Rebecca Gomperts, a 55-year-old Dutch physician, has spent years fighting for women’s access to abortion around the world.
Made famous by her “abortion boat,” as recounted in the 2014 documentary Vessel, she and her Women on Waves group have anchored the ship in international waters off the coasts of Poland, Spain, Mexico and other countries, offering medical abortions to women otherwise unable to obtain them.
It is in the US that interest has been surging in her other organization, Aid Access, which since 2018 has provided abortion pills over the Internet.
Photo: AFP
Behind the fast-rising demand is what appears — based on a rare leak from the US Supreme Court — to be the imminent end of federal protection for abortion rights. Once the court makes its decision official, probably next month, about 20 states are poised to ban or severely restrict abortions.
“We’re already seeing a huge increase in requests,” Gomperts said, adding that some people were “panicking.”
“It’s not only when this takes place; it has already made people aware how vulnerable they are,” she said.
Photo: AFP
Aid Access, based in Austria, has been working with physicians to fill requests in the 20 US states where abortion pills can be legally prescribed by telemedicine.
For requests from the other states, Gomperts’ group has exploited a legal loophole to send the pills from abroad.
Demand was strong even before word of the high court’s intentions.
In a little more than a year — from October 2020 to December last year — Aid Access said it received more than 45,000 requests from the US.
Reasons for the requests vary: the high cost of other abortion services, the cost and difficulty of traveling to distant abortion clinics or the impossibility of doing so due to job or childcare demands.
After filling out a questionnaire, women are instructed on how to take the pills at home. The price is adjusted depending on their ability to pay, and the pills are mailed from a pharmacy in India. Aid Access checks in with the women afterward.
A 2017 survey of several thousand women in the US showed that 20 percent of those who had attempted an at-home abortion used the pills, 29 percent used other drugs, 38 percent used plant-based infusions and 20 percent tried physical methods; some used more than one method, so the total exceeds 100 percent.
During demonstrations outside the Supreme Court, women protesters brandished a disturbing object, something that seemed an artifact from a long-ago era: metal clothes-hangers — a symbol of highly risky abortions performed clandestinely.
Yet, up to the 10th week of pregnancy, abortion pills are safe, experts say.
Today they represent half of all abortions in the US — in France, by way of comparison, the figure is 70 percent. Their use outside of any medical setting is a “very acceptable” option, according to the WHO.
Two drugs are used: first a dose of mifepristone is taken to block the hormones that support a pregnancy; then, 24 to 48 hours later, misoprostol is taken to induce contractions.
Complications that might require medical help — an excessive flow of blood, an infection or an allergic reaction — are rare.
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