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New website helps American women have abortions at home

A protester with her mouth taped over with the word
A protester with her mouth taped over with the word

A website that helps women self-induce abortions has launched in America. 

Women Help Women, a Netherlands-based organisation, already helps women around the world to take legal abortion pills at home. It advises them on how to take misoprostol and mifepristone - legal drugs approved by the World Health Organisation that are typically administered by clinicians.

Now the website has launched a new section for women in the US, who are worried about their reproductive rights. Called Self-Managed Abortion; Safe and Supported (SASS), it provides guidance and medical advice on how to take the pills at home.

In the US, abortion is currently legal in every state and each has at least one clinic that provides abortion care. But if a woman takes abortion pills alone, without a licensed health care clinician (for example, if she cannot afford to go to a clinic), she can be arrested.

Many American women have voiced fears that their abortion rights will be revoked.

abortion pills puff

Susan Yanow, the US spokeswoman for Women Help Women, toldThe Guardian: “Women in the US have been and are using the pills without good guidance. If a woman is anxious and has the pills in her hand, and doesn’t know what to do… we can help her understand what to do. We can help her understand what signs to look for, and what’s going on.”

The site is now offering counsellors who can help women in real time with questions, advice and support.

On the website it explains: “The primary goal of SASS is to provide information and support to women in the USA around self managed abortion, to reduce any negative health impact associated with unsafe abortion methods, and to ensure that self-managed abortions are medically and legally as safe as possible.”

A number of websites around the world also help deliver abortion pills to women.

Women on Waves, a not-for-profit, sends them in the post, following an online consultation with a doctor. US law prevents SASS from supplying pills to women based there. 

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