Speaker 1: Hey, Latino USA listener, It's Marieno Hossa. We're back again
Speaker 1: with our new series The Network, a co production of
Speaker 1: Latino USA and NPR's Embedded Podcast. Now, if you haven't
Speaker 1: listened to the first two episodes, you're definitely going to
Speaker 1: want to do that before you keep listening. Remember you
Speaker 1: can find the rest of this series here on our
Speaker 1: feed or on the embedded feed. Now, just to recap,
Speaker 1: we've been following this loosely connected set of people. We're
Speaker 1: calling them the Network, right, These are people who help
Speaker 1: women have abortions with pills without the help of a doctor.
Speaker 1: The network started in Brazil and then grew and it
Speaker 1: developed support systems in other countries in the region, like
Speaker 1: Mexico and Argentina. And these were places where most women
Speaker 1: didn't have a legal right to abortion. And now these days,
Speaker 1: that is the situation that a lot of Americans find
Speaker 1: themselves in since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade
Speaker 1: and ended the constitutional right to abortion in the United
Speaker 1: States of America. So in this final episode of this series,
Speaker 1: we're going to go deep into the United States. Here
Speaker 1: are Latino USA producers Victori Estrada and Marta Martinez with
Speaker 1: the last episode of the network.
Speaker 2: For decades, while people all over the world were embracing
Speaker 2: self managed abortion with MISA prostel, most Americans had never
Speaker 2: even heard of it, and many of those who had
Speaker 2: dismissed it for being a foreign concept.
Speaker 3: It was always like, oh, well, yeah, but those are
Speaker 3: other countries.
Speaker 4: That doesn't apply here.
Speaker 2: For being irrelevant because for decades Americans had a legal
Speaker 2: right to abortion.
Speaker 4: There was a lot of disbelief that something like this
Speaker 4: was needed in the United States. A big part of
Speaker 4: our narrative is that we have abortion access right.
Speaker 5: Or they dismissed it for sounding dangerous.
Speaker 6: I didn't think it was safe, you know, as doctors
Speaker 6: were risk at first, and we like control.
Speaker 5: This is doctor Maya Bass, a family doctor who also
Speaker 5: provides abortions, either by performing the procedure or prescribing pills.
Speaker 5: In the US, patients usually take two pills, misoprostol or miso,
Speaker 5: the pill we've been hearing about, and another drug called
Speaker 5: me for Pristo, which makes the process go a little smoother.
Speaker 5: Early in her career, Maya learned a strict protocol around
Speaker 5: the pills, with multiple appointments and tests designed to keep
Speaker 5: patients safe.
Speaker 6: Of course, I'm going to confirm exactly how big this
Speaker 6: pregnancy is. Of course I'm going to confirm that my
Speaker 6: patient has enough blood to handle this. And yeah, I
Speaker 6: want to make sure that this worked for them.
Speaker 2: T Maya and many doctors. When she first heard about
Speaker 2: self managing, getting abortion pills without a prescription and taking
Speaker 2: them without a doctor's oversight, she thought it introduced a
Speaker 2: ton of risks.
Speaker 6: Gosh, what if people are dropping like flies because they're
Speaker 6: taking meds that are actually rat poison and hurting themselves.
Speaker 2: She imagined people only turned to self managing as a
Speaker 2: last resort.
Speaker 6: If somebody really doesn't want a pregnancy and can't get
Speaker 6: to a clinic, maybe this is an option.
Speaker 5: But after Roe was overturned in twenty twenty two for
Speaker 5: lots of women, the last resort became the only resort.
Speaker 7: Please help me, How am I able to receive the
Speaker 7: pill asap?
Speaker 5: Please?
Speaker 2: These are emails American women sent to activists who share
Speaker 2: them with us.
Speaker 8: I'm inquiring about abortion pills and how to get them
Speaker 8: sent to me.
Speaker 6: I'm in no way, shape or form financially ready to
Speaker 6: have a child.
Speaker 7: I'm desperate.
Speaker 2: In recent years, American women have been reaching out to
Speaker 2: the network by the hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 5: The network in the US is trying to meet this demand,
Speaker 5: but like we've seen in previous episodes, when the network
Speaker 5: starts to grow, it's not clear what will happen next.
Speaker 2: In Argentina, the network led to cultural and policy changes.
Speaker 2: In Brazil, it based backlash and restrictions. So in this
Speaker 2: episode we look at how the network in the US
Speaker 2: has expanded in the last few years and what a
Speaker 2: fact that's having on this country.
Speaker 5: How will the network adapt in the face of mounting
Speaker 5: abortion restrictions. From MPRS Embedded and Futuro Media's Latino USA,
Speaker 5: This is the Network, a series about the DIY method
Speaker 5: that took safe abortions out of the clinic.
Speaker 7: And the women who made it happen.
Speaker 5: I'm Victoria Estrada, I'm Marta Martinez and this is episode
Speaker 5: three deja Vu. For decades in the US, the network
Speaker 5: was almost entirely absent, but not completely. There were a
Speaker 5: few places It began showing up in the mid nineties.
Speaker 9: We just started hearing that patients were taking some pills.
Speaker 5: This is doctor Mark Rosing and OBGYN who works at
Speaker 5: a hospital in the bronx. Back then, he saw patients
Speaker 5: from immigrant and Spanish speaking communities taking me, so.
Speaker 9: In Spanish they called it the star pill because it's
Speaker 9: a hexagonal pill.
Speaker 5: According to Mark, the women he was seeing in his
Speaker 5: hospital could have gone to a clinic, but he says
Speaker 5: many didn't know that in New York insurance or medicaid
Speaker 5: would cover it, so instead they relied on the network.
Speaker 9: They would say I got it from my aunt, I
Speaker 9: got it from my cousin, and I got it from
Speaker 9: someone who knows amba. And then sometimes they would also
Speaker 9: say that they got it in some of the bodegas
Speaker 9: and the pharmacies around in Washington Heights.
Speaker 5: For decades, the network stayed like this, small underground, mostly
Speaker 5: tied to immigrant communities, but in the late twenty tens,
Speaker 5: the demand for the network began to grow. American women
Speaker 5: started to lose access to doctors who could give them
Speaker 5: an abortion. During this time, states passed hundreds of new
Speaker 5: restrictions that closed clinics and shortened the timeframe women had
Speaker 5: to get an abortion.
Speaker 2: And then in twenty twenty one, one state passed law
Speaker 2: that foreshadowed where the entire country was heading.
Speaker 5: The Texas Heartbeat Bill is now in effect.
Speaker 2: A year before Robosa returned, Texas made national headlines for
Speaker 2: this new law, Senate Bill eight or SB eight.
Speaker 5: Senate Bill eight prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected,
Speaker 5: which can be as early as six.
Speaker 2: Weeks, barely enough time to know you're pregnant.
Speaker 1: The new anti abortion law in Texas has generated an
Speaker 1: unprecedented level of fear and anxiety for both providers and
Speaker 1: abortion seekers the state.
Speaker 2: The demand for self managed abortion in Texas exploded overnight.
Speaker 5: For US, it was de jabu, de jabu. Vera como.
Speaker 5: It was like going back twenty years.
Speaker 2: This is Vera Cruz, the founder of Las Liveres, who
Speaker 2: we met earlier in the series. Veto heard about SPA
Speaker 2: from friends in the US. It reminded her of the
Speaker 2: severe restrictions Mexico had an abortion when she started the
Speaker 2: group in two thousand. With two decades of experience supporting
Speaker 2: people through self managed abortions, Veto knew how to help,
Speaker 2: and she wanted to. She floated an idea to some
Speaker 2: other collectives in the Mexican.
Speaker 10: Networks, why don't we build a network to help people
Speaker 10: in Texas?
Speaker 5: Tod Himosi. We all said yes.
Speaker 2: In January twenty twenty two, Veto helped organize a meeting
Speaker 2: to strategize how to do this. They met in a
Speaker 2: hotel conference room in Mexico. There were almost fifty activists
Speaker 2: there from different Mexican accompaniment collectives, and a handful of
Speaker 2: people video calling in from Texas.
Speaker 10: Principal our main idea was that Mexican networks would train
Speaker 10: networks in Texas and the Texas networks would.
Speaker 7: Do the work.
Speaker 5: But there was a problem Mido.
Speaker 10: The people in Texas were really really scared. People were like, no, no,
Speaker 10: that's illegal. They can put us in jail.
Speaker 2: SB eight made it illegal to quote aid and a
Speaker 2: bed a woman having an abortion, but the lot didn't
Speaker 2: define what that meant, so it put pretty much everything
Speaker 2: the network does into a legal gray area.
Speaker 7: Veto says.
Speaker 2: The activists on the US side of the call said
Speaker 2: they weren't ready to get involved in the way she
Speaker 2: was suggesting, so Veto when the Mexican collectives decided to
Speaker 2: step in, they would directly provide women in Texas with
Speaker 2: pills and help them self manage their abortions, and they
Speaker 2: were going to be very public about it. Veto held
Speaker 2: a press conference and posted Lasivre's phone number on social media.
Speaker 2: She wasn't sure it would reach anyone, but that day
Speaker 2: ten Americans contacted her.
Speaker 10: So they only wrote the word help.
Speaker 7: In response.
Speaker 2: The Mexican collectives carried pill packages across the border and
Speaker 2: mailed them to the people in the US who had
Speaker 2: asked for them, free of charge, just like they'd been
Speaker 2: doing in Mexico for more than two decades. And as
Speaker 2: work got out, Americans from around the country started contacting VEO.
Speaker 2: Some sent money, others asked how they could join the network.
Speaker 10: Decades people wrote and said I want to help.
Speaker 5: How do I help?
Speaker 10: Mela Pasenes I spent every day having a lot of
Speaker 10: video conferences, giving workshops, explaining to all the volunteers how
Speaker 10: it was done, how it worked, why it was safe
Speaker 10: for mandoles companies, training them to do a companiamento.
Speaker 2: Accompaniment being there during the whole abortion process, regardless of
Speaker 2: the legal risks.
Speaker 10: Yeahtoria, and from those people, we formed a lot of
Speaker 10: groups throughout the US.
Speaker 5: Self managed abortion wasn't only getting support from across the border.
Speaker 5: There were other notes simultaneously developing around the US.
Speaker 4: This is new abortion pills by mail is really really new.
Speaker 4: In the United States.
Speaker 5: This is Elisa Wells, one of the founders of an
Speaker 5: organization called plan C, which focuses on getting people bills
Speaker 5: without having to go to a clinic in person.
Speaker 4: A lot of people still don't even know about it,
Speaker 4: and when they find out about it, they think, whoa
Speaker 4: you know that is? That's insane.
Speaker 5: Plancy's website links people to a variety of places where
Speaker 5: they can order abortion pills online, in many cases both
Speaker 5: MIFA pristone and Misoprosto. The website lists international clinics and
Speaker 5: pharmacies abroad that sell the pills, and also US based
Speaker 5: groups that mail free pills to people living in states
Speaker 5: with abortion restrictions. Plan C tests the pills from all
Speaker 5: these sources to make sure they're real.
Speaker 4: These are viable ways for people to access pills, especially
Speaker 4: if they live in a place where there are so
Speaker 4: many restrictions that they could be forced to carry a
Speaker 4: pregnancy to term.
Speaker 5: Other groups in the network focused on raising awareness about
Speaker 5: self managing with pills. They put up billboards through parties,
Speaker 5: slapstickers advertising abortion pills on bathroom doors, and they also
Speaker 5: pulled publicity stunts.
Speaker 11: Jack, So I want to start with you, you seem
Speaker 11: to be promoting abortion pills.
Speaker 5: Like activists Jex Blackmore. They're part of the organization Shout
Speaker 5: Your Abortion. In twenty twenty two, they went live on
Speaker 5: a Detroit Fox affiliate to talk about the pills and
Speaker 5: do an impromptu demonstration.
Speaker 12: Charlie, I just really I want to show you how
Speaker 12: easy it is and save if it is by taking
Speaker 12: it myself.
Speaker 11: You're taking it, are you are?
Speaker 13: You're not pregnant?
Speaker 5: Are you?
Speaker 12: I would say that this is going to end a pregnancy?
Speaker 5: And then some groups focused on providing support. Activists answer
Speaker 5: questions on Reddit and US based hotlines, including a hotline
Speaker 5: run by doctors like Maya Bass, the doctor we heard
Speaker 5: from earlier.
Speaker 6: I was taught that you need to have an ultrasound,
Speaker 6: and you need to have this, and you need to
Speaker 6: have all this.
Speaker 5: So like I didn't think it was safe. She thought
Speaker 5: this until she read research to the contrary, research that
Speaker 5: showed women around the world were taking MISA on their
Speaker 5: own and doing it safely.
Speaker 6: Maya was shocked, like wait, what, Like seriously, I never
Speaker 6: knew about any of this.
Speaker 5: Studies Maya read showed that the protocol she used, the
Speaker 5: multiple appointments, the ultrasound wasn't always needed, and she felt.
Speaker 6: That realizing that I was unnecessarily putting people through hoops
Speaker 6: that's hard. And then I felt also excited slash maybe
Speaker 6: release like this means that I can be less scared
Speaker 6: for people who are doing this.
Speaker 5: After Maya's realization, she wanted to offer women support.
Speaker 6: So it really became like, Okay, how can I help?
Speaker 6: Right at that point, it's like what can we do next?
Speaker 5: She decided to become part of the network by volunteering
Speaker 5: for the support hotline set up by doctors. It's called
Speaker 5: the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline. Maya news self managed abortions
Speaker 5: couldn't replace all abortions. Some people need medical intervention or
Speaker 5: just preferred to go to the clinic. But to Maya,
Speaker 5: the hotline and the immediate access it gave women to
Speaker 5: doctors felt innovative. No longer wait times, no expensive or
Speaker 5: unnecessary tests.
Speaker 6: It feels like I'm just on the cutting edge of medicine.
Speaker 6: I'm practicing evidence based medicine that is the leading edge
Speaker 6: of what repairted of health care might look like.
Speaker 5: In recent years, American doctors on the whole have gotten
Speaker 5: more comfortable with self managed abortion The American College of
Speaker 5: Obstetricians and Gynecologists has publicly supported it. In a statement,
Speaker 5: they called on doctors to educate themselves and provide assistance
Speaker 5: for patients who self manage. Other doctors have acted more directly,
Speaker 5: prescribing pills from states with abortion protections to people in
Speaker 5: states with restrictions. This wasn't the network of the nineties
Speaker 5: anymore small and niche. In the span of just a
Speaker 5: few years, it had grown and become far more organized.
Speaker 2: And then, on June twenty fourth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 6: The Supreme Court upended nearly a half century of legal precedent.
Speaker 2: The day the network had been preparing for arrived.
Speaker 6: It's a moment advocates for abortion rights have feared and
Speaker 6: that opponents have been working toward for decades.
Speaker 2: In the case Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization, the
Speaker 2: Court overturned Roversus Wade. It left the legality of abortion
Speaker 2: up to the states, thirteen of which immediately criminalized or
Speaker 2: nearly banned abortion. On the day role was overturned, the
Speaker 2: number of women reaching out to the network grew exponentially.
Speaker 4: Our website traffic went from about three thy eight hundred
Speaker 4: a day to three hundred and eighty two thousand.
Speaker 13: And it didn't stop once Rowe fell. We reached about
Speaker 13: two thousand people a day in our first month.
Speaker 5: We have days now where the phone is kind of
Speaker 5: ringing all day.
Speaker 2: This waterfall of call coming in groups that male people
Speaker 2: pills were inundated.
Speaker 4: They got so many requests that it crashed their system.
Speaker 4: It just shows you how big the demand is for
Speaker 4: this service.
Speaker 2: Over the past few years, the network's role has expanded
Speaker 2: in the US, and self managed abortion has become more mainstream.
Speaker 2: Cosmopolitan magazine even published a handful of articles about self
Speaker 2: managed abortion, including a complete how to guide.
Speaker 7: But it's not just.
Speaker 2: Women who want abortions who are paying attention.
Speaker 4: We've certainly been called drug dealers. We've been called murderers, abortionists,
Speaker 4: you name it.
Speaker 2: The anti abortion movement is too.
Speaker 11: People who are working in their communities to help other
Speaker 11: people access abortions. They are increasingly coming under the crosshairs.
Speaker 7: That's after the break.
Speaker 5: The legal landscape around abortion has been constantly shifting since
Speaker 5: Rowe was overturned, with dozens of new state laws restricting
Speaker 5: abortion going into effect. It can be hard to keep
Speaker 5: track and for people seeking abortions. All the changes have
Speaker 5: created a lot of uncertainty, confusion, and fear.
Speaker 8: People are just absolutely terrified. They are experiencing spiraling anxiety.
Speaker 5: This is Elizabeth Lying, a lawyer at ifwen how, a
Speaker 5: reproductive justice organization. She helps run their legal helpline. She
Speaker 5: says they've been getting a lot of calls in the
Speaker 5: past few years with people asking questions about the safety
Speaker 5: of self managing their abortion or helping someone else. Not
Speaker 5: medical safety, but legal safety. If they do it, will
Speaker 5: they end up in jail?
Speaker 8: Is my Internet history being watched? Is my mail going
Speaker 8: to be searched? A lot of what of this happens?
Speaker 8: What if this happens? What if this happens?
Speaker 5: She says. The fear has made some people too scared
Speaker 5: to act.
Speaker 8: The chilling effect makes people afraid to even ask the
Speaker 8: question of what are my options because they are worried
Speaker 8: that if I ask the question of what are my options,
Speaker 8: that is now somehow going to get me into legal trouble.
Speaker 5: The people who call into the legal helpline are not
Speaker 5: being paranoid. Seeking an abortion can put you at legal risk.
Speaker 5: It didn't used to be this way. Historically, abortion seekers
Speaker 5: have not been the target of restrictions doctors have and
Speaker 5: they still are. Some state attorneys general have sued the
Speaker 5: doctors who are doing the work we mentioned earlier mailing
Speaker 5: pills from states with abortion protections to people in states
Speaker 5: with restrictions.
Speaker 2: But a self managed abortion with pills has taken off,
Speaker 2: abortion opponents have broaden their strategy.
Speaker 11: They have realized that banning abortions after sixpeaks of pregnancy
Speaker 11: is not sufficient to stop people from ending unwanted pregnancies.
Speaker 2: Parad Estello is a lawyer and colleague of elizabeths at
Speaker 2: if When how She's watched how abortion opponents have begun
Speaker 2: to target women the network and its method self managing
Speaker 2: with pills. But bringing charges against women at least has
Speaker 2: been challenging because for the most part, there aren't specific
Speaker 2: laws that criminalize ending your own pregnancy. With the exception
Speaker 2: of Nevada, it is not illegal for a person to
Speaker 2: self manage their abortion. So prosecutors are getting creative. They're
Speaker 2: using other laws to charge women.
Speaker 11: Laws that prohibit concealing a birth that were intended to
Speaker 11: punish people for hiding out of wedlock births, laws against
Speaker 11: abuse of a corpse, which are really about desecration of
Speaker 11: human remains and brave robbing.
Speaker 2: And on the most extreme end of the spectrum in.
Speaker 5: Some seats, we're talking about homicide charges.
Speaker 2: That happened to a woman in Texas after the state
Speaker 2: passed its six week abortion ban. She was arrested for
Speaker 2: murder after taking abortion pills.
Speaker 13: Charged with murder because of a quote self induced abortion.
Speaker 3: She's been arrested and will be arranged Wednesday.
Speaker 2: Abortion opponents are also going after the people women are
Speaker 2: turning two for support, people who.
Speaker 11: Are working in their communities to help other people access abortions.
Speaker 11: They are increasingly coming under the crosshairs.
Speaker 2: In some cases, mothers who've helped their daughters self managed
Speaker 2: have been arrested. Cases like these have made news in
Speaker 2: Louisiana and Nebraska.
Speaker 14: A teenage girl and her mom in Nebraska are facing
Speaker 14: criminal charges following the teen's abortion. Alice got their Facebook
Speaker 14: messages about it through a search warrant.
Speaker 5: The pills themselves have also become a political target. For example,
Speaker 5: Robert F. Kennedy Junior brought them up at his confirmation
Speaker 5: hearing to become US Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Speaker 15: President Trump has made it clear to me that he
Speaker 15: wants me to look at safety issues.
Speaker 5: He recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration to review
Speaker 5: federal regulations for one of the abortion pills, mifa priston.
Speaker 5: He referred to a paper from a conservative think tank
Speaker 5: that questioned the safety of mifa pristone and called for
Speaker 5: more restrictions on the drug, but it wasn't peer reviewed,
Speaker 5: and medical experts have criticized it for flaws in its analysis.
Speaker 5: More than one hundred peer reviewed studies have found the
Speaker 5: use of abortion pills to be safe. On the state level,
Speaker 5: some laws find people thousands of dollars for giving out
Speaker 5: pills if they are not licensed to provide abortions. A
Speaker 5: few make it a crime with the possibility of jail time.
Speaker 5: So far, only a few women have gone to jail
Speaker 5: for having abortions or supporting others through it. But Pharah
Speaker 5: said that even for people who don't go to jail,
Speaker 5: there are still lasting effects.
Speaker 11: That person's name comes up again in Google searches, and
Speaker 11: that creates this indelible, inescapable record. I've had former clients
Speaker 11: who have been unable to get work. I've had clients
Speaker 11: had to change their names because of the harassment they
Speaker 11: faced in their Communities.
Speaker 5: Far's organization if when How has been keeping track of
Speaker 5: the ways people get caught up in the legal system.
Speaker 5: About half of all criminal cases for self managing start
Speaker 5: in a medical setting. According to the organization's data, the
Speaker 5: vast majority of self managed abortions with bills do not
Speaker 5: result in any complications, but if a woman feels like
Speaker 5: something might be wrong and goes to the hospital, she
Speaker 5: increases her chances of coming into contact with law enforcement.
Speaker 11: Hospital personnel, whether that was nurses, doctors, social workers reported
Speaker 11: them to law enforcement because they were suspicious of them.
Speaker 11: Once it happens, it is like a train going down
Speaker 11: a track.
Speaker 5: If healthcare workers think someone may have committed a crime,
Speaker 5: they're allowed to share information with the police that would
Speaker 5: otherwise be private. As we've said, except in Nevada, self
Speaker 5: managing is not a crime, so there's no reason for
Speaker 5: doctors and nurses to call the police, but sometimes they do.
Speaker 2: Anyway, FARA has noticed that some people are more likely
Speaker 2: than others to end up in legal trouble.
Speaker 11: In the cases that we've worked on, it is mostly
Speaker 11: people who are trying to figure things out on their own.
Speaker 11: It has never been either somebody who was supported by
Speaker 11: an accompaniment network or somebody who was involved with an
Speaker 11: accompaniment network.
Speaker 2: The network has developed strategies to try to protect women
Speaker 2: who are having abortions. We spoke to a woman named
Speaker 2: Elle who does this work. She's an abortion to that's
Speaker 2: what many Americans who do accompaniamento call themselves. We're not
Speaker 2: using Elle's full name because she fears potential violence against her.
Speaker 2: We're also using a voice actor. From the moment that
Speaker 2: women reach out, Elle coaches them on how to keep
Speaker 2: their communications secure. If they contact her on Gmail, she'll
Speaker 2: tell them.
Speaker 13: This is not safe for you or us, and I
Speaker 13: can't interact with you until you download an encrypted app.
Speaker 2: Once they're in touch, Elle explains that the pills are safe,
Speaker 2: but the side effects like vomiting and heavy bleeding can
Speaker 2: be alarming. She walks them through how to help prepare
Speaker 2: so they don't seek medical help unnecessarily.
Speaker 13: You should have plenty and plenty and plenty of maxi pads.
Speaker 13: You should have your IBET profile, and you should have
Speaker 13: plenty of fluids.
Speaker 2: Elle also advises women on how to take the pills.
Speaker 2: Elle tells them to not insert them me so vaginally
Speaker 2: where it can leave a residue, but to dissolve it
Speaker 2: in their cheeks or under the tongue. That way, if
Speaker 2: they go to the hospital, there's no evidence they've done
Speaker 2: something to cause an abortion.
Speaker 13: The symptoms of an incomplete abortion and the symptoms of
Speaker 13: a miscarriage are igentical. They can't tell.
Speaker 2: Once the abortion starts. Elle checks in often, and if
Speaker 2: a woman needs or wants to see a doctor, El
Speaker 2: tells them to call the miscarriage an abortion hotline, the
Speaker 2: one runs specifically by doctors, or she points them towards
Speaker 2: doctor's offices that the network trusts.
Speaker 13: In some places, we have friendlies, you know, we have
Speaker 13: clinics where we know we can safely send someone if.
Speaker 2: They need to get care outside the network's connections. LL
Speaker 2: runs through what to say to medical staff.
Speaker 13: We role play what would you say if they're said,
Speaker 13: what's going on? What did you do? What did you take?
Speaker 16: Well?
Speaker 13: What's going on is I don't know. I think I
Speaker 13: might be having a miscarriage. I started bleeding all of
Speaker 13: a sudden.
Speaker 5: The network is also taking measures to protect itself when
Speaker 5: speaking in public. Volunteers have learned how to use language
Speaker 5: that isn't incriminating. They talk in a code of hypotheticals
Speaker 5: even in social media videos.
Speaker 7: I figured I.
Speaker 11: Would let you know what I would do if I
Speaker 11: were to find out I was pregnant and I wanted
Speaker 11: to have an abortion.
Speaker 2: Now, please note this is not medical advice whatsoever or
Speaker 2: at all, just one person sharing resources with another.
Speaker 8: I would take four of the mesa prostel.
Speaker 16: Have you ever seen a more iconic pill.
Speaker 5: So far, the growing legal restrictions have not stopped the
Speaker 5: network in the US from helping women self manage their abortions.
Speaker 5: But there's another challenge. The network is struggling with a
Speaker 5: much broader invisible force. That's after the break.
Speaker 2: The network is global, stretching all around the world, but
Speaker 2: in each place it shows up it's different. It adapts
Speaker 2: to the specific culture it lands in and faces specific barriers.
Speaker 5: In the US, one of the largest barriers is awareness.
Speaker 5: For so long, access to abortion in the States was
Speaker 5: centered around clinics. As a result, many Americans don't know
Speaker 5: there's a way to have a safe abortion without a
Speaker 5: doctor's help.
Speaker 2: Research published in twenty twenty four found that most Americans
Speaker 2: who have attempted to self manage their abortion in the
Speaker 2: past few years have done dangerous things like kid themselves
Speaker 2: in the stomach or drink alcohol. Only about a quarter
Speaker 2: of the women in the study use pills.
Speaker 5: When Americans do find the network, they're very American about
Speaker 5: the way they interact with it. They treat it like
Speaker 5: a service. Veto, who studied Las Libts in Mexico, noticed
Speaker 5: this as she began supporting women in the States.
Speaker 10: I would take some time to reply to them and
Speaker 10: it was like, hey, answer me. I wrote to you
Speaker 10: five minutes ago, and it was.
Speaker 15: Like hey wait.
Speaker 8: No.
Speaker 2: Verto explained that Last Divides was not a service or
Speaker 2: a business. It was just a bunch of volunteers sharing
Speaker 2: pills and offering support.
Speaker 16: The bio basencia, the bo respect.
Speaker 10: So I'm going to ask for your patients and I'm
Speaker 10: going to ask for your respect. And people were like,
Speaker 10: oh sorry, I'm just very nervous.
Speaker 2: And just like a purchase. After women in the US
Speaker 2: got what they needed, that was it.
Speaker 15: It's very American in some ways to say, oh, look
Speaker 15: there's a pill, let me get the pill.
Speaker 5: One sociologists. We spoke to Naomi Brain, who studied the
Speaker 5: self managed abortion movement across the world. She's noticed that
Speaker 5: Americans generally think that the pills alone can overcome abortion restrictions,
Speaker 5: but Naomi wants them to think bigger.
Speaker 15: This pill only comes to life in some way within
Speaker 15: a network. It only comes to life in the presence
Speaker 15: of solidarity. Otherwise you're alone with cramps in a bathroom
Speaker 15: and nobody knows, and that's really not a very liberatory experience.
Speaker 5: L the abortion Doula is a bit more pragmatic. She
Speaker 5: thinks the pills in and of themselves are powerful, but
Speaker 5: like Naomi, she wants Americans to focus more on supporting
Speaker 5: each other.
Speaker 13: I wish there were more We need more people.
Speaker 5: But she doesn't see that happening anytime soon.
Speaker 13: I think that people are really heads down, trying to
Speaker 13: survive a lot, and not necessarily thinking about linging arms
Speaker 13: and marching forward in solidarity. Whereas in Mexico, I have
Speaker 13: the sense that the circle keeps growing. The people who've
Speaker 13: been helped directly turn around and help others.
Speaker 2: But in our reporting, we have seen the circle widening
Speaker 2: in the US in ways that remind us a lot
Speaker 2: of how the network took shape decades ago. In Latin America,
Speaker 2: we heard stories of older sisters who had self managed
Speaker 2: before helping their little sister through it. People getting pills
Speaker 2: and advice from their hairdresser, and several examples of people
Speaker 2: who had been supported by dulas getting trained to become
Speaker 2: dullahs themselves.
Speaker 16: Yeah, I just wanted to be a part of it too.
Speaker 16: You know, this is H.
Speaker 2: We're using her initial because she fears harassment for what
Speaker 2: she did. In twenty nineteen, H, a mom of four kids,
Speaker 2: decided she wanted an abortion. She could have gone to clinic,
Speaker 2: but she'd heard about protesters lining the sidewalks with bullhorns
Speaker 2: and signs. She didn't think she could handle walking through
Speaker 2: all of that.
Speaker 16: I didn't feel shame, but I felt like I could
Speaker 16: have been persuaded to be shamed of what I was
Speaker 16: about to do.
Speaker 2: H worked in the reproductive health space and a friend
Speaker 2: in the same field told her about the network. ACH's
Speaker 2: friend was part of it and said she could get
Speaker 2: H pills for free. H was pretty surprised something like
Speaker 2: it existed, with aliases and everything.
Speaker 16: Like, Oh, there's a whole group of you, and you're
Speaker 16: all like underground and secret squirrel and using different names
Speaker 16: and all this stuff. It was just mind blowing.
Speaker 5: Her friend, who's an abortion doula, offered to support H
Speaker 5: through a self managed abortion. H hadn't realized it was
Speaker 5: possible to do it this way, but she was.
Speaker 16: In I wanted some autonomy and control over the situation.
Speaker 5: Her abortion. Doulah friend helped think through where she wanted
Speaker 5: to have her abortion and what she needed to be comfortable.
Speaker 5: When the day came, that friend, along with another Dulah friend,
Speaker 5: and H gathered in a hotel room with plenty of
Speaker 5: comfort food. H started by lighting a kendle and taking
Speaker 5: time to reflect.
Speaker 16: I wrote out some negative feelings or anxieties that I
Speaker 16: was having, and I ripped them up and we threw
Speaker 16: them away as like a released ceremony.
Speaker 5: And then she took the bills. When she started bleeding
Speaker 5: and cramping badly, the women accompanying H reassured her.
Speaker 16: Like is this normal? Is this okay?
Speaker 8: You know?
Speaker 16: And they're like yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 5: To help her manage the pain, H's friend prepared the
Speaker 5: bath for her and four cups of hot water down
Speaker 5: her back. They stayed with her all night through the
Speaker 5: next morning.
Speaker 2: When it was finished, H says she felt relieved, a
Speaker 2: feeling that stayed with her, and she also felt grateful
Speaker 2: to have had the experience outside of a clinic.
Speaker 16: I just wish that there was more of a focus
Speaker 16: on creating spaces for people that are going through this experience.
Speaker 16: That's my desire is that everybody gets to experience being
Speaker 16: supported through their abortion and that it's not just the
Speaker 16: sterile thing that you have to go through.
Speaker 2: After her abortion, H wanted to create those spaces for others,
Speaker 2: and so she trained to become an abortion dueler. She
Speaker 2: remembers supporting one woman as she managed her abortion.
Speaker 7: At home.
Speaker 2: They were eating food and watching an episode of the
Speaker 2: sitcom mod where the main character had an abortion. Worlded,
Speaker 2: don't pat me there, that's what started this whole thing.
Speaker 16: We were just joking and laughing, and then her cramping
Speaker 16: got a little bit harder.
Speaker 2: When the woman started cramping, H told her to get
Speaker 2: into a hot bath to help manage the pain, just
Speaker 2: as their Jula friends told her to do during her
Speaker 2: own abortion.
Speaker 16: She got out of the tub eventually and walked over
Speaker 16: to go open the sliding glass door and turned around,
Speaker 16: and the pregnancy expelled as she was like taking the step,
Speaker 16: and she realized what happened and instantly dropped to her knees.
Speaker 2: H says the moment suddenly became still and quiet, and
Speaker 2: then the woman went out onto her deck where she
Speaker 2: had plants.
Speaker 7: She was crying.
Speaker 16: She buried it in a pot of wildflowers that her
Speaker 16: other children had potted, and then we tucked her into bed,
Speaker 16: like right before her husband brought her children home.
Speaker 5: When age got involved with the network, she didn't know
Speaker 5: the history she was stepping into, how Brazilian women discovered
Speaker 5: me so how Latin American activists built entire communities to
Speaker 5: support women using this bill. She didn't realize that her
Speaker 5: experience was part of such a large scale shift. The
Speaker 5: pills and the communities growing around them are already changing
Speaker 5: how people have abortions across the world.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two, the World Health Organization published guidelines
Speaker 2: for self managed abortion that said it's safe and effective
Speaker 2: in the first trimester. In our reporting, we found that
Speaker 2: parts of the network safely support people later.
Speaker 7: Into their pregnancies.
Speaker 2: The guidelines even mentioned accompaniment and say that when men
Speaker 2: who self manage benefit from access to support, which doesn't
Speaker 2: necessarily have to come from a doctor.
Speaker 5: In places with abortion restrictions, like the country where we
Speaker 5: started the series, Brazil, self managed abortion may be the
Speaker 5: only option for most people who want to end their pregnancies.
Speaker 5: But the who encouraged doctors to not look at self
Speaker 5: managed abortion as just a last resort but a quote
Speaker 5: potentially empowering and active extension of the health system. Plenty
Speaker 5: of women already see self managed abortion this way, Like
Speaker 5: in Argentina, the year after abortion became legal, there thousands
Speaker 5: of people reached out to the accompaniment collective we mentioned
Speaker 5: in the last episode, the Socoristas. More than three quarters
Speaker 5: of those people chose to self manage with the Socorista
Speaker 5: support instead of going to the public health system. So
Speaker 5: the network has totally changed what abortion looks like in Argentina.
Speaker 2: Will the network do the same for the US too?
Speaker 3: There's no putting that Genie back in the bottle.
Speaker 2: This is the red wine. She's American, but for thirty
Speaker 2: years she worked for Planned Parented Global in Latin America.
Speaker 2: She watched as the pill and the network swept across
Speaker 2: the continent, and now she's seen signs that something similar
Speaker 2: is happening in the US.
Speaker 3: That wave is coming.
Speaker 16: It's here.
Speaker 17: It's like crashing over the shores of the United States,
Speaker 17: and it is going to change entirely the landscape of abortion,
Speaker 17: just like it did globally.
Speaker 5: The entire ecosystem around abortion pills. In the US, activists, doulas,
Speaker 5: and doctors has contributed to a surprising statistic. Since Roe fell,
Speaker 5: Americans are having more abortions, even in states with bands.
Speaker 3: The irony of this post Dobbs World is that if
Speaker 3: it goes the way that I think it will, which
Speaker 3: is what I saw in Latin America, in some ways,
Speaker 3: abortion ironically will become more accessible but less legal.
Speaker 2: In the minds of many Americans, access and legality are
Speaker 2: inextricably linked, but these two things are becoming untethered because
Speaker 2: of abortion pills and because of the network.
Speaker 5: In the years to come, there's a question both abortion
Speaker 5: rights supporters and opponents will be asking themselves. The government
Speaker 5: can make abortion illegal, but can it end safe abortion
Speaker 5: as long as the network is around.
Speaker 2: This was the final episode of the network. If you
Speaker 2: want to learn more about the network, like how doctor
Speaker 2: Maya Bass and other doctors changed their minds about self
Speaker 2: managed abortion, go to NPR dot org slash Embedded Network.
Speaker 2: That's NPR dot org slash embedded network.
Speaker 5: The network from Embedded is a collaboration with Latino USA,
Speaker 5: a production of Futuro Media.
Speaker 2: This episode was reported by Abbi Wendel and Me Victoria.
Speaker 5: Strada and me Marta Martinez. This episode was produced by
Speaker 5: Arianna Garrett, Lee, Adelina Lenzianie and Abbi Wendel, with production
Speaker 5: support from Monica Morales Garcia. Reyna Cohen edited the series.
Speaker 2: Fact checking by Donia Suleiman.
Speaker 5: Robert Rodriguez mastered the episode.
Speaker 2: Leanna Simpstrom is our supervising Senior producer, Katie Simon is
Speaker 2: our supervising senior editor, Irena Gucci is our executive producer,
Speaker 2: and Colin Campbell is the Senior Vice President for Podcasting
Speaker 2: at MPR.
Speaker 5: The embedded team also includes Ristreis and Dan Germa.
Speaker 2: From Latino USA. Our executive producers are Merlin Bishop and
Speaker 2: Pennilee Ramidez, and our production managers are Jessica Ellis and
Speaker 2: Nancy Truchigo.
Speaker 5: Thanks to our Managing editor of Standards and Practices, Tony Kevin,
Speaker 5: and to Johannes Urghy and Micah Ratner for legal support
Speaker 5: and Tommy Evans, MPR's managing editor Editorial Review.
Speaker 2: And thanks to NPR correspondents Selena Simons Stephen and Alissa
Speaker 2: Nett Warney.
Speaker 5: Our Visuals editor is Emily Vogel. Original tail art by
Speaker 5: Luke Medina.
Speaker 2: Voiceovers by Andrea de Alva, Alvaris, Barbara Trehar, Justine jan
Speaker 2: Leanna Simpstrom and Abby Wendel, and thanks.
Speaker 5: To Matthew Alstrom for the engineering assist. This is our
Speaker 5: final episode of the network and we want to thank
Speaker 5: the many people that we've talked to who didn't appear
Speaker 5: or weren't mentioned in the series, including Phoebe Jane, Amelia Bono.
Speaker 2: Simone, Denice Angel Foster, Jesse Hill, Jenkarlin, Vania Maya, Ariela Messing,
Speaker 2: Maureen Paul, Jamila Parrott, Mariana Brandini.
Speaker 5: Catherine Romanos, Ruge Doulas, Lupita Sanchez, Carrie Sistra, and Susan Yano.
Speaker 2: Your knowledge and experience helped us shape the series, and
Speaker 2: we're grateful for the time you gave us, and a
Speaker 2: big thanks to our Embedded Plus supporters. Embedded is MPR's
Speaker 2: home for ambitious journalism, and Embedded Plus helps us keep
Speaker 2: that work going. These supporters get early access to every
Speaker 2: Embedded series and they get to listen, sponsor free. Find
Speaker 2: out more at Plus dot NPR dot org, slash Embedded.
Speaker 5: I'm Marta Martinez.
Speaker 7: I'm Victoria Strada.
Speaker 5: This is embedded from MPR.
Speaker 7: Thanks for listening for the scutar.
Speaker 17: Latino USA is brought to you in part by the
Speaker 17: Levi Strauss Foundation, outfitting movements and leaders fighting for a
Speaker 17: more just and abundant world, with the support from the
Speaker 17: International Women's Media Foundation as
Speaker 6: Part of its Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the
Speaker 6: America's initiative, and the v Day Foundation.