is supposedly legal.
One month after interviewing Deborah, I attended an abortion speakout where a young person shared a similar story. They cited numerous challenges to accessing safe and legal abortion care including: inadequate funding, lack of parental consent, and significant discrimination from the health care system because they identified as transgender. Unable to access the care they needed and wanted, they decided to self-induce an abortion by drinking paint thinner from their parent’s garage. As they explained the effects of the paint thinner on their body, I was not only deeply saddened but also angry. I could not believe that I was hearing the same story from a peer my age. I was frustrated that the health care system refused to acknowledge that trans youth have abortions. I was frustrated that this young person could not ask for consent from their parents and could not obtain the money needed to have a safe and legal abortion. I was frustrated that as a society we have created laws that limit this person’s choice to ingesting paint thinner. Overall, I was deeply saddened that although as a movement we have made significant advances, some young people are still drinking turpentine.
You and every other prochoicer who refuses to be inclusive did that. You caused it with your “pussy power” rhetoric garbage.
And you know, you make it seem like if we just get out of the way and “support” you then you’ll win the reproductive fight and all the goodies will trickle down to us, and if we don’t then we’re watering down the message. But that’s not what will happen. Look at the Hyde Amendment and how that affects PoC and poor people. They were all sold out by rich white cis feminists who got legal abortion by compromising and letting Hyde through. And now for many people legal abortion is a fantasy in this country. You think it will be different this time? Do I look naive to you? YOU will retain your right to abortion but trans* people will still be in the same predicament. Victory for cis women is NOT a victory for all dfab people. Not if the doctors still won’t acknowledge trans* people need pap smears and birth control and YES abortions, too! Not if the language on health pamphlets and the walls of the doctors are still cissexist and triggering and dfab trans* people can’t go inside to obtain legal, safe medical care. Not when the environment YOU perpetuated is so vile they’d rather drink god damn paint thinner. Is that your idea of a victory? Will you even care since it’s not really affecting you? That’s what I thought.
So yeah, this is my fucking battle. And yes it’s a bloody one. And I refuse to let your “victories” come on the backs of those more marginalized and victimized than you. I refuse to be silenced in a conversation about MY rights and MY organs.
Unsafe abortion poses serious threat to Rwandan women’s* health
The first national estimates of abortion incidence in Rwanda show that one in 40 women aged 15–44 had an abortion in 2009 and that virtually all of these abortions were clandestine procedures that are highly likely to be unsafe. The study, conducted by the National University of Rwanda’s School of Public Health and the U.S.-based Guttmacher Institute, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, found that an estimated 60,000 induced abortions occurred that year, which translates to a national rate of 25 abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age. This is lower than the abortion rate for Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole (31 per 1,000) and for Eastern Africa (36 per 1,000).
The researchers, who gathered data from a nationally representative sample of health facilities and knowledgeable key informants, found that 25,000 women—more than 40% of women who had an abortion—suffered complications that required medical treatment. However, 30% of these women did not receive the medical care they required, indicating a greater need for postabortion care than is currently being provided.
A substantial proportion of abortion complications are likely due to the actions of untrained providers, such as traditional healers, lay practitioners, pharmacists, or pregnant women themselves. Such procedures may involve ingesting dangerous substances or inserting sharp objects into the body to end a pregnancy.
[…]
Approximately 20% of Rwandan women will require treatment for complications from an unsafe abortion at some point in their lifetime. The study found that the quality of postabortion care was poor throughout the health system. While 92% of health facilities in the country provide some form of treatment for abortion complications, the majority do not use techniques recommended by the World Health Organization.
Though the number of women who die from unsafe abortions in Rwanda is not known, the World Health Organization estimates unsafe abortion accounts for 17% of all maternal deaths in Eastern Africa.
The researchers also found that despite growing modern contraceptive use in Rwanda, 47% of all pregnancies in the country are unintended.
[…]
“Abortion Incidence and Postabortion Care in Rwanda” , by Paulin Basinga, et al. appears in the March 2012 issue of the journal Studies in Family Planning.
[TW unsafe abortion] Anatomy of an unsafe abortion
[This is a heartbreaking story about what happens when abortion is restricted and stigmatized. Legality is meaningless unless pregnant people can actually access safe, legal abortions. There’s nothing pro-life about giving pregnant people no options. Essay by Dr. Jen Gunter. From her bio: I was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada and graduated from The University of Manitoba School of Medicine in 1990 at the age of 23 (I started young). In 1995 I completed my OB/GYN training at the University of Western Ontario and moved to the United States to complete a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Kansas. After completing my fellowship I continued my studies in pain medicine. I am board certified in OB/GYN in both Canada and the United States. I am also board certified in pain medicine by the American Board of Pain Medicine and by the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. That’s why I have so many letters after my name.]
I was in clinic when I heard the overhead STAT page to the emergency room.
As I sprinted down the stairs, I ran through the possible scenarios. I wasn’t on call, so the day to day gynecologic emergencies weren’t my purview. I hadn’t operated on anyone in the past few weeks, so unlikely to be one of my own patients with a complication.
Logically there was only one conclusion.
A nurse was holding the staff entrance to the ER open. From the look on her face I surmised this was to save the minute or two it would take to punch in the numbers on the lock and inquire at the desk for patient’s whereabouts.
“Down there,” she pointed.
On the gurney lay a young woman the color of white marble. The red pool between her legs, ominously free of clots, offered a silent explanation.
“She arrived a few minutes ago. Not even a note.” My resident was breathless with anger, adrenaline, and panic.
I had an idea who she went to. The same one the others did. The same one many more would visit. A doctor, but considering what I had seen he could’t have any formal gynecology training. The only thing he offered that the well-trained provers didn’t was a cut-rate price. If you don’t know to ask, well, a doctor is a doctor. That’s assuming you are empowered enough to have such a discussion. I was also pretty sure his office didn’t offer interpreters.
I needed equipment not available in an emergency room. I looked at the emergency room attending. “Call the OR and tell them we need a room. Now.” And then I turned to my resident. I was going to tell him to physically make sure a room, any room, was ready when we arrived, but he had already sprinted towards the stairs. He knew.
We didn’t wait for an orderly. A terrified medical student and I raced down the hallway with the gurney. The amorphous red pool dripped onto the floor as we rounded the corner to the elevators.
The double doors that led to the operating rooms swung open. “The urology room. They’re between cases,” my resident shouted.
I saw an anesthesiologist out of the corner of my eye. “You. Now!” Most emergencies can wait a few minutes to check in at the front desk and for the anesthesiologist and nursing staff to take stock of the situation. This was not one of them.
The urologist, whose room I appropriated, blustered and sputtered in behind me. “What the fuck are you doing barging in, I’ve got another case…” but as we moved my patient over to the operating table and he saw the blood, he stopped. He grabbed a tray of instruments and opened. “I’ll be your scrub.”
The anesthesiologist was pissed. Not really mad, more riled up than anything. No one likes to be blind sided, no matter how well intentioned. And he probably thought I was over reacting. That is until he put in another intravenous.
“Fuck.” What looked like blood tinged water flashed back.
And now they all understood what I knew the second I laid eyes on this patient. Abortions that go horribly wrong bleed out. Quickly.
The room filled with surgeons, nurses, and students eager to help. To do something. Anything.
I opened the vagina and by feel clamped through the holes on either side of the uterus where I knew from experience I would find the uterine arteries, the likely site of the puncture. I didn’t know which side, and at that point it didn’t matter. I just needed to stop the blood flow. It took less than a minute. She would have bled to death if I had opened her belly.
As the bleeding had stopped, it was up to the anesthesiologist to fix the hematologic tempest. A vascular system so traumatized by sheer blood loss that it had run haywire and lost the ability to clot. Disseminated intravascular coagulation. This is how many young women die when an abortion goes wrong.
My hands started to shake. Everything from leaving my clinic to this point had been one crescendoing adrenaline-fueled reflex. Now that there was nothing physically for me to do the energy had to go somewhere.
I looked around. A forest of IV poles, laden with blood instead of fruit. Everyone not directly helping was running back and forth to the pharmacy or blood bank. A nurse and another surgeon started to clean the floor. We were all bonded by this nameless woman whose life we were desperately trying to save. And we were bearing witness, because we knew if she died it was unlikely anyone would read about her in the paper. It was unlikely her family would protest. A myriad of potential reasons. Shame of the abortion. Distrust of government. Fear of immigration officials.
The urologist, a grizzled older man with whom I had nothing in common except a medical degree and this patient, rested his hand on my shoulder. It was a kind, fatherly gesture. The weight was comforting.
“You done good.” He said. And then he added, “Those bastards.”
I knew he was referring not just to the physician who did this procedure, but to everyone in society who had contributed to a disadvantaged woman finding herself in such a desperate situation.
____________________________________
ETA: In a follow up post Dr. Jen Gunter confirms that the above case was POST Roe v. Wade and that the patient survived.
Are You In The Know? [Teens Edition]
The term “teens” refers to 15–19-year-olds, unless otherwise specified.
[All of these statistics are cis-centric, unfortunately.]
Sexual Activity and Marriage Among Teens:
- When American teens have sex for the first time, is it typically with a significant other or a more casual acquaintance? Seven in 10 female teens and more than five in 10 male teens report that their first sexual experience was with a steady partner, while 16% of females and 28% of males report a first sexual experience with someone whom they had just met or who was just a friend.[48]
- What is known about the age at first sex among female teens in developing regions? In Latin America and the Caribbean, more than four in 10 sexually active female teens have had sex by their 18th birthday. In Sub-Saharan Africa, six in 10 female teens have had sex by that age.[49]
- Are teen marriage rates similar throughout the developing world? No. The poorer the country or region in the developing world, the greater the chances are that female teens are married. [13,50] An estimated four in 10 women aged 15–19 living in low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Central and Southeast Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean are married, compared with slightly more than one in 10 in upper-middle– and high-income countries in these regions.
Contraceptive Use Among Teens:
- Do American teens typically use a contraceptive method the first time they have sex? How about the most recent time they had sex? The majority of U.S. teens use a contraceptive method the first time they have sex (78% of females and 85% of males).[48] Among teens who are already sexually active, more than eight in 10 female teens and nine in 10 male teens reported using a method the last time they had sex.
- Which contraceptive method is most commonly used by American teens? The male condom is the most common contraceptive method used at first sex, as well as at most recent sex. Almost seven in 10 U.S. females and eight in 10 males used condoms the first time they had sex, and more than five in 10 female teens and almost eight in 10 male teens used it the last time they had sex.[48]
- How do American teens’ sexual behaviors compare with those of European teens? Teens in the United States and Europe have similar levels of sexual activity. However, European teens are more likely to use contraceptives and to use more effective contraceptive methods; therefore, they have substantially lower pregnancy rates than U.S. teens.[51]
- Do teens in developing regions have adequate access to contraceptives? No. Fewer than one-third of married female teens who want to avoid pregnancy use modern contraceptive methods. Among unmarried teens who want to avoid pregnancy, almost seven out of 10 in South Central and Southeast Asia and in Sub-Saharan Africa, and almost half in Latin America, do not use modern contraceptive methods.[13,50]
- Do any U.S. states give minors confidential access to contraceptive services? Half of states explicitly allow minors to obtain contraceptive services without a parent’s involvement or interpret the absence of a law in favor of minors’ access.[52] The remaining states allow access to contraceptive services without parental involvement only for certain groups of minors, such as married teens.
- What impact could U.S. parental involvement laws have on minors’ contraceptive use? While parental involvement can be helpful for some minors, others will remain sexually active but will not seek contraceptive services if they are required to tell their parents,[53] which puts them at increased risk for unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections.
- Do sexually active teens in the United States have a need for publicly funded contraceptive services? Some five million U.S. teens are in need of publicly funded contraceptive services and supplies. They represent about 30% of all U.S. women with such a need. Many sexually active teens need publicly funded contraceptive services so that they can obtain confidential care without having to depend on their family’s resources or their private insurance.[8]
Pregnancy and Births Among Teens:
- What is the teen pregnancy rate in the United States? Overall, about 70 pregnancies occur for every 1,000 female teens. However, when only female teens who have ever had sex, the pregnancy rate is much higher, about 150 per 1,000.[54]
- Is there a difference in teen pregnancy rates between older and younger teens in the United States? Yes. Two-thirds of all U.S. teen pregnancies occur among 18–19-year-olds. The pregnancy rate for younger teens is almost 40 per 1,000 women aged 15–17, while the rate for teens aged 18–19 is nearly 120 per 1,000 women.[54]
- Does the teen pregnancy rate vary by race in the United States? Yes. The U.S. pregnancy rate for both black and Hispanic teens (126 and 127 per 1,000 women aged 15–19, respectively) is almost three times that of non-Hispanic white teens (44 per 1,000).[54]
- Do teen fatherhood rates vary by race in the United States? Yes. The U.S. rate of fatherhood among black men aged 15–19 (34 per 1,000) is more than twice that among white men (15 per 1,000).[55]
- What proportion of American teen pregnancies are unintended? Of the approximately 750,000 pregnancies that occur among teens every year, more than 80% are unintended.[54] Teens account for almost one-fifth of all unintended pregnancies.[26] [Prolonged Eye Contact comment: one more reason to make emergency contraception available to younger teenagers over the counter without a prescription.]
- Is the rate of unintended pregnancy among American teens higher or lower than that among older women? Calculations of the unintended pregnancy rate typically include all women, whether or not they are sexually active. While most older women are sexually active, many teens are not, so the rate among teens is often understated.[56] The unintended pregnancy rate among sexually active teens only is more than twice the rate among all women.
- How many unintended pregnancies occur each year among teens in developing countries? Each year, there are more than six million unintended pregnancies among teens in South Central and Southeast Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.[13]
- What are the outcomes of U.S. teen pregnancies? The majority (nearly 60%) of U.S. teen pregnancies end in birth, while 27% end in abortion and the remainder end in miscarriage.[54]
- Which countries have the most teen births? Worldwide, half of all teen births each year occur in just seven countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria and the United States.[57]
Abortion Among Teens:
- What proportion of all U.S. abortions occur among teens? Just 17% of all U.S. abortions are obtained by teenagers.[41] Teens aged 18–19 account for 11% of all abortions and 15–17-year-olds account for 6%; teens younger than age 15 account for another 0.4%. Teens aged 18–19 obtain two out of three teen abortions.
- What is the abortion rate among American teens? There are 19 abortions for every 1,000 women aged 15–19 in the United States.[54] The abortion rate is higher than average for black and Hispanic teens (44 and 24 per 1,000 women aged 15–19, respectively) and lower than average for non-Hispanic whites (11 per 1,000).
- What proportion of all unsafe abortions in the developing world occur among teens? Teens account for 14% of all unsafe abortions that occur in the developing world.[58] The number of teens in the developing world who have legal and safe abortions is unknown.[44]
- Does obtaining an abortion have an impact on U.S. teens’ mental health? Studies of U.S. teens who have had an abortion show that this group is not at higher risk for depression or low self-esteem than teens who carry their pregnancy to term.[59] Similarly, studies indicate a lack of negative mental health effect of abortion among adult women.
- Do many states have laws requiring parental involvement in teens’ abortions? The majority of states have laws that require parents to consent to or be notified of a teen’s decision to have an abortion, but only a few require both parental notification and consent. A handful of states do not require any parental involvement. [60]
- What is the effect of laws requiring parental involvement in teens’ abortions? Laws requiring parental involvement in minors’ abortions appear to do little to reduce teen abortion or pregnancy rates.[61] These laws do, however, force some teens to navigate complicated judicial bypass systems to obtain waivers, or to seek abortions in a state without such requirements. These barriers delay access to the procedure, reducing safety and resulting in later, more costly abortions.
Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) Among Teens:
- How does the incidence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people in the United States compare with that among older adults? Even though young people aged 15–24 represent only about 25% of sexually active Americans, they account for nearly half of all new STIs annually. Every year, roughly nine million new STIs occur among U.S. teens and young adults.[62] Rates among U.S. teens are much higher than rates among teens in Canada and Western Europe.[63]
- Do many states give minors access to STI services without parental involvement? All 50 states and the District of Columbia give minors access to services related to sexually transmitted infections without parental involvement, although more than 10 states require that a minor be of a certain age (generally 12 or 14) to do so.[64]
Sources of Information About Sex:
- Who do American teens trust the most for information on sex? American teens rank parents, peers and the media as important sources of sexual health information.[65]
- Do U.S. states require that formal sex education curricula be medically accurate? Only a handful of states require that the information presented in sex education classes be medically accurate and factual (14 states, as of October 2011).[66]
- What subjects are usually included in formal U.S. sex education curricula? Virtually all teens receive formal instruction about STIs, and more than eight in 10 receive instruction on abstinence. However, about one-third of teens do not receive any instruction about contraception.[67]
- Do U.S. teens who receive abstinence education also receive information about birth control? Not always. About one in four teens (23% of females and 28% of males) receive abstinence education without receiving any formal instruction about birth control.[68]
- Worldwide, do teens get comprehensive sex education in schools or other formal settings? Most often they do not. Teens in many parts of the world do not get comprehensive sex education. Many also report feeling shy about obtaining information and contraception from formal settings, particularly in countries where some influential groups believe that such education encourages sexual promiscuity.[69]
- What impact does comprehensive sex education have on teen sexual behavior worldwide? Comprehensive sex education, which includes information on both contraception and abstinence, often results in delayed sexual activity, lower frequency of sex and fewer sexual partners.[49] This type of sex education can also increase condom or contraceptive use and reduce risky sexual behaviors. Receiving comprehensive sex education does not lead teens to have sex earlier.
- What impact does abstinence-only sex education have on teens? A review of 13 commonly used abstinence-only curricula found that 11 had incorrect, misleading or distorted information.[70] Some abstinence-only programs have been shown to deter contraceptive use among sexually active teens, increasing their risk of pregnancy and STIs.[67] Moreover, there is no strong evidence that abstinence-only programs influence teens to delay sexual activity, to have fewer sexual partners or, if already sexually active, to become abstinent.[71]
Are You In The Know? [Abortion Edition]
[These statistics are entirely cis-centric, unfortunately.]
Abortion Incidence:
- How many abortions occur each year worldwide? More than 40 million abortions are performed worldwide each year. More than 85% of all abortions occur in developing countries.[30]
- Are women in developed countries more likely to have an abortion than women in developing countries? A woman’s likelihood of having an abortion is similar whether she lives in a developed or developing country. Each year, there are 24 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15–44 in developed countries, compared with 29 per 1,000 in developing countries.[30] At the regional level, the lowest abortion rate in the world is in Western Europe (12 per 1,000), and the highest is in Eastern Europe (43 per 1,000).
- How many abortions occur each year in the United States? There were roughly 1.2 million abortions performed in 2008, and the abortion rate was 20 per 1,000 women aged 15–44.[31] Put differently, about 2% of American women aged 15–44 had an abortion that year.
- How does the U.S. rate of abortion compare with the worldwide rate? Worldwide, there are about 28 abortions for every 1,000 women of childbearing age (15–44).[30] In the United States, there are about 20 abortions per 1,000 women.[31]
- How likely is it that a U.S. woman will obtain an abortion in her lifetime? Barring any changes in the U.S. abortion rate (as of 2008), 30% of women will have an abortion by age 45; 25% of women will have an abortion by age 30; and 8% by age 20.[32]
- Is abortion becoming more or less common in the United States? Less common. The overall U.S. abortion rate declined steadily between 1980 and 2005.[31] However, between 2005 and 2008 that overall decline stagnated, while rates increased among poor women.[32]
- How many abortions occurred before the procedure became legal throughout the United States in 1973? Estimates of the annual number of illegal abortions in the 1950s and 1960s range from 200,000 to 1.2 million.[33] Because the procedure was illegal under most circumstances in most states, women had few options aside from a dangerous, clandestine procedure. As late as 1965, illegal abortions accounted for an estimated 201 deaths in the United States—17% of all officially reported pregnancy-related deaths that year.[34]
Safety of Abortion:
- How safe is abortion? When performed under proper medical conditions by trained personnel in a hygienic setting, abortion is an extremely safe procedure. Fewer than 1% of all U.S. abortion patients experience a major complication and the risk of death associated with abortion is 10 times as low as that associated with childbirth. (34) However, when the procedure is performed by an unskilled person, or in an environment not conducive to safe medical circumstances, it is considered unsafe. The risk of death associated with unsafe abortion worldwide is 30 deaths per 100,000 live births.[35]
- Are most abortions safe or unsafe? Almost half of all abortions that occur worldwide—about 22 million in 2008—are unsafe.[35] Between 2003 and 2008, the global unsafe abortion rate remained unchanged at 14 per 1,000 women aged 15–44 years. The highest rate of unsafe procedures—36 per 1,000 women—was in Eastern and Middle Africa.
- How does the rate of unsafe abortion in developing regions compare with the rate in developed regions? The rate of unsafe abortion in developing regions is 16 times that in developed regions.[35] Unsafe abortions are rare in developed regions because the procedure is widely legal and therefore likely to be performed under safe conditions; in developing regions, where abortion is largely illegal, more than half of all abortions are unsafe.[30]
- How harmful is unsafe abortion? Complications from unsafe abortion account for an estimated 13% of maternal deaths worldwide, some 47,000 annually.[35] An estimated five million women are hospitalized each year for treatment of abortion-related complications.[36]
- How many abortion-related deaths are there in the United States each year? In 2007, six women in the United States were reported to have died as a result of abortion complications.[37]
- Does abortion lead to mental health problems for women? For two decades, the highest quality scientific evidence available has led to the conclusion that having an abortion does not cause mental health problems for most women. A woman’s mental health before she faces an unwanted pregnancy is the best indicator of her likely mental health after an abortion. [38]
Medication Abortion In The United States:
- What is medication abortion? Medication abortion, an alternative to surgical abortion, involves the administration of two drugs, mifepristone and misoprostol, to terminate the pregnancy. Medication abortion is an option only in the first nine weeks of pregnancy.
- How common is medication abortion in the United States? Medication abortion has become an integral part of U.S. abortion care. In 2008, medication abortion accounted for slightly more than one-quarter of all abortions performed before nine weeks’ gestation.[31]
- How many U.S. providers offer medication abortion? In 2008, almost six in 10 U.S. abortion providers (more than 1,060 facilities), provided medication abortions.[31] At least 9% of providers offered only medication abortion services.
- Has medication abortion expanded access to abortion in the United States? Because it does not involve surgery, medication abortion has the potential to make abortion services more accessible, particularly in areas without a surgical abortion provider. But research suggests that although use of mifepristone has become widespread and has contributed to the shift toward earlier abortions, its use has not yet substantially improved U.S. women’s geographic access to abortion services.[39]
Characteristics of U.S. Women Having Abortions:
- How old are most women who obtain abortions in the United States? More than half of American women obtaining abortions are in their 20s.[32] Women aged 20–24 have the highest abortion rate of any age-group (40 abortions per 1,000 women).
- How many U.S. women obtaining abortions are already mothers? Six in 10 American women having an abortion already have a child, and more than three in 10 already have two or more children.[32]
- What proportion of U.S. women obtaining abortions are religious? More than seven in 10 U.S. women obtaining an abortion report a religious affiliation (37% protestant, 28% Catholic and 7% other), and 25% attend religious services at least once a month.[38] The abortion rate for protestant women is 15 per 1,000 women, while Catholic women have a slightly higher rate, 22 per 1,000.[32]
- What is the racial or ethnic background of U.S. women who have abortions? No racial or ethnic group makes up a majority of women having abortions: 36% are non-Hispanic white, 30% are non-Hispanic black, 25% are Hispanic and 9% are women of other races.[32]
- Which racial or ethnic groups are most likely to have abortions in the United States? Non-Hispanic black and Hispanic women have higher rates of abortion (40 and 29 per 1,000 women aged 15–44, respectively) than non-Hispanic white women do (12 per 1,000).[32] The higher rates reflect the fact that black and Hispanic women have high unintended pregnancy rates (91 and 82 per 1,000 women, respectively), compared with non-Hispanic white women (36 per 1,000 women).[26]
- What proportion of abortions in the United States are among poor women? Women with family incomes below the federal poverty level ($18,530 for a family of three) account for more than 40% of all abortions.[32] They also have one of the country’s highest abortion rates (52 per 1,000 women). In contrast, higher-income women (with family incomes at or above 200% of the poverty line) have a rate of nine abortions per 1,000, which is about half the national rate.
- Why do women in the United States have abortions? Most women identify multiple reasons for having an abortion: Three-fourths cite concerns for or responsibility to other individuals, including children; three-fourths say they cannot afford a child; three-fourths say that having a baby would interfere with work, school or the ability to care for dependents; and half say they do not want to be a single parent or are having problems with their husband or partner.[40] The reasons U.S. women give for having an abortion reflect their understanding of the responsibilities of parenthood and family life.
- In which regions of the United States are women most likely to have an abortion? In 2008, the abortion rate was highest in the Northeast (27 abortions per 1,000 women), followed by the West, the South and the Midwest (22, 18 and 14 per 1,000, respectively).[31]
- How many abortions in the United States occur in the second trimester? In the United States, only about one in 10 abortions occur in the second trimester. More than nine in 10 occur in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy and more than six in 10 occur in the first eight weeks.[37] The availability of medication abortion and new techniques that allow surgical abortions to be performed earlier in pregnancy are likely to reinforce the trend toward earlier abortions.
Cost of Abortion Services In The United States:
- What is the average cost of a first-trimester abortion in the United States? In 2009, the median charge for a surgical abortion at 10 weeks’ gestation was $470; but since most U.S. women obtain abortions at facilities with lower charges, the average amount paid was $451.[31] The median cost for a medication abortion was $490 and women paid an average of $483.
- How do U.S. women pay for their abortion procedures? In 2008, just one-third of privately insured U.S. women having abortions used that coverage to pay for their procedures; it is not clear how many of their plans offered full or partial coverage for abortion, or how many women were deterred from using their coverage because of concerns about confidentiality.[41] Among women having abortions that year, methods of payment included paid out of pocket 9 almost 60%), private insurance (12%), and Medicaid (20%; almost all of whom lived in the few states that use their own funds to cover medically necessary abortions).
Abortion Providers In The United States:
- Where are abortions performed? Abortions are performed at clinics, hospitals and physicians’ offices. The vast majority of U.S. abortions (about 94%) are performed at clinics.[31]
- Is the number of abortion providers in the United States increasing or decreasing? The number of U.S. abortion providers decreased 38% between its peak, in 1982, and 2005.[31] In 2008, however, there were 1,793 providers, about the same number as in 2005.
- Is it difficult for women in the United States to reach a provider? Some 87% of U.S. counties do not have an abortion provider and 35% of women aged 15–44 live in those counties.[32] The proportions are lower in the Northeast (53% and 18%) and the West (74% and 13%). In 2005, nonhospital providers estimated that while more than seven in 10 women traveled less than 50 miles to access abortion services, nearly two in 10 traveled 50–100 miles and almost one in 10 traveled more than 100 miles.[42]
- Are U.S. abortion clinics primarily located in black communities? No. Despite claims by antiabortion activists that most U.S. abortion clinics are located in black neighborhoods in order to target black women, fewer than one in 10 abortion clinics are actually located in predominantly black communities. [43]
- What proportion of U.S. abortion providers experience harassment, and what types of harassment do they experience? In 2008, nearly nine in 10 abortion clinics in the United States experienced at least one form of harassment.[31] Levels of harassment were particularly high in the Midwest (85%) and the South (75%). Overall, picketing was the most common harassment, reported by 87% of clinics
- Why do the Guttmacher Institute’s U.S. abortion data differ from those compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)? Guttmacher’s abortion provider data are gathered through a national census of all known facilities that provide abortions in the United States, an effort the Institute has undertaken since 1973.[41] The CDC compiles data on U.S. abortion procedures it receives from state departments of health; there are a few states that do not collect or report data on abortion procedures at all. Therefore, Guttmacher’s data on abortion are considered more complete.
Legal Restrictions On Abortion:
- Does making abortion illegal make it less common? No. The criminalization of abortion does not eliminate the procedure; instead it forces women to turn to unskilled providers who work in clandestine, unsafe conditions, thus increasing their risk of injury and death. Many developing countries have highly restrictive laws, but also high abortion rates. While the legal restrictions in these countries do not lessen the incidence of abortion, they greatly increase the risk to women.[44] The risk of death resulting from abortion in developing regions is almost 60 times that in developed regions.[35]
- What proportion of the world’s women live in countries with highly restrictive abortion laws? As of 2008, some 40% of women of childbearing age (15–44 years) live in countries with highly restrictive laws (i.e., prohibiting abortion altogether, or allowing it only to save a woman’s life or to protect her physical or mental health).[44]
- What is Roe v. Wade? Roe v. Wade is the 1973 Supreme Court decision that recognized that a woman’s right to privacy includes her right to decide, in consultation with her physician, whether to continue her pregnancy. Roe also established that after the fetus is viable (that is, able to live outside the woman’s body, with or without artificial aid), states may restrict or ban abortions entirely, except when necessary to protect the woman’s life or health.
- What is the Hyde Amendment? First implemented in 1977, the Hyde Amendment prevents federal Medicaid funds from being used to pay for abortion except in cases of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother. However, states may use their own funds to cover the cost of abortion services for women on Medicaid; as of October 2011, 17 states currently do so in at least some circumstances.[45]
- How does the Hyde Amendment affect low-income women’s access to abortion in the United States? Approximately one-third of women obtaining abortions have Medicaid health care coverage, but many cannot use it to pay for their abortion procedures.[46] Women who have to pay for an abortion out of pocket may be forced to delay the procedure to raise the necessary funds, increasing both the cost and health risks associated with a later procedure. Many women must divert money meant for rent, child care, utility bills and food to pay for abortion care. Moreover, some women who are unable to obtain funding for abortions are forced to carry the pregnancy to term.
- How do states restrict abortion access? States adopt many types of laws to restrict abortion access. The most common restrictions on abortion are parental involvement requirements for minors, state-mandated counseling and waiting periods, and limitations on public funding and private insurance. All abortion laws enacted by states must include an exception to protect the woman’s life and health. The vast majority of states have such laws in place.[47]
A man who assisted in autopsies in a big urban hospital, starting in the mid-1950s, describes the many deaths from botched abortions that he saw. ‘The deaths stopped overnight in 1973.’ He never saw another in the 18 years before he retired. ‘That,’ he says, ‘ought to tell people something about keeping abortion legal.’
— Sunday was the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade (via motherjones)
100% Pro Life [TW: rape apologism, slut shaming]
I have read a lot of pro choice arguments today and I have to say the “If abortion becomes illegal women will do it anyway but they will have unsafe back alley abortions and possible die from it” argument is the most hilarious so far.
If someone decides to shove a coat hanger up their vagina to kill a baby then I could care less if she died too. Why should I give a fuck if you bleed to death or get an infection and die from killing a baby? I don’t. Maybe, if all of the women who thought it was too much trouble to keep their legs closed or too much trouble to carry the unwanted baby to term then give it up for adoption all gave themselves back alley coat hangar jobs the world would be rid of baby killers? Sounds good to me.
Riddle me this, Batman. If an unborn baby isn’t alive then how come it can die in the womb?
I don’t give a shit what your religion is, murder is wrong.
Have any of you pro-choicers even bothered to find out for yourself how an abortion is done or what an aborted baby looks like? It’s horrendous. You wouldn’t do that to anyone walking or talking today but you’d do it to your own fucking baby simply because it isn’t born yet and you don’t want to be responsible for something you got yourself into?
Oh, I hear the outbursts now…But what if it was rape? You have to live the rest of your life knowing you were raped and no abortion is going to make you forget that awfulness and somehow your selfish ass still can’t manage to keep that fucking baby alive long enough to pop it out and tell the hospital you don’t fucking want it? Really?
I do not hope to change any pro-choicers opinion on this because you are all selfish assholes that believe in abolishing innocent lives so you can continue living uninterrupted because you feel you are so self entitled to throw away your responsibilities a.k.a dismembered dead fetus’ in a fucking trash bag.
And by the way, if abortion becomes illegal and women are using coat hangars again that will indeed be me you hear applauding as you bleed to death and rid the country of all the self centered murderous bitches. :) Have a nice day
Edit because I don’t know how to respond to the comments here:
What’s that pro choicers? You don’t like it when I treat you with the same disdain that you treat unwanted pregnancies? How does it feel that I wouldn’t mind if your life was snuffed out just like millions of unborn babies? OH, don’t like it? Too bad, deal with it. You get what you give <3
You are a despicable being.
>”Pro-life”
>Doesn’t give a shit about people dying because of laws they themselves want enacted
Dis some quality prolifelove.
Such a shaky grasp on reality that it borders hilarious and downright disturbing. How many times must it be explained that death isn’t always bad, killing isn’t always bad, killing doesn’t automatically equal homicide, and homicide doesn’t always equate to murder? Honestly words have meanings and nuance is healthy. Banning abortion doesn’t “save” one single embryo but it kills thousands of pregnant people and maims millions. When does the pro-“life” part show itself in this equation?
(Source: prettybeingme)
One of the things that puzzles me about the anti-abortion lobby is what they must imagine a world without access to safe and legal abortion would look like.
— Paul Sims, New Humanist (via paintingmars)
(via fuckyeahchoice)
All graphics taken from the IPAS report “Five Portraits: How Safe Abortion Saves Women’s Lives.”
[pregnant people, not just women]
*There’s 5 graphics, click on them to see full size/all info because the format of the photoset is weird.
Visit http://www.ipas.org/fiveportraits to read about how safe abortion saves women’s lives.
To make a donation to Ipas, go to http://www.ipas.org/donate.
Every year, 21 million women worldwide risk their lives with an unsafe abortion. Ipas is working to solve this problem. Ipas believes that no woman should have to risk her life or health because she lacks safe reproductive-health choices; learn more on http://www.ipas.org.
The photographs used in this video are for illustrative purposes only; they do not imply any particular attitudes, behaviors, or actions on the part of any person who appears in the photographs. Unless otherwise noted, photos in this video are copyrighted by Richard Lord, Thinkstock or Ipas. For more detailed information, please see http://www.ipas.org/fiveportraits.
[pregnant people, not just women]
Cenk and Ana Kasparian talk about women living in states with such restrictive abortion laws that women may be prosecuted for “self-administering” medicine such as RU-486. “They don’t have a real right to abortion, if they can’t actually get one,” Cenk says. “When you ask the pro-life movement, they say, ‘Just keep your legs closed.’ No, no, no. They have a Constitutional right to this, and it’s being denied all over the country.”
[pregnant people, not just women]
“Marilyn”
[TW death due to illegal abortion]
Let me tell you about my pretty, wonderful, talented mother. She died in March of 1929 from peritonitis, which resulted from an illegal abortion she had.
I had just turned six when we lost her. She left her parents, my father, and five children. My brother Gerald, the oldest, was twelve. Next was my sister Eileen, who was ten. Rose was next at eight. After me came Constance, who was only eighteen months old when our mother died. My mother was born in 1895, so she was only thirty-four when she died. She was too young! We were all too young, but I guess you are never really old enough for something like that. …
My mother, whose name was Claudia, was a very talented musician, but with five children she didn’t work outside the home. She was a full-time mother and a wonderful one. She had a lovely voice and was the first woman to sing on the radio in Pittsburgh. The song she sang was “The Prisoner’s Song,” and the first words were “If I had the wings of an angel, over these prison walls I would fly.” It turned out to be horribly prophetic. She was also a pianist, and she sang light opera in the Pittsburgh area, Victor Herbert and that sort of thing. She also made bread, was active in the PTA, and sang in the church choir. She gave of herself to her community and to her family. She was a good person, and what happened to her was wrong.
I didn’t learn until I was sixteen what Mother died of. The official word at the time, and what I was brought up to believe, was that she died of pneumonia. My brother didn’t learn of the true cause of her death until about ten years ago, when he was in his late sixties. I never found out why she wanted an abortion or where she got it. No one ever talked about that, not my father or her parents or anyone.
She was pregnant eight times, and it was that eighth one that killed her. I derived this kind of information by asking probing questions in my later years, after I was a parent myself. Her first pregnancy ended in a spontaneous abortion. Then my brother was born the next year. Between me and my youngest sister, unlike the rest of the siblings, is almost a four-year span. In that interval, she had a successful abortion. Then my baby sister was born, and then the next year was the abortion that took Mother’s life. …
I did learn from my sister Eileen that Mother used a knitting needle. Eileen was the oldest girl, so she may have had conversations with our mother before she died. Mother lay dying at home for several days before she went to the hospital. Eileen lay on a cot right by her bed and was with her all the time during those several days. My mother knew she was dying, and she said to Eileen, “You are going to be the mother now.”
The knitting needle perforated Mother’s uterus, and she developed peritonitis and then gangrene. The doctor who was treating her was just our family doctor. He was not a skilled gynecologist or anything. He didn’t know what he was doing, and I don’t think he knew what he was dealing with either. He doctored her at home for several days. Then one day he said that she was just too sick and he would have to take her to the hospital. She was in the hospital for three days before she died.
We were all there when my mother died - my grandparents, my father, and all five of us kids, even my baby sister. Mother died at seven-thirty in the evening. We children were kept downstairs in a little waiting room, and I remember my father coming down and saying that Mother was gone. Mother’s death notice in the paper said that she died of pneumonia, and that is what we all always believed. That was a lie.
Then we had what I would call an Irish wake. My grandfather had been born in Ireland, so that is how he would have wanted to do things for his daughter’s death. My mother’s body lay for three days in an open casket in our living room. The casket was of beautifully polished mahogany. It was a magnificent casket, and the inside was lined with tufted satin, as if to say, “This is a beautiful place to be.” Although dead, my mother looked very alive to me. We children all just stood and stared at the casket. My next-older sister, Rose, said to my baby sister, Constance, “Go give Mother a kiss,” and my eighteen-month-old sister crawled into the casket to do so. These are things one doesn’t forget. Those images are imprinted on the mind forever. When one’s mother is laid out dead like this, no matter how young you are, you know that death has occurred. This made a huge impression on me and on all of us children. I will simply never forget my lovely, young, dead mother laid out in the parlor in her best clothes.
I lost my mother under tragic and unnecessary circumstances. Then what remained of the family was also torn asunder. My father’s own family all came up from Baltimore for the funeral. After my mother’s death, my father just packed us all up and moved us to Baltimore. Here he was with a full-time job and five children, the youngest of whom was just a toddler. He was lucky to have a job, because it was the beginning of the Depression and a lot of people didn’t. So he stayed in Pittsburgh and worked, and we all went to different places in Baltimore.
That move to a strange place, so soon after our mother’s death, was a very significant and very traumatic event for all of us. My brother Gerald went to live with my paternal grandparents. My sisters Rose and Eileen went to live in the Episcopal School for Girls, and Constance and I were sent to live with my father’s eldest sister, who was a widow from World War I.
My aunt had two boys who were a lot older than we were. They were ten and twelve, and we were just little. They had never seen us before, and suddenly here we were in their home. They didn’t like it, and they didn’t much like us. Also, they were pretty poor, and when you added two more mouths to feed, it became really bad. …
My aunt was a desperate woman, and it showed in the way she responded to us. She simply couldn’t handle two more children. She tried, but it was bad. I missed my mother so much. I was also suddenly deprived of my father, whom I adored, and my maternal grandparents, with whom I was very close. It also seemed like I had suddenly lost my brother and sisters as well. …
Once, in 1950, after I had become a mother, my father and I had a rare and unusually intimate conversation. I had never had such a conversation with him before, and I don’t think I ever had another one afterward. I was trying to find the reasons for what I saw as my mother’s tragic and unnecessary death, and I said, “Dad, why didn’t you and Mother use birth control? You know, it was available then.” His immediate response was, “Honey, we never talked about those things.” Think about that. My mother had to die because certain things couldn’t be discussed! I’m sorry, but that makes me very angry. That was when I drew the broad conclusion, which I still hold, that when we don’t talk about things, women die.
My grandmother Sarah was the one who first told me how my mother died. We were standing in her kitchen - a particularly warm and comforting place, I always thought - and I said, “Nanny, how did Mother die?” She looked at me and said, so softly I could barely hear her, “She died from an abortion.” I was stunned. I had no idea. …
We were so beautifully cared for before my mother’s death and such bedraggled ragamuffins after. “Before” and “after” pictures show a very telling contrast, and they are still painful for me to look at. My parents met on a riverboat ride. They both loved that, and we children loved it too. It was one of our favorite family outings. One spring evening my mother and father were going to take us all to ride on the riverboat. My younger sister was just an infant and too young to be dressed up, but the three older little girls were all dressed in matching navy blue coats with red satin linings. My brother was wearing a navy blue jacket and a tie. We were properly dressed and properly cared for. Our hair was neatly trimmed, shiny and clean, and well groomed. Dad took a picture of all of us on the front porch on a white wicker swing. We are all smiling and looking into the camera. It’s true that we were happy because we were going on a boat ride, but it was more than that. We were happy, loved, well-cared-for children, and it showed.
In pictures taken after Mother’s death, we all looked markedly different. For one thing, there were many less pictures being taken. And all of a sudden it seemed like we had no clothes. I think my father didn’t understand that children’s clothes are outgrown before they ever wear out. He didn’t realize how fast children grow, and in some of the “after” pictures you see each of us wearing clothes with sleeves that are too short. Everything is mismatched, unironed, and generally uncared for. Buttons are missing and shoelaces are broken. Our hair looks wild and uncombed. I guess my father didn’t understand that the way we looked before didn’t just happen automatically and naturally. It took a lot of effort by Mother. I don’t mean to seem too critical of him. He did his best, but in many ways he was as bedraggled as we were.
All of us siblings married and had children. In one sense, we are all functional, productive adults. However, there is a lingering visible trauma, or maybe a sort of emotional fallout, that we all still carry around. That mahogany coffin is part of each of us.
The Worst of Times: Illegal Abortion - Survivors, Practitioners, Coroners, Cops, and Children of Women Who Died Talk About Its Horrors, Patricia G. Miller, 1993, HarperCollins, New York.
“Motherhood By Choice, Not Chance”
Based on the trilogy, From the Back-Alleys to the Supreme Court & Beyond, this riveting film brings alive the history of the struggle for women’s reproductive rights in the U.S. and the chilling facts about the current threat to those rights. Intimate interviews reveal the passion of people who moved abortion from the danger of the back alleys to a safe, legal choice.
This Woman’s Tale Of Ordering Abortion Drugs On The Internet Is The Most Depressing Story Ever
Excerpt:
Last Christmas Eve, a 32 year old Idaho woman took RU-486 in an attempt to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. This January, police found the fetal remains on her property and charged her with inducing her own abortion, a crime in the state. The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence, but not before everyone in town ostracized the woman for her acts. Now, some state officials want the authority to charge the woman again, and they’re prepared to use the case as a means to issue another challenge to Roe v. Wade in the Supreme Court. And we just won Depressing Abortion Story Bingo.
Newsweek’s Nancy Haas reports on the story of Jennie Linn McCormack, a tale that has all the makings of the feel-bad movie of the year.
McCormack already had three children when she discovered that she was pregnant a fourth time. The man who impregnated her had been sent to jail on robbery charges, she was living in a tiny apartment in southeastern Idaho, and had no job. She would have had to drive five hours round trip in order to get to Salt Lake City, Utah, the nearest clinic where abortion is offered. And because Utah requires a waiting period before a woman’s allowed to terminate a pregnancy and McCormack already had three kids, she couldn’t swing the logistics of ten hours in the car in order to pick up two measly pills. Her solution was to ask her sister in Mississippi to order it over the internet for her. When the pills arrived in the mail, Jennie McCormack attempted to induce her own abortion.
According to Newsweek, the abortion pill RU-486 has gained in popularity in recent years, not because taking pills is super fun, but because pro-life activists scare the shit out of people.
The proliferation of sites providing the drugs coincides with the pro-life movement’s highly effective protests and attacks on physicians, clinics, and health-care groups that offer abortions. The number of Planned Parenthood affiliates has been cut in half since 1987, to fewer than 100. Almost 90 percent of counties in the U.S. and 98 percent of rural counties have no abortion services. Many clinics in states where local physicians are pressured not to perform abortions now fly in doctors from out of state to provide abortions, says Melanie Zurek, the executive director of the Abortion Access Project, a Boston-based group that offers training and support to doctors and health organizations.
A 2007 Supreme Court ruling that paved the way for states to enact stricter late-term abortion regulations further drove women like McCormack to obtain terminations in a way that attempts to circumvent that regulation. When the going gets tough, the tough go to the internet for what they need.
[So you attack doctors and patients to the point where they’re all terrified, you make legal safe abortion unaffordable and inaccessible so early abortions are impossible, you enact restrictive laws which make later term abortions also impossible, you drive abortion methods underground so vulnerable pregnant people are buying pills online, and then you have the nerve to be both shocked and hell-bent on prosecuting this woman? GTFO.]
