In late September, Reproaction joined forces with the Planned Parenthood of Metro Washington and their Developing Leaders Program (DLP) to host a self-managed abortion with pills information session. The Developing Leaders Program is a 9-month professional development program for young professionals with a passion for reproductive health, rights, and justice no matter what their career goals may be [1]. The DLP program allows participants to learn from partner organizations about reproductive rights, health, and justice issues. DLP participants are encouraged to apply a reproductive justice lens to the diverse array of careers they are pursuing.

This informed and passionate group of individuals was eager to learn about self-managed abortion using misoprostol and mifepristone according to the World Health Organization’s safe and effective protocol for self-managed abortion [2]. While the presentation largely focuses on the protocol for how to use abortion pills, what to expect when they are used, and what a person should do after using them, it also provides information about other aspects of self-managing an abortion. These include digital security guidance for purchasing abortion pills and researching information about abortion, legal updates on the status of the abortion pill mifepristone which is currently under attack, and guidance on how to help someone who is self-managing their abortion.

Because of the background of the DLP participants in reproductive rights work, a lot of them had some knowledge about the protocol and were able to share useful resources with their peers. There were nurses in the room who were able to explain why it is so important abortion pills were dissolved in the mouth and not swallowed, there were abortion doulas who were able to share self-care items that may be helpful for someone they are assisting someone in self-managing their abortion, and there were policy experts who were able to shed more light on the current legal attacks on mifepristone.

Our movement and our partners across movements must be committed to sharing information about self-managed abortion with pills. As abortion access is eroding across the country it is of the utmost importance to teach people that they can be their own abortion providers safely and effectively. If you wish to share this information with your community you can reach out to us to host your own self-managed abortion info sharing session here.

You can help us continue to share accurate and accessible information about self-managed abortion by participating in upcoming events, joining our email list, and following us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. As always, your donations help us fight for access to abortion, so give what you can if you can!

Sources:

1.  https://www.plannedparenthood.org/planned-parenthood-metropolitan-washington-dc/get-involved-locally/developing-leaders-program
2.  https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-SRH-22.1