Campaign for home use of abortion pills

[Cwenthryth]

Re-posting this in chat as I originally posted in feminist activism but don’t think anyone noticed!

Please share & sign this open letter to Jeremy Hunt & Vaughan Gething calling for home use of abortion pills, so women are not forced to miscarry their pregnancies in public.

www.womensequality.org.uk/homeuse?utm_campaign=launch_homeuse_mem&utm_medium=email&utm_source=womensequality

Claire90ftm

ALL women wanting an abortion have to have an ultrasound.

What if someone wanted to terminate further along than the 24 weeks and so the person obtaining the pill gave it to them instead? How would this be prevented?

She would need a friend who was less than 12 weeks to go to a clinic and take the first pill in the clinic - not going to happen is it?

She is much more likely to go to something like 'women on the web' and obtain pills there.

Or get hold of someone's pills for arthritis which are used in for abortion in some US states.

Or maybe a pill you can buy over the counter to prevent stomach ulcers.

Fantastic campaign. My last abortion would have been so much improved by being at home with DH.

By "trust women" I mean trust women to know wht they want to do with their own bodies. The whole anti abortion debate is predicated on women not knowing their own minds, on them needing time to think and all the rest of the infantilising twaddle. Women have the right to decide what happens to their own bodies. Other people don't have to like it, but they have no right to control it. And insisting that women take the abortion pill under the eyes of a professional so they do it properly is just more of the same.

Bert I would not trust all women just because they are women or pregnant, that's ridiculous. As I posted on the last page
^BubblesAndSquarks

@lasswi, I do actually. From our time in nicu seeing the amount of drug dependant babies that were born I wouldn't assume that every pregnant women will have perfect morals.
There would be a money incentive for them to do it. Or some women may get the pills then change their mind and decide to sell it on to make some money as they no longer need it.
We are looking at this from a point of view where morals would come above the money, but some people are in different situations and the need for money would outweigh the moral implications.^

At the GP or the option to stay in hospital during it would make sense, but putting pills that have the potential to ruin someone's life and end their pregnancy against their will into circulation is not necessary.

But as has been explained there are 2 pills. The pregnant woman intending to sell them on would already have taken one and the second pill won't work without the first.

Your scenario is far fetched. It would need a pregnant woman to attend at a clinic; be checked at a clinic ; take half of the pills herself and sell on the useless half to someone else.

@batteries that's not even remotely what I said .
I said more men would be comfortable coercing or slipping women 2 pills than the amount that would be willing to assault a woman badly enough to end a pregnancy.

And I didn't say female friends would be queueing up to supply them, but there are situations where women would get the pills then change their mind about taking them (just like women who go to clinics for them then change their mind) and situations like poverty, drug use etc that would mean there would be women willing to sell them.

There seems to be a bit of a view of all women have exactly the same morals.

@lass the first pill having been taken only works if you're assuming that no women who go for an abortion ever change their mind.

There seems to be a bit of a view of all women have exactly the same morals

No. I'm just assessing the practical realities of what actually happens as opposed to what you are suggesting.

Did you miss the part where it was explained that it is only the second pill which would be taken at home?

At the GP or the option to stay in hospital during it would make sense, but putting pills that have the potential to ruin someone's life and end their pregnancy against their will into circulation is not necessary.

There are LOADS of pills that do that in circulation, I took methotrexate for 10 years, I have two relatives who also take it, it is used in some US states for medical abortion.

@lass I did miss that actually, sorry!!
Seemed to be a lot of comments talking about it avoiding driving home after etc so thought it meant both pills.
I agree that if the first pill was known to have been taken then that would pretty much illuminate risk of the second one not being taken.

@lass the first pill having been taken only works if you're assuming that no women who go for an abortion ever change their mind

You have completely lost me now. If a woman takes the first pill in the clinic and changes her mind about the second presumably she will have to contact the clinic/gp to ensure no harm has been done?

Are you suggesting that she will take the first pill, go home , change her mind but someone will force her to take the 2nd one?

If you think that women will change their mind requiring the second one to be taken in the clinic removes that option.

I'm going to buck the trend here too I'm afraid. I don't think any woman should be forced to manage this at home on their own, planned abortion, miscarriage or otherwise. It's an awful experience to go through and there is a huge lack of support for women go through this as it is. Early pregnancy care needs more investment. Allowing women to manage this at home just shuts the door on the whole issue.

I think most of you are also overlooking the fact that your are campaigning for women who can make educated decisions but that does reflect all of society. You cannot make a law and then discriminate who it can be applied to after it has been passed.

I'd love to see this much concern over the sale of date rape drugs.

*does not reflect

Signed.

I think most of you are also overlooking the fact that your are campaigning for women who can make educated decisions but that does reflect all of society. You cannot make a law and then discriminate who it can be applied to after it has been passed.

Given the choice of being given the second pill, and heading home on the train or taking the second pill at home, I think for all women, no matter their educational status, the second scenario is clearly preferable.

Ideally, there would be the option of having the pill at home, or having it in the clinic and staying there, but if that's not going to be the case, forcing women to miscarry on the way home is nothing but barbaric.

Miscarrying on the way home is barbaric, I totally agree as it has happened to me on a train from Sheffield to Manchester. BUT you are assuming that all women will go home and remember to take their second pill at the right time and follow the instructions. There is a percentage of the population who will not manage this for lots of different reasons and you have to consider the lowest common denominator in these situations. I don't agree that a blanket law that allows everyone to do this is the right way forward. Also maternity / health services are getting being compromised all of the time, if the law is passed that you can take the second pill at home, it will no doubt become standard procedure and those who wish to stay in may find that that option isn't given to them.

The option isn't given to them now, to stay in.
It's take the second pill, then out the door you go, and hope you're not still on the way home when the bleeding starts.

I'm going to buck the trend here too I'm afraid. I don't think any woman should be forced to manage this at home on their own, planned abortion, miscarriage or otherwise.

Surely at home, with or without a friend to support you is better than on the bus or train?

Having picked someone up from a clinic it was better that she was in my car and could cry and scream than on public transport.

I heard the Women's Hour interview re this being introduced in Wales - there's no reason not to introduce it - it's been implemented in Scotland with no problems. It makes sense ethically, financially, medically - the one thing standing in the way of common sense and making women's lives easier is English males...

Signed