Legal restrictions lead to ‘DIY abortions’ in Texas and Argentina alike
Supporters of Texas women’s right to reproductive decisions rally at the Texas State Capitol on July 1, 2013 in Austin, Texas. It was the first day of a second legislative special session called by Texas Gov. Rick Perry to pass an restrictive abortion law through the Texas legislature. The first attempt was defeated after opponents of the law were able to stall the vote until after first special session had ended.
HOUSTON, Texas and BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — The plane descended and just beyond the city limits, the clouds gave way to a view of the expansive territory Texas is known for. We had landed, the flight attendant announced, in Houston — the most populous city in the Lone Star State.
We were on our way from Boston to Buenos Aires, where we will be reporting for the next two weeks on the country’s high abortion rate and the legal and religious institutions that surround it.
Abortion is illegal in Argentina except in instances of sexual assault or danger to a woman’s life. But even in these cases, where there is legislation to protect women, experts have told us that the obstacles to a safe and legal procedure are often insurmountable. Argentina’s Department of Health reported in 2006 that 30 percent of all maternal deaths are caused by complications from abortion.
Each year there are approximately 500,000 abortions in Argentina, and 40 percent of pregnancies end in abortion, according Human Rights Watch.
It was somewhat fitting, then, that our layover was in Texas, where in March a federal appeals court upheld the state’s stringent limits on abortion providers and drugs. Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, told The Huffington Post that the law would allow fewer than 10 clinics in the state to remain open.
Already a new report has highlighted an increase in “DIY abortion,” with women throughout the Gulf states “taking abortion back into their own hands, just as they did prior to the procedure becoming legal.”
As The Atlantic reported last week, misoprostol — a drug that induces abortion — is increasingly in demand on the black market. Texas was the first state in which women have taken to these measures, according to Truthout, due to strict state mandates that require, among other things, multiple visits to clinics and long waiting periods.
The Supreme Court's ruling last month granting closely-held corporations religious exemption from the Affordable Care Act provision that requires that contraception be covered was welcomed by both Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Governor Rick Perry.
Abbott called it a “major victory for religious freedom and another blow” to the Affordable Care Act, which has “proven to be an illegal intrusion into the lives of Americans across the country.” Governor Perry applauded the Court, which he said “reaffirms that the government cannot mandate that anyone operate in a fashion counter to their most deeply-felt principles.”
But the state’s democratic Senator Wendy Davis took a sharp stance in opposition.
“Today’s disappointing decision to restrict access to birth control puts employers between women and their doctors,” she said. “We need to trust women to make their own health care decisions — not corporations, the Supreme Court or Greg Abbott,” she added.
Texas isn’t the only state where restrictions on birth control or abortion are coming into play. The Guttmacher Institute reports that more than 205 abortion restrictions were enacted at the state level between 2011 and 2013 — more than the total number of restrictions in the previous decade.
Misoprostol, the abortion-inducing drug now being found in Texas, is also the pill used by many health-care providers in Argentina who do perform legal abortions. The prescription, according to the author of the Atlantic article, Erica Hellerstein, is common in countries in Latin America where abortion is illegal or highly restricted. In Argentina some doctors perform abortions off the books, while many women turn to far riskier options.
“And in this narrative,” Hellerstein wrote, “it is Latin America that has answers for the United States.”
Rebecca Lee Sanchez and Emily Judem are reporting from Argentina as part of a GlobalPost Special Report called "Birth Rights" produced in partnership with The GroundTruth Project. The project is made possible by the Ford Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation and International Center for Journalists.