US Women Use Herbs, Alcohol For DIY Abortions: Do They Have Autonomy Over Anatomy?

Abortion has always been a topic of debate in parliaments, nations and also religious settings. Abortion means the termination of a pregnancy supervised by a medical professional. The concept remains elementary, an abortion is performed either due to complications in pregnancy/ medical history/ genes or simply by the choice of the person carrying the child inside their own body. It couldn't be more direct yet in the 21st century we have successfully managed to complicate this. 

Women Use Herbs And Alcohol To End Pregnancy

Countries worldwide have some or other laws regarding abortion but broadly in just three categories, by completely prohibiting abortion, by making abortions legal, and by banning abortions but allowing them under certain medical emergencies or specifications. The irony remains that even though 49.6% of the world population is female, none of the administrative/ legal decisions on abortions are taken considering female anatomy and autonomy. The research we report to you today only documents women in the United States of America. 

The report states how women in the USA have started practising self-induced abortions due to multiple reasons. As many would know, on June 24th 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned which made abortion not a federal right anymore after 50 years since 1973. The banning of abortion in multiple states in the United States caused an upsurge of protest and global criticism from students, doctors and academics.

The research was published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Network Open and recorded the number of women practising self-induced abortion before and after Roe v. Wade was overturned. An increase from 2.4% to 3.3% was recorded, and even though it looks like a small increase, the number of women is in the thousands. Taking a sample of 7,000 women before the Roe v. Wade overturns and another sample of 7,100 after the judgement. 

The participants were asked the reason for wanting to end their abortion on their own, how was the experience and other follow-up questions. One of the researchers' authors, Lauren Ralph an epidemiologist at the University of California said, "Our data show that making abortion more difficult to access is not going to mean that people want or need an abortion less frequently."

Do Women Have Autonomy Over Anatomy?

Women gave multiple reasons from wanting privacy to being burdened by the financial stress but ultimately it all comes boiling down to not giving women enough autonomy over their anatomy. When we deny women the right to choose, inaccessible healthcare and legislation trump female autonomy, women will practise harmful ways to save themselves. It is not just about their anatomy but also how their socio-economic status gets fractured due to expensive healthcare, childcare, maternity care and education. 

The report mentioned a plethora of ways used by women to end their pregnancies which included, the consumption of emergency contraception and abortion pills without the supervision of a medical practitioner or a prescription. Other methods were more non-conventional and harmful like the usage of alcohol and drugs, resorting to physical harm in the abdomen or inserting objects to cause pain and terminating pregnancy. 

As one could predict, not all women were successful in performing self-abortion and some ended up with wounds, bleeding and internal injuries while others either had a miscarriage or continued to be pregnant. Like all the research conducted, not all those participating are transparent with their answers, especially on a sensitive and private subject like abortion. While it can be believed the numbers are in thousands not all of the women reported. 

Formal healthcare and childcare are basic rights that should be provided to every citizen but once you deny a person and strip them off of these crucial rights there is always a repercussion of people taking things on their own hands and using informal/ unprofessional ways. Abortion should be devoid of any political and religious sentiment and should be looked at closely from the childbearing person's socio-economic standpoint and their autonomy over their anatomy.

Views expressed are the author's own.