{"id":316535,"date":"2024-08-02T12:46:14","date_gmt":"2024-08-02T17:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=316535"},"modified":"2024-08-02T11:50:43","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T16:50:43","slug":"self-managed-abortions-rising-gaslighting-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/self-managed-abortions-rising-gaslighting-public\/","title":{"rendered":"Self-managed abortions are rising… and Big Abortion is gaslighting the public"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A new study<\/a> making the media rounds suggests that “self-managed” abortions (SMA) have risen 40% since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade<\/em> in its 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization<\/em>. If accurate, then the abortion industry has achieved increased “self-managed” abortions \u2014 which is exactly what it has wanted for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Though there is a direct line between the abortion industry’s efforts to expand abortion access and the increased use of at-home abortion methods, the results of the study are being dishonestly used to attack<\/em> pro-life laws as dangerous<\/em>, as if they are the cause of the increase in self-managed abortion.<\/p>\n

But the truth is that the abortion industry has been intentionally<\/em> attempting to expand self-managed abortion for years.<\/p>\n

The new study was authored by researchers affiliated with pro-abortion groups: the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), and the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences.<\/p>\n

The gaslighting of the masses<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Once Roe<\/em> fell, the gaslighting began. After well over a decade of pushing for at-home, self-managed abortions, the abortion industry was handed two ‘gifts,’ so to speak. The first was the Covid-19 pandemic, which created an excuse to allow abortion to take place in the home. (It might seem unfair or shocking to say the pandemic was a gift to the abortion industry, but an industry insider once said the same of the horrific events on September 11, 2001<\/a>). The second ‘gift’ was the fall of Roe<\/em>, which allowed newly enacted pro-life laws to become the industry’s scapegoat when the number of at-home abortions began to rise \u2014 likely along with the number of abortion-related complications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though it is abortion supporters who are selling the abortion pill online, advocating for states and women<\/a> to stockpile<\/a> abortion drugs, and attempting to hide the fact that studies have shown that six percent (6%) of women who took the abortion pill required emergency care, the abortion industry’s allies in the media are ensuring that Americans blame pro-life laws enacted since the fall of Roe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Case in point: <\/strong>this study<\/em> on the ‘negative effects’ of self-managed abortion was carried out by researchers affiliated with the<\/strong><\/em> same pro-abortion groups<\/em><\/strong> behind previous studies in support <\/em><\/strong>of self-managed abortion.<\/p>\n

These groups wanted<\/em> self-managed abortions to expand, despite the known risks to women. They got what they wanted during the pandemic, and then they blamed any negative consequences on pro-life laws.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, their friends in the media appear willing to aid in the gaslighting. The Associated Press reported<\/a> on the new study by saying, “A growing number of women said they\u2019ve tried to end their pregnancies on their own by doing things like taking herbs, drinking alcohol or even hitting themselves in the belly, a new study suggests.”<\/p>\n

It completely ignored<\/em> that a major method of self-managed abortion in the study was the approved, no-test, at-home abortion drugs heavily promoted by the same groups<\/strong><\/em> now blaming “self-managed” abortions on pro-lifers.<\/p>\n

Let’s take a look at that study.<\/p>\n

Methods of and reasons for at-home abortion<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Hill reported<\/a> about the study: “Significantly more women chose to end pregnancies themselves \u2014 using unsupervised and potentially dangerous at-home methods<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 in the year following the Supreme Court’s abolition of federal protections for abortion…” (emphasis added).<\/p>\n

The findings of the study were published<\/a> on Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open. It found that when comparing two different cohorts of women \u2014 the first from December 2021 and January 2022 and the second from June and July 2023 \u2014 the number of women of reproductive age reporting “ever<\/em> having a self-managed abortion increased from 2.4% to 3.3%” (emphasis added).<\/p>\n

This should not be surprising, since great efforts were made among the abortion industry and its allies to increase the number of self-managed abortions.<\/p>\n

The study found that the most common methods of SMA after Dobbs<\/em> were 1) the use of emergency contraception before confirming pregnancy (and a different method after<\/em> confirming pregnancy), 2) herbs, and 3) the use of mifepristone and\/or misoprostol.<\/p>\n

Eliminating emergency contraception (since another method of SMA was used but not specified by researchers) puts “herbs” and “mifepristone and\/or misoprostol” at the top of the list of primary methods of SMA<\/a>\u00a0in 2023. However, while the use of herbs decreased from 2021 to 2023, the use of mifepristone and\/or misoprostol increased<\/em>. Other methods such as “Hit in the stomach,” “Taking a hot bath or shower,” and “Lifting heavy objects” as methods of self-managed abortion also decreased.<\/p>\n

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Via JAMA<\/p><\/div>\n

The study also revealed women’s “most frequently cited reasons” for using self-managed abortion, including being “early in pregnancy” (33.3% in 2021 and 31.8% in 2023), and a desire for privacy (30.4% in 2021 and 32.2% in 2023). In addition, nearly one in five women said “the clinic was too expensive” (16.7% in 2021 and 18.2% in 2023) or they wanted to try a DIY abortion before going to an abortion facility (20.8% in 2021 and 19.1% in 2023).<\/p>\n

Only 5.9% of women cited “Abortion is illegal” (in other words, pro-life laws<\/em>) as their reason for choosing self-managed abortion in 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n