Some Pharmacies in the US are Now Authorised to Sell Abortion Pills
On 4th January 2023, the Biden Administration allowed pharmacies to start distributing abortion pills. Although a prescription is needed to buy them, this can still be a huge step forward in several states toward making abortion legal again.
What were the effects of the overturning of the Roe v Wade case?
2022 was a devastating year for many Americans after the Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade, a law allowing the right to choose to have an abortion. Within the next six months, nearly half of the fifty states in the US had declared abortion to be illegal at some or all stages of the pregnancy.
This distressed a huge amount of the population and provoked several protests; it is estimated around 10,000 people gathered around the White House just to show their disapproval.
Since then, numerous women have voiced out their difficulties through social media and interviews.
Elizabeth Weller from Texas claimed that when she was 18 months pregnant, something in her uterus suddenly shifted, and then “this burst of water just falls out of my body. And I screamed because that’s when I knew something wrong was happening”. She later found out that her baby had lost the amniotic fluid protecting it. It was still alive, but most likely not for long. The baby and Elizabeth herself were both put at a high risk of developing a serious disease called chorioamnionitis (where the membranes of the amniotic fluid get infected with bacteria).
Despite her worsening condition, the hospital still could not apply for an abortion due to a “medical emergency” because the symptoms were simply not serious enough. Elizabeth was forced to wait for either her health to get even worse, or for her baby’s heartbeat to stop — which is probably one of the most traumatic experiences a mother can ever face. Finally, she was given the right to abort her baby. But how close to death was she?
Another mother, Karen from El Salvador, was staying in the hospital after facing a miscarriage. When she awoke, she realised that she was handcuffed to the bed with policemen surrounding her. At the age of 22, she was falsely accused of abortion and sentenced to thirty years of prison but released after six years thanks to a successful campaign fighting for her. However, she had another child who was only two years old and essentially had to grow up without a mother till he was nine.
These are just two traumatic experiences out of many.
How do abortion pills help?
Abortion pills are a safe and effective way for a mother to end her pregnancy — but only within 8–11 weeks of pregnancy. Some people prefer it over getting an abortion in a clinic because you can choose whether you want to take it alone — and if not then who you want to be with you. You can also choose where you would be most comfortable taking the pills.
Taking the medication is done through two pills: mifepristone and misoprostol. The second one is usually taken immediately or within the next 24 hours of taking the first one.
Progesterone is a hormone the body secretes that ensures that the uterus grows. Taking mifepristone blocks progesterone to stop the pregnancy from further growing.
Misoprostol then helps in emptying the uterus through bleeding by causing contraction, like a normal period but much heavier.
In any case, many people are celebrating this as a win. They believe that this is a small but firm step towards bringing back abortion as a legal act. Some still think that this isn’t as safe as having an abortion in a medical center with support, and some in general just do not support the termination of a pregnancy in any form.
But overall, nothing changes the fact that this means the government has finally started to support abortion a slight bit more. And by any small chance, liberating many women across the US from massive amounts of trauma and suffering.
By: Jasmehar Kaur
