Latinas and self-induced abortions

A NYTimes article this weekend touched on the issue of Latina women and self-induced abortions.

The pills were misoprostol, a prescription drug that is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for reducing gastric ulcers and that researchers say is commonly, though illegally, used within the Dominican community to induce abortion. Two new studies by reproductive-health providers suggest that improper use of such drugs is one of myriad methods, including questionable homemade potions, frequently employed in attempts to end pregnancies by women from fervently anti-abortion cultures despite the widespread availability of safe, legal and inexpensive abortions in clinics and hospitals.

This is not a new phenomenon. It’s been written about before, including by our very own Ann Friedman, a few years ago in Mother Jones. My organization, the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, has also been working on this issue for a while. The story is the same; immigrant women choose these do-it-yourself abortions for financial reasons, or out of fear of telling their family members, over safer procedures in clinics and hospitals.
It’s also not news that regardless of the abortion climate, women will do what they need to do to get access to the procedure. When abortion was illegal, women went to great lengths to help one another find abortions other ways, including really unsafe ones.
It isn’t all that different now, particularly for women who can’t afford abortion procedures (averaging around $280 at the bottom of the scale). Thanks to the Hyde Amendment, women on Medicaid and Medicare can’t get their abortions covered like any other medical procedure.
I think in some ways it’s exciting that there are drugs and technologies that could allow women to be in control of their own abortion procedures, that could allow them to experience them in the privacy of their homes. But these should be choices women make, not compromises because the other options are out of reach.