Self-managed abortion is a pillar of Fòs Feminista’s strategy for advancing access and saving women’s lives
A study published a few weeks ago in The Lancet provides strong evidence to support Fòs Feminista’s strategy of prioritizing woman-to-woman care and self-care as a path forward for ensuring that women everywhere have access to safe abortion.
The new study, led by Ibis Reproductive Health in collaboration with the Colectiva Feminista La Revuelta in Argentina, the Generation Initiative for Women and Youth in Nigeria, and Samsara in Indonesia, demonstrates that self-managed abortion using medications combined with the support of accompaniment networks, when done early in a pregnancy, is just as effective as medical abortion managed by a health care provider. Of the more than 900 participants in the study who self-managed their abortions with accompaniment support at less than 22 weeks pregnancy, 97% had complete abortions without the need for surgical intervention at last follow up. The implications of this study are particularly relevant alongside the recent decision of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to permanently allow women to receive abortion pills through the mail.
This affirms that women early in pregnancy do not need to go to a clinic to have a safe abortion. They can take their care into their own hands and be supported through the process by someone who is trained to provide counseling, identify medical emergencies, and offer referrals.
Support for self-managed abortion has been a pillar of Fòs Feminista’s abortion work for years and has been a key strategy for us in key countries where abortion law reform is opening up the possibilities for legal abortion.
Argentina’s Congress voted last December to legalize abortion up to 14 weeks. And in September, a landmark ruling by Mexico’s Supreme Court declared criminalization of abortion unconstitutional. While both were significant victories for reproductive justice, no legal change immediately translates into access to legal abortion, due to widespread inequities in access to health care, particularly among rural, Indigenous, and poor women.
To overcome these barriers, Fòs Feminista has been scaling up its support for self-managed abortion through multiple partners across the world, including Colectiva Feminista La Revuelta, that provide information about self-managed abortion and text and phone-based accompaniment to women who opt for this method, as well as coordination with health teams, when necessary.
We are now poised to build on these experiences to create feminist solidarity around the world. While we await a United States Supreme Court decision on a Mississippi abortion law that could limit or even overturn Roe v. Wade, and while the abortion ban in Texas stands, the need to learn from groups in the Global South about models of care for women seeking abortion in the United States has never felt so urgent. The results of the new study provide fuel to this work.
