Laws don't stop abortion; they just make it dangerous. 100K self-abortion attempts in TX alone.

[Brickbat]

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/news/2015-11-17/thousands-of-texas-women-self-induce-abortion-study-finds/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily-2015-11-17

At least 100,000 Texas women (from age 18 to 49) have attempted to terminate a pregnancy without medical assistance, unprecedented research shows.

New findings, released today by the Texas Policy Evaluation Project (TxPEP), a University of Texas at Austin-based five-year analysis of the impact Legislative policies have had on Texas women’s health, found abortion self-induction appears more common in Texas compared to other parts of the U.S. Researchers point to the state’s harsh abortion clinic restrictions, including House Bill 2, and the proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, where abortion-inducing drug misoprostol is often available in pharmacies without needing a prescription.

While overall 1.7% of women reported that they tried to end a pregnancy on their own, researchers suggest this is a low estimate in the general population since women tend to underreport abortion surveys due to stigma; the total number could, in fact, be as many as 240,000 women. And the absolute number is quite large considering the size of Texas, said Dr. Daniel Grossman, TxPEP co-investigator and professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, during a press call this morning. With the rise of harsh abortion laws, investigators believe more women will take maters into their own hands. “This is the latest body of evidence demonstrating the negative implications of laws like HB2 that pretend to protect women but in reality place them, and particularly women of color and economically disadvantaged women, at significant risk,” said Grossman.

[merrily]

1. Such was always so. A doctor in the family of my sister's inlaws gave up everything to prevent

prevent needless deaths by performing safe illegal abortions.

Lost his license, went to jail time after time. Each time he was released, he started performing safe, illegal abortions again.

In those days, because of lack of readily available contraception or education, and the huge disgrace facing unwed mothers, more females, including very young ones, sought abortion.

[FuzzyRabbit]

2. I am old enought to remember when abortions were illegal.

Every day the local newspaper had one or more stories about young women who came to the emergency room because of a botched abortion or about young women's bodies left in dumpsters after being killed by a back alley abortion.

As soon as abortions became legal those grim stories in the paper stopped. The anti-choicers want us to return to those days.

[merrily]

4. Yes to everything you posted.

My sister's distant inlaw was a hero, though certainly not seen that way at the time, including by his own parents and siblings.

[spanone]

3. welcome to the 1950's / 60's courtesy of the 'pro-life' zealots

[edhopper]

5. When the SCOTUS overturns Roe v Wade

which will be the first State to prosecute a woman for having an abortion.

[hifiguy]

7. Utah or some state from the Confederacy.

I'd bet Alabama or Mississippi.

[jmowreader]

11. Idaho. Definitely Idaho.

[handmade34]

14. already doing it

Purvi Patel v. Indiana

close enough and very sad


http://www.ircrc.org/lets-get-this-straight/

[edhopper]

17. fuckers

[hifiguy]

6. Literally anyone with a couple dozen brain cells to rub together

realizes this. It is what women DO when they can't afford or otherwise deal with a pregnancy. Shit, ancient Egyptians and Greeks knew what plants could terminate a pregnancy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_abortion

It's always about control of women. Always, and it always has been.

[sarge43]

12. You don't have to go back that far

We have a copy of a 1898 Sears Roebuck catalog. In the pharmaceutical section, there's an ad for pills made from penny royal, cotton seed and tansy - all potential abortifacients. The pills were recommended for "female troubles". Great grandma knew exactly what kind of "female troubles".

[hifiguy]

13. Humans always find ways to deal with the problems

that inevitably arise out of being human beings. And the control freaks/religulously insane (but I am redundant, though not coextensive) never seem to be able to accept basic facts about human existence.

[handmade34]

15. my 1st abortion

was done with Pennyroyal… when abortion is not legal, women find ways

[sarge43]

16. That had to be rough

Yes, we will. The best contraceptive can fail; the most desired pregnancy can go horribly wrong.

[kimbutgar]

8. I had a aunt who was unable to have children as a result of a botched abortion at 16

She got raped and didn't want to carry her rapist's kid. She had to drop out of high school and struggled her whole life. She told me when I was a kid to not make the same mistake terminating a pregnancy illegally.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Anti-abortion laws aren't about stopping abortion. They're about punishing naughty ladies

who like sex but don't want to have babies to have babies.

[rurallib]

10. Guttmacher Institute has some quite interesting numbers

from back in the days (30s-70s) before Roe. While there is no way to get accurate numbers of attempted abortions from back then, they can estimate by extrapolating. Looks like abortion has been around at about the same level, legal or not, for a long time:

https://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/tgr/06/1/gr060108.html

So no they will not stop it, only ruin more lives. Best way to stop abortion is to not get pregnant (birth control).