by Rhaina Cohen, producer and editor for NPR's Enterprise Storytelling unit
Almost exactly three years ago, women in the United States lost the constitutional right to abortion. On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending nearly half a century of federal protection and leaving abortion policy up to individual states. Since that decision, nearly 40% of states have passed laws either banning or restricting abortion, leaving large swaths of the country without access to this care.
But women are still having abortions. In fact, recent data show abortion rates across the U.S. have been rising since Roe was overturned. One of the tools that women are relying on most are abortion pills.
Violeta Encarnación for NPR
For the last few years, we’ve traveled across two continents to report on how women have been using these pills to safely self-manage their abortions — no doctors or clinics required. We share what we found in Embedded’s most recent series, “The Network,” a joint production with Futuro Media. This three-part documentary podcast traces the surprising history of a pill that millions have taken for abortion and follows a loose movement of activists and ordinary women across the Americas that developed ways to safely end pregnancies despite legal restrictions.
Our story starts in 1980s Brazil, where abortion was and remains illegal. We explore how women discovered that an over-the-counter medication could be repurposed for abortion. We speak to women who took these pills, doctors, and activists, all of whom saw up close how women collectively experimented on their bodies by taking the medication.
In the second part of the series, we look at how word about the pill, today known as misoprostol, spread throughout Latin America. We meet with activists in Argentina and Mexico who expanded awareness about self-managed abortion with pills and supported women through the process. Over time, their organizing contributed to sweeping policy changes that decriminalized or legalized abortion in several countries across the region. We explore this further in this long read.
The series concludes in the United States, where many women are facing the kinds of abortion restrictions that had long been the norm in Latin America. We hear from doulas helping women self-manage their abortions. We also speak to activists like Elisa Wells, who co-founded and runs Plan C, an information hub where women can order abortion pills online from international organizations or even access them for free by connecting with community-based organizations. The movement is challenging a long-standing assumption in the U.S.: that abortions are only safe under a doctor or nurse’s supervision. Even some clinicians are rethinking this. Doctors like Maya Bass, once a skeptic, eventually helped guide women through self-managed abortions with pills. You can hear her interview in the series or learn more in this long read.
Though our story documents how abortion pills have transformed abortion access, there’s a reason we decided to call the series “The Network” and not “The Pills.” Our reporting showed us that the connections women formed throughout the Americas made this tool effective in providing medically and legally safe abortions to millions of women.
And their efforts raise a provocative question for both abortion supporters and opponents: the government can make abortion illegal, but can it end safe abortion … as long as the network is around?
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Meet the women shaping the future of abortion
In the last few years, abortion restrictions in the U.S. have grown. In response, women are finding ways to end their pregnancies without a clinic.
On The Network, a new three-part series from NPR’s Embedded podcast and Futuro Media, witness how a network of activists and midwives, grandmothers and friends changed abortion access as we know it.
Thanks for tuning in last week to the Throughline episode, “The Woman Behind The New Deal.” The episode discusses how Frances Perkins transformed the way people in the U.S. lived and worked. She influenced everything from Social Security to exit signs and fire escapes.
Today, we’re listening to It's Been a Minute. “Sexy & Spiteful: the best books to read this summer” is the podcast’s annual episode about the best books for these sizzling months. Adding to the fun, romance authors Bolu Babalola and Emily Henry join the show to discuss their new books and reading recommendations, ranging from spiteful and salacious to sweet and spicy. Listen to the episode or read the transcript here.
It's time for the Sunday Puzzle! For today's on-air challenge, every answer today is the name of a famous person or thing in which the last two letters of the first half are the same as the first two letters of the second. For example, if the question is who is the star of Murder, She Wrote, the answer would be AngeLALAnsbury. Test your skills here. Check this page later to hear the answers, or catch them live on Weekend Edition at 8:41 a.m.
This week's online challenge comes from listener Bob Weisz. Take the name of a major film director. Drop the last six letters of his name, and rearrange what remains. You'll get the name of a major film award for which this director has been nominated six times. Who is he and what is the award? Submit your answer and you could win a chance to play next Sunday's on-air puzzle.
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