June 20, 2025 • 43 mins
This week, we’re presenting the third of “The Network,” a new series that Latino USA co-produced with NPR’s Embedded podcast.
The network and its method took off in countries where women didn’t have a legal option for abortion. Since Roe v. Wade was overturned, many Americans have found themselves in that very situation.
We travel to the US to see how the network is responding to exploding demand and mounting abortion restrictions.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, Latino USA listener, It's Marieno Hossa. We're back again
with our new series The Network, a co production of
Latino USA and NPR's Embedded Podcast. Now, if you haven't
listened to the first two episodes, you're definitely going to
want to do that before you keep listening. Remember you
can find the rest of this series here on our
feed or on the embedded feed. Now, just to recap,
(00:22):
we've been following this loosely connected set of people. We're
calling them the Network, right, These are people who help
women have abortions with pills without the help of a doctor.
The network started in Brazil and then grew and it
developed support systems in other countries in the region, like
Mexico and Argentina. And these were places where most women
(00:44):
didn't have a legal right to abortion. And now these days,
that is the situation that a lot of Americans find
themselves in since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade
and ended the constitutional right to abortion in the United
States of America. So in this final episode of this series,
(01:04):
we're going to go deep into the United States. Here
are Latino USA producers Victori Estrada and Marta Martinez with
the last episode of the network.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
For decades, while people all over the world were embracing
self managed abortion with MISA prostel, most Americans had never
even heard of it, and many of those who had
dismissed it for being a foreign concept.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
It was always like, oh, well, yeah, but those are
other countries.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
That doesn't apply here, for.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Being irrelevant because for decades Americans had a legal right
to abortion.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
There was a lot of disbelief that something like this
was needed in the United States. A big part of
our narrative is that we have abortion access right.
Speaker 6 (01:48):
Or they dismissed it for sounding dangerous.
Speaker 7 (01:51):
I didn't think it was safe, you know, as doctors
were risk at first, and we like control.
Speaker 8 (01:58):
This is doctor Maya Bass, a family doctor who also
provides abortions, either by performing the procedure or prescribing pills.
In the US, patients usually take two pills, misoprostol or miso,
the pill we've been hearing about, and another drug called
me for Pristo, which makes the process go a little smoother.
(02:19):
Early in her career, Maya learned a strict protocol around
the pills, with multiple appointments and tests designed to keep
patients safe.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
Of course, I'm going to confirm exactly how big this
pregnancy is. Of course I'm going to confirm that my
patient has enough blood to handle this. And yeah, I
want to make sure that this worked for them.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
T Maya and many doctors. When she first heard about
self managing, getting abortion pills without a prescription and taking
them without a doctor's oversight, she thought it introduced a
ton of risks.
Speaker 7 (02:54):
Gosh, what if people are dropping like flies because they're
taking meds that are actually rat poison and hurting themselves.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
She imagined people only turned to self managing as a
last resort.
Speaker 7 (03:07):
If somebody really doesn't want a pregnancy and can't get
to a clinic, maybe this is an option.
Speaker 8 (03:12):
But after Roe was overturned in twenty twenty two for
lots of women, the last resort became the only resort.
Speaker 9 (03:22):
Please help me, How am I able to receive the
pill asap? Please?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
These are emails American women sent to activists who share
them with us.
Speaker 10 (03:33):
I'm inquiring about abortion pills and how to get them
sent to me.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
I'm in no way, shape or form financially ready to
have a child.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I'm desperate.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
In recent years, American women have been reaching out to
the network by the hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 8 (03:52):
The network in the US is trying to meet this demand,
but like we've seen in previous episodes, when the network
starts to grow, it's not clear what will happen next.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
In Argentina, the network led to cultural and policy changes.
In Brazil, it based backlash and restrictions. So in this
episode we look at how the network in the US
has expanded in the last few years and what a
fact that's having on this country.
Speaker 8 (04:23):
How will the network adapt in the face of mounting
abortion restrictions. From MPRS Embedded and Futuro Media's Latino USA,
This is the Network, a series about the DIY method
that took safe abortions out of the clinic.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
And the women who made it happen.
Speaker 8 (04:47):
I'm Victoria Estrada, I'm Marta Martinez and this is episode
three deja Vu. For decades in the US, the network
was almost entirely absent, but not completely. There were a
(05:07):
few places It began showing up in the mid nineties.
Speaker 11 (05:10):
We just started hearing that patients were taking some pills.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
This is doctor Mark Rosing and OBGYN who works at
a hospital in the bronx. Back then, he saw patients
from immigrant and Spanish speaking communities taking me, so.
Speaker 11 (05:25):
In Spanish they called it the star pill because it's
a hexagonal pill.
Speaker 8 (05:29):
According to Mark, the women he was seeing in his
hospital could have gone to a clinic, but he says
many didn't know that in New York insurance or medicaid
would cover it, so instead they relied on the network.
Speaker 11 (05:42):
They would say I got it from my aunt, I
got it from my cousin, and I got it from
someone who knows amba. And then sometimes they would also
say that they got it in some of the bodegas
and the pharmacies around in Washington Heights.
Speaker 8 (05:55):
For decades, the network stayed like this, small underground, mostly
tied to immigrant communities, but in the late twenty tens,
the demand for the network began to grow. American women
started to lose access to doctors who could give them
an abortion. During this time, states passed hundreds of new
(06:16):
restrictions that close clinics and shortened the timeframe women had
to get an abortion.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And then in twenty twenty one, one state passed law
that foreshadowed where the entire country was heading.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
The Texas Heartbeat Bill is now in effect.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
A year before Robosa returned, Texas made national headlines for
this new law, Senate Bill eight or SB eight.
Speaker 8 (06:41):
Senate Bill eight prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected,
which can be as early as six.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Weeks, barely enough time to know you're pregnant.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
The new anti abortion law in Texas has generated an
unprecedented level of fear and anxiety for both providers and
abortion seekers the state.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
The demand for self managed abortion in Texas exploded overnight.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
For US, it was de jabu, de jabu. Vera como.
It was like going back twenty years.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
This is Vera Cruz, the founder of Las Liveres, who
we met earlier in the series. Veto heard about SPA
from friends in the US. It reminded her of the
severe restrictions Mexico had an abortion when she started the
group in two thousand. With two decades of experience supporting
people through self managed abortions, Veto knew how to help,
(07:43):
and she wanted to. She floated an idea to some
other collectives in the Mexican.
Speaker 12 (07:47):
Networks, why don't we build a network to help people
in Texas?
Speaker 6 (07:53):
Tod Himosi. We all said yes.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
In January twenty twenty two, Veto helped organize a meeting
to strategize how to do this. They met in a
hotel conference room in Mexico. There were almost fifty activists
there from different Mexican accompaniment collectives, and a handful of
people video calling in from Texas.
Speaker 12 (08:15):
Principal our main idea was that Mexican networks would train
networks in Texas and the Texas networks would.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Do the work.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
But there was a problem Mido.
Speaker 12 (08:28):
The people in Texas were really really scared. People were like, no, no,
that's illegal. They can put us in jail.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
SB eight made it illegal to quote aid and a
bed a woman having an abortion, but the lot didn't
define what that meant, so it put pretty much everything
the network does into a legal gray area.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Veto says.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
The activists on the US side of the call said
they weren't ready to get involved in the way she
was suggesting, so Veto when the Mexican collectives decided to
step in, they would directly provide women in Texas with
pills and help them self manage their abortions, and they
were going to be very public about it. Veto held
(09:14):
a press conference and posted Lasivre's phone number on social media.
She wasn't sure it would reach anyone, but that day
ten Americans contacted her.
Speaker 12 (09:25):
So they only wrote the word help.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
In response.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
The Mexican collectives carried pill packages across the border and
mailed them to the people in the US who had
asked for them, free of charge, just like they'd been
doing in Mexico for more than two decades. And as
work got out, Americans from around the country started contacting VEO.
Some sent money, others asked how they could join the network.
Speaker 12 (09:54):
Decades people wrote and said I want to help.
Speaker 8 (09:57):
How do I help?
Speaker 12 (09:59):
Mela Pasenes I spent every day having a lot of
video conferences, giving workshops, explaining to all the volunteers how
it was done, how it worked, why it was safe
for mandoles companies, training them to do a compania.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Miento accompaniment, being there during the whole abortion process, regardless
of the legal risks.
Speaker 12 (10:24):
Yeah, and from those people, we formed a lot of
groups throughout the US.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Self managed abortion wasn't only getting support from across the border.
Speaker 8 (10:50):
There were other notes simultaneously developing around the US.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
This is new abortion pills by mail is really really new.
In the United States.
Speaker 8 (11:00):
This is Elisa Wells, one of the founders of an
organization called plan C, which focuses on getting people bills
without having to go to a clinic in person.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
A lot of people still don't even know about it,
and when they find out about it, they think, whoa
you know that is? That's insane.
Speaker 8 (11:18):
Plancy's website links people to a variety of places where
they can order abortion pills online, in many cases both
MIFA pristone and Misoprosto. The website lists international clinics and
pharmacies abroad that sell the pills, and also US based
groups that mail free pills to people living in states
(11:39):
with abortion restrictions. Plan C tests the pills from all
these sources to make sure they're real.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
These are viable ways for people to access pills, especially
if they live in a place where there are so
many restrictions that they could be forced to carry a
pregnancy to term.
Speaker 8 (11:55):
Other groups in the network focused on raising awareness about
self managing with pills. They put up billboards through parties,
slapstickers advertising abortion pills on bathroom doors, and they also
pulled publicity stunts.
Speaker 13 (12:13):
Jack, So I want to start with you, you seem
to be promoting abortion pills.
Speaker 8 (12:19):
Like activists Jex Blackmore. They're part of the organization Shout
Your Abortion. In twenty twenty two, they went live on
a Detroit Fox affiliate to talk about the pills and
do an impromptu demonstration.
Speaker 14 (12:32):
Charlie, I just really I want to show you how
easy it is and save if it is by taking
it myself.
Speaker 15 (12:39):
You're taking it, are you are?
Speaker 16 (12:43):
You're not pregnant?
Speaker 6 (12:44):
Are you?
Speaker 14 (12:46):
I would say that this is going to end a pregnancy?
Speaker 8 (13:01):
And then some groups focused on providing support. Activists answer
questions on Reddit and US based hotlines, including a hotline
run by doctors like Maya Bass, the doctor we heard
from earlier.
Speaker 7 (13:15):
I was taught that you need to have an ultrasound,
and you need to have this, and you need to
have all this. So like I didn't think it was safe.
Speaker 8 (13:22):
She thought this until she read research to the contrary,
research that showed women around the world were taking MISA
on their own and doing it safely.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
Maya was shocked, like wait, what, Like seriously, I never
knew about any of this.
Speaker 8 (13:39):
Studies Maya read showed that the protocol she used, the
multiple appointments, the ultrasound wasn't always needed, and she felt.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
That realizing that I was unnecessarily putting people through hoops
that's hard. And then I felt also excited slash maybe
release like this means that I can be less scared
for people who are doing this.
Speaker 8 (14:07):
After Maya's realization, she wanted to offer women support.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
So it really became like, Okay, how can I help?
Right at that point, it's like what can we do next?
Speaker 8 (14:20):
She decided to become part of the network by volunteering
for the support hotline set up by doctors. It's called
the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline. Maya news self managed abortions
couldn't replace all abortions. Some people need medical intervention or
just preferred to go to the clinic. But to Maya,
(14:41):
the hotline and the immediate access it gave women to
doctors felt innovative. No longer wait times, no expensive or
unnecessary tests.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
It feels like I'm just on the cutting edge of medicine.
I'm practicing evidence based medicine that is the leading edge
of what repairted of health care might look like.
Speaker 8 (15:06):
In recent years, American doctors on the whole have gotten
more comfortable with self managed abortion The American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists has publicly supported it.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
In a statement, they called on.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
Doctors to educate themselves and provide assistance for patients who
self manage. Other doctors have acted more directly, prescribing pills
from states with abortion protections to people in states with restrictions.
This wasn't the network of the nineties anymore small and niche.
(15:42):
In the span of just a few years, it had
grown and become far more organized.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
And then, on June twenty fourth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
The Supreme Court upended nearly a half century of legal precedent.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
The day the network had been preparing for arrived.
Speaker 7 (16:13):
It's a moment advocates for abortion rights have feared and
that opponents have been working toward for decades.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
In the case Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization, the
Court overturned Roversus Wade. It left the legality of abortion
up to the states, thirteen of which immediately criminalized or
nearly banned abortion. On the day rule was overturned, the
number of women reaching out to the network grew exponentially.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Our website traffic went from about three thy eight hundred
a day to three hundred and eighty two thousand.
Speaker 16 (16:51):
And it didn't stop once Rowe fell. We reached about
two thousand people a day in our first month.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
We have days now where the phone is kind of
ringing all day.
Speaker 10 (17:00):
This waterfall of calls coming.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
In groups that male people pills were inundated.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
They got so many requests that it crashed their system.
It just shows you how big the demand is for
this service.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Over the past few years, the network's role has expanded
in the US, and self managed abortion has become more mainstream.
Cosmopolitan magazine even published a handful of articles about self
managed abortion, including a complete how to guide.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
But it's not just.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Women who want abortions who are paying attention.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
We've certainly been called drug dealers. We've been called murderers, abortionists,
you name it.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The anti abortion movement is too.
Speaker 13 (17:42):
People who are working in their communities to help other
people access abortions. They are increasingly coming under the crosshairs.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
That's after the break.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
The legal landscape around abortion has been constantly shifting since
Rowe was overturned, with dozens of new state laws restricting
abortion going into effect. It can be hard to keep
track and for people seeking abortions. All the changes have
created a lot of uncertainty, confusion, and fear.
Speaker 10 (18:16):
People are just absolutely terrified. They are experiencing spiraling anxiety.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
This is Elizabeth Lying, a lawyer at ifwen how, a
reproductive justice organization. She helps run their legal helpline. She
says they've been getting a lot of calls in the
past few years with people asking questions about the safety
of self managing their abortion or helping someone else. Not
medical safety, but legal safety. If they do it, will
(18:47):
they end up in jail?
Speaker 10 (18:48):
Is my Internet history being watched? Is my mail going
to be searched? A lot of what if this happens?
What if this happens? What if this happens?
Speaker 6 (18:56):
She says. The fear has made some people too scared
to act.
Speaker 10 (19:00):
The chilling effect makes people afraid to even ask the
question of what are my options because they are worried
that if I ask the question of what are my options,
that is now somehow going to get me into legal trouble.
Speaker 8 (19:19):
The people who call into the legal helpline are not
being paranoid. Seeking an abortion can put you at legal risk.
It didn't used to be this way. Historically, abortion seekers
have not been the target of restrictions doctors have and
they still are. Some state attorneys general have sued the
(19:40):
doctors who are doing the work we mentioned earlier mailing
pills from states with abortion protections to people in states
with restrictions.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
But a self managed abortion with pills has taken off,
abortion opponents have broaden their strategy.
Speaker 13 (19:55):
They have realized that banning abortions after sixpeaks of pregnancy
is not sufficient to stop people from ending unwanted pregnancies.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Parad Estello is a lawyer and colleague of elizabeths at
if When how She's watched how abortion opponents have begun
to target women the network and its method self managing
with pills. But bringing charges against women at least has
been challenging because for the most part, there aren't specific
laws that criminalize ending your own pregnancy. With the exception
(20:29):
of Nevada, it is not illegal for a person to
self manage their abortion. So prosecutors are getting creative. They're
using other laws to charge women.
Speaker 13 (20:39):
Laws that prohibit concealing a birth that were intended to
punish people for hiding out of wedlock births, laws against
abuse of a corpse, which are really about desecration of
human remains and brave robbing.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And on the most extreme end of the spectrum.
Speaker 13 (20:58):
In some seats, we're talking about homicide charges.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
That happened to a woman in Texas after the state
passed its six week abortion ban. She was arrested for
murder after taking abortion pills.
Speaker 16 (21:11):
Charged with murder because of a quote self induced abortion.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
She's been arrested and will be of rained Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Abortion opponents are also going after the people women are
turning two for support, people who.
Speaker 13 (21:24):
Are working in their communities to help other people access abortions.
They are increasingly coming under the crosshairs.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
In some cases, mothers who've helped their daughters self managed
have been arrested. Cases like these have made news in
Louisiana and Nebraska.
Speaker 17 (21:40):
A teenage girl and her mom in Nebraska are facing
criminal charges following the teen's abortion. Alice got their Facebook
messages about it through a search warrant.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
The pills themselves have also become a political target. For example,
Robert F. Kennedy Junior brought them up at his confirmation
hearing to become US Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Speaker 18 (22:03):
President Trump has made it clear to me that he
wants me to look at safety issues.
Speaker 8 (22:09):
He recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration to review
federal regulations for one of the abortion pills, mifa priston.
He referred to a paper from a conservative think tank
that questioned the safety of mifa pristone and called for
more restrictions on the drug, but it wasn't peer reviewed,
and medical experts have criticized it for flaws in its analysis.
(22:32):
More than one hundred peer reviewed studies have found the
use of abortion pills to be safe. On the state level,
some laws find people thousands of dollars for giving out
pills if they are not licensed to provide abortions. A
few make it a crime with the possibility of jail time.
So far, only a few women have gone to jail
(22:55):
for having abortions or supporting.
Speaker 6 (22:57):
Others through it.
Speaker 8 (22:59):
But Pherah said that even for people who don't go
to jail, there are still lasting effects.
Speaker 13 (23:05):
That person's name comes up again in Google searches, and
that creates this indelible, inescapable record. I've had former clients
who have been unable to get work. I've had clients
had to change their names because of the harassment they
faced in their Communities.
Speaker 8 (23:22):
Fares organization IF when How has been keeping track of
the ways people get caught up in the legal system.
About half of all criminal cases for self managing start
in a medical setting. According to the organization's data, the
vast majority of self managed abortions with bills do not
result in any complications, but if a woman feels like
(23:45):
something might be wrong and goes to the hospital, she
increases her chances of coming into contact with law enforcement.
Speaker 13 (23:53):
Hospital personnel, whether that was nurses, doctors, social workers reported
them to law enforcement because they were suspicious of them.
Once it happens, it is like a train going down
a track.
Speaker 8 (24:05):
If healthcare workers think someone may have committed a crime,
they're allowed to share information with the police that would
otherwise be private. As we've said, except in Nevada, self
managing is not a crime, so there's no reason for
doctors and nurses to call the police, but sometimes they do.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Anyway, FARA has noticed that some people are more likely
than others to end up in legal trouble.
Speaker 15 (24:32):
In the cases that we've worked on, it is mostly
people who are trying to figure things out on their own.
It has never been either somebody who was supported by
an accompaniment network or somebody who was involved with an
accompaniment network.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
The network has developed strategies to try to protect women
who are having abortions. We spoke to a woman named
Elle who does this work. She's an abortion to that's
what many Americans who do accompaniamento call themselves. We're not
using Elle's full name because she fears potential violence against her.
We're also using a voice actor. From the moment that
(25:13):
women reach out, Elle coaches them on how to keep
their communications secure. If they contact her on Gmail, she'll
tell them.
Speaker 16 (25:20):
This is not safe for you or us, and I
can't interact with you until you download an encrypted app.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Once they're in touch, Elle explains that the pills are safe,
but the side effects like vomiting and heavy bleeding can
be alarming. She walks them through how to help prepare
so they don't seek medical help unnecessarily.
Speaker 16 (25:40):
You should have plenty and plenty and plenty of maxi pads.
You should have your IBET profile, and you should have
plenty of fluids.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Elle also advises women on how to take the pills.
Elle tells them to not insert them me so vaginally
where it can leave a residue, but to dissolve it
in their cheeks or under the tongue. That way, if
they go to the hospital, there's no evidence they've done
something to cause an abortion.
Speaker 16 (26:06):
The symptoms of an incomplete abortion and the symptoms of
a miscarriage are igentical. They can't tell.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Once the abortion starts. Elle checks in often, and if
a woman needs or wants to see a doctor, El
tells them to call the miscarriage an abortion hotline, the
one runs specifically by doctors, or she points them towards
doctor's offices that the network trusts.
Speaker 16 (26:31):
In some places, we have friendlies, you know, we have
clinics where we know we can safely send someone if.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
They need to get care outside the network's connections. LL
runs through what to say to medical staff.
Speaker 16 (26:43):
We role play what would you say if they're said,
what's going on? What did you do?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
What did you take?
Speaker 9 (26:50):
Well?
Speaker 16 (26:50):
What's going on is I don't know. I think I
might be having a miscarriage. I started bleeding all of
a sudden.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
The network is also taking measures to protect itself when
speaking in public. Volunteers have learned how to use language
that isn't incriminating. They talk in a code of hypotheticals
even in social media videos.
Speaker 13 (27:21):
I figured I would let you know what I would
do if I were to find out I was pregnant
and I wanted to have an abortion.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Now please note this is not medical device whatsoever or
at all, just one person sharing resources with another.
Speaker 10 (27:33):
I would take four of the mesa prostel.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Have you ever seen a more iconic pill.
Speaker 8 (27:43):
So far, the growing legal restrictions have not stopped the
network in the US from helping women self manage their abortions.
But there's another challenge. The network is struggling with a
much broader invisible force.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
That's after the break.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
The network is global, stretching all around the world, but
in each place it shows up it's different. It adapts
to the specific culture it lands in and faces specific barriers.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
In the US, one of the largest barriers is awareness.
For so long, access to abortion in the States was
centered around clinics. As a result, many Americans don't know
there's a way to have a safe abortion without a
doctor's help.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Research published in twenty twenty four found that most Americans
who have attempted to self manage their abortion in the
past few years have done dangerous things like kid themselves
in the stomach or drink alcohol. Only about a quarter
of the women in the study use pills.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
When Americans do find the network, they're very American about
the way they interact with it.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
They treat it like a service.
Speaker 8 (28:59):
Veto, who studied Las Libts in Mexico, noticed this as
she began supporting women in the States.
Speaker 12 (29:08):
I would take some time to reply to them, and
it was like, hey, answer me. I wrote to you
five minutes ago, and it was.
Speaker 18 (29:15):
Like hey wait.
Speaker 10 (29:16):
No.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Verto explained that Last Divides was not a service or
a business. It was just a bunch of volunteers sharing
pills and offering support.
Speaker 9 (29:27):
The bido bacincia, the bo respect.
Speaker 12 (29:30):
So I'm going to ask for your patients and I'm
going to ask for your respect. And people were like,
oh sorry, I'm just very nervous.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
And just like a purchase. After women in the US
got what they needed, that was it.
Speaker 18 (29:49):
It's very American in some ways to say, oh, look
there's a pill, let me get the pill.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
One sociologists.
Speaker 8 (29:56):
We spoke to Naomi Brain, who studied the self managed
abortion movement across the world. She's noticed that Americans generally
think that the pills alone can overcome abortion restrictions, but
Naomi wants them to think bigger.
Speaker 18 (30:11):
This pill only comes to life in some way within
a network. It only comes to life in the presence
of solidarity. Otherwise you're alone with cramps in a bathroom
and nobody knows, and that's really not a very liberatory experience.
Speaker 8 (30:37):
L the abortion doula is a bit more pragmatic. She
thinks the pills in and of themselves are powerful, but
like Naomi, she wants Americans to focus more on supporting
each other.
Speaker 16 (30:50):
I wish there were more We need more people.
Speaker 6 (30:53):
But she doesn't see that happening anytime soon.
Speaker 16 (30:56):
I think that people are really heads down, trying to
survive a lot, and not necessarily thinking about linging arms
and marching forward in solidarity. Whereas in Mexico, I have
the sense that the circle keeps growing. The people who've
been helped directly turn around and help others.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
But in our reporting, we have seen the circle widening
in the US in ways that remind us a lot
of how the network took shape decades ago. In Latin America,
we heard stories of older sisters who had self managed
before helping their little sister through it, people getting pills
and advice from their hairdresser, and several examples of people
(31:40):
who had been supported by dulas getting trained to become
dullas themselves.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (31:45):
I just wanted to be a part of it too.
You know, this is H.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
We're using her initial because she fears harassment for what
she did. In twenty nineteen, H, a mom of four kids,
decided she wanted an abortion. She could have gone to clinic,
but she'd heard about protesters lining the sidewalks with bullhorns
and signs. She didn't think she could handle walking through
all of that.
Speaker 9 (32:10):
I didn't feel shame, but I felt like I could
have been persuaded to be shamed of what I was
about to do.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
H worked in the reproductive health space and a friend
in the same field told her about the network. ACH's
friend was part of it and said she could get
H pills for free. H was pretty surprised something like
it existed, with aliases and everything.
Speaker 9 (32:34):
Like, Oh, there's a whole group of you, and you're
all like underground and secret squirrel and using different names
and all this stuff. It was just mind blowing.
Speaker 8 (32:44):
Her friend, who's an abortion doula, offered to support H
through a self managed abortion. H hadn't realized it was
possible to do it this way, but she was.
Speaker 9 (32:54):
In I wanted some autonomy and control over the situation situation.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
Her abortion Doulah friend helped think through where she wanted
to have her abortion and what she needed to be comfortable.
When the day came, that friend, along with another Dulah friend,
and H gathered in a hotel room with plenty of
comfort food. H started by lighting a kendle and taking
time to reflect.
Speaker 9 (33:21):
I wrote out some negative feelings or anxieties that I
was having, and I ripped them up and we threw
them away as like a released ceremony.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
And then she took the bills.
Speaker 8 (33:35):
When she started bleeding and cramping badly, the women accompanying
H reassured her.
Speaker 9 (33:41):
Like is this normal? Is this okay?
Speaker 10 (33:43):
You know?
Speaker 9 (33:44):
And they're like yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 8 (33:46):
To help her manage the pain, H's friend prepared the
bath for her and four cups of hot water down
her back. They stayed with her all night through the
next morning.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
When I was finished, H says she felt relieved, a
feeling that stayed with her, and she also felt grateful
to have had the experience outside of a clinic.
Speaker 9 (34:12):
I just wish that there was more of a focus
on creating spaces for people that are going through this experience.
That's my desire is that everybody gets to experience being
supported through their abortion and that it's not just the
sterile thing that you have to go through.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
After her abortion, H wanted to create those spaces for others,
and so she trained to become an abortion dueler. She
remembers supporting one woman as she managed her abortion.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
At home.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
They were eating food and watching an episode of the
sitcom mod where the main character had an abortion. Worlded,
don't pat me there, that's what started this whole thing.
Speaker 9 (35:14):
We were just joking and laughing, and then her cramping
got a little bit harder.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
When the woman started cramping, H told her to get
into a hot bath to help manage the pain, just
as their Jula friends told her to do during her
own abortion.
Speaker 9 (35:28):
She got out of the tub eventually and walked over
to go open the sliding glass door and turned around,
and the pregnancy expelled as she was like taking the step,
and she realized what happened and instantly dropped to her knees.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
H says the moment suddenly became still and quiet, and
then the woman went out onto her deck where she
had plants.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
She was crying.
Speaker 9 (35:53):
She buried it in a pot of wildflowers that her
other children had potted, and then we tucked her into bed,
like right before her husband brought her children home.
Speaker 8 (36:12):
When age got involved with the network, she didn't know
the history she was stepping into, how Brazilian women discovered
me so how Latin American activists built entire communities to
support women using this bill. She didn't realize that her
experience was part of such a large scale shift. The
(36:33):
pills and the communities growing around them are already changing
how people have abortions across the world.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
In twenty twenty two, the World Health Organization published guidelines
for self managed abortion that said it's safe and effective
in the first trimester. In our reporting, we found that
parts of the network safely support people later.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Into their pregnancies.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
The guidelines even mentioned accompaniment and say that when men
who self manage benefit from access to support, which doesn't
necessarily have to come from a doctor.
Speaker 8 (37:07):
In places with abortion restrictions, like the country where we
started the series, Brazil, self managed abortion may be the
only option for most people who want to end their pregnancies.
But the who encouraged doctors to not look at self
managed abortion as just a last resort but a quote
(37:27):
potentially empowering and active extension of the health system. Plenty
of women already see self managed abortion this way. Like
in Argentina, the year after abortion became legal, there thousands
of people reached out to the accompaniment collective we mentioned in.
Speaker 6 (37:44):
The last episode, the Socoristas.
Speaker 8 (37:47):
More than three quarters of those people chose to self
manage with the Socorista support instead of going to the
public health system. So the network has totally changed what
abortion looks like in Argentina.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Will the network do the same for the US too?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
There's no putting that Genie back in the bottle.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
This is the red wine. She's American, but for thirty
years she worked for Planned Parented Global in Latin America.
She watched as the pill and the network swept across
the continent, and now she's seen signs that something similar
is happening in the US.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
That wave is coming.
Speaker 9 (38:28):
It's here.
Speaker 19 (38:29):
It's like crashing over the shores of the United States,
and it is going to change entirely the landscape of abortion,
just like it did globally.
Speaker 8 (38:45):
The entire ecosystem around abortion pills in the US, activists, doulas,
and doctors has contributed to a surprising statistic. Since Roe fell,
Americans are having more abortions, even in states with bands.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
The irony of this post Dobbs World is that if
it goes the way that I think it will, which
is what I saw in Latin America, in some ways,
abortion ironically will become more accessible but less legal.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
In the minds of many Americans. Access and legality are
inextricably linked, but these two things are becoming untethered because
of abortion pills and because of the network.
Speaker 8 (39:35):
In the years to come, there's a question both abortion
rights supporters and opponents will be asking themselves. The government
can make abortion illegal, but can it end safe abortion
as long as the network is around.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
This was the final episode of the network. If you
want to learn more about the network, like how doctor
Maya Bass and other doctors changed their minds about self
managed abortion, go to NPR dot org slash Embedded Network.
That's NPR dot org slash embedded network.
Speaker 8 (40:28):
The network from Embedded is a collaboration with Latino USA
a production of Futuro Media.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
This episode was reported by Abbi Wendel and Me Victoria.
Speaker 6 (40:38):
Strada and me Marta Martinez.
Speaker 8 (40:41):
This episode was produced by Arianna Garrett, Lee, Adelina Lenzianie
and Abbi Wendel, with production support from Monica Morales, Garcia.
Speaker 6 (40:50):
Reyna Cohen edited the series.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Fact checking by Donia Suleiman.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
Robert Rodriguez mastered the episode.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Leanna Simpstrom is our supervising senior producer, Katie Simon is
our supervising senior editor, Irena Gucci is our executive producer,
and Colin Campbell is the Senior Vice President for Podcasting
at MPR.
Speaker 8 (41:13):
The embedded team also includes Ristreis and Dan Germa.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
From Latino USA. Our executive producers are Merlin Bishop and
Pennilee Ramidez, and our production managers are Jessica Ellis and
Nancy Truchigo.
Speaker 8 (41:27):
Thanks to our Managing editor of Standards and Practices, Tony Kevin,
and to Johannes Urghy and Micah Ratner for legal support
and Tommy Evans, MPR's managing editor Editorial Review.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
And thanks to NPR correspondents Selena Simons, Stephen and Alissa
Nett Warney.
Speaker 8 (41:45):
Our visuals editor is Emily Vogel. Original tail art by
Luke Medina.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Voiceovers by Andrea de Alva, Alvaris, Barbara Trehar, Justine jan
Leanna Simpstrom and Abby Wendel, and thanks.
Speaker 8 (42:00):
To Matthew Alstrom for the engineering assist. This is our
final episode of the network and we want to thank
the many people that we've talked to who didn't appear
or weren't mentioned in the series, including Phoeba Bramowitz, Amelia Bono.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Simone, Denice Angel Foster, Jesse Hill, Jenkarlin, Vania Maya, Ariela Messing,
Maureen Paul, Jamila Parrott, Mariana Brandini.
Speaker 8 (42:27):
Catherine Romanos, Ruge Doulas, Lupita Sanchez, Carrie Sistra, and Susan Yano.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Your knowledge and experience helped us shape the series, and
we're grateful for the time you gave us, and a
big thanks to our Embedded Plus supporters. Embedded is MPR's
home for ambitious journalism, and Embedded Plus helps us keep
that work going. These supporters get early access to every
Embedded series and they get to listen sponsor free. Find
(42:56):
out more at Plus dot NPR. Dot Org slash embedded.
Speaker 6 (43:01):
I'm Marta Martinez.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
I'm Victoria Strada.
Speaker 6 (43:04):
This is embedded from MPR.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
Thanks for listening for the scutar.
Speaker 19 (43:16):
Latino USA is brought to you in part by the
Levi Strauss Foundation, outfitting movements and leaders fighting for a
more just and abundant world, with the support from the
International Women's Media Foundation as
Speaker 7 (43:29):
Part of its Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the
America's initiative, and the v Day Foundation
Hey, Latino USA listener, It's Marieno Hossa. We're back again
with our new series The Network, a co production of
Latino USA and NPR's Embedded Podcast. Now, if you haven't
listened to the first two episodes, you're definitely going to
want to do that before you keep listening. Remember you
can find the rest of this series here on our
feed or on the embedded feed. Now, just to recap,
(00:22):
we've been following this loosely connected set of people. We're
calling them the Network, right, These are people who help
women have abortions with pills without the help of a doctor.
The network started in Brazil and then grew and it
developed support systems in other countries in the region, like
Mexico and Argentina. And these were places where most women
(00:44):
didn't have a legal right to abortion. And now these days,
that is the situation that a lot of Americans find
themselves in since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade
and ended the constitutional right to abortion in the United
States of America. So in this final episode of this series,
(01:04):
we're going to go deep into the United States. Here
are Latino USA producers Victori Estrada and Marta Martinez with
the last episode of the network.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
For decades, while people all over the world were embracing
self managed abortion with MISA prostel, most Americans had never
even heard of it, and many of those who had
dismissed it for being a foreign concept.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
It was always like, oh, well, yeah, but those are
other countries.
Speaker 4 (01:34):
That doesn't apply here, for.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
Being irrelevant because for decades Americans had a legal right
to abortion.
Speaker 5 (01:40):
There was a lot of disbelief that something like this
was needed in the United States. A big part of
our narrative is that we have abortion access right.
Speaker 6 (01:48):
Or they dismissed it for sounding dangerous.
Speaker 7 (01:51):
I didn't think it was safe, you know, as doctors
were risk at first, and we like control.
Speaker 8 (01:58):
This is doctor Maya Bass, a family doctor who also
provides abortions, either by performing the procedure or prescribing pills.
In the US, patients usually take two pills, misoprostol or miso,
the pill we've been hearing about, and another drug called
me for Pristo, which makes the process go a little smoother.
(02:19):
Early in her career, Maya learned a strict protocol around
the pills, with multiple appointments and tests designed to keep
patients safe.
Speaker 7 (02:28):
Of course, I'm going to confirm exactly how big this
pregnancy is. Of course I'm going to confirm that my
patient has enough blood to handle this. And yeah, I
want to make sure that this worked for them.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
T Maya and many doctors. When she first heard about
self managing, getting abortion pills without a prescription and taking
them without a doctor's oversight, she thought it introduced a
ton of risks.
Speaker 7 (02:54):
Gosh, what if people are dropping like flies because they're
taking meds that are actually rat poison and hurting themselves.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
She imagined people only turned to self managing as a
last resort.
Speaker 7 (03:07):
If somebody really doesn't want a pregnancy and can't get
to a clinic, maybe this is an option.
Speaker 8 (03:12):
But after Roe was overturned in twenty twenty two for
lots of women, the last resort became the only resort.
Speaker 9 (03:22):
Please help me, How am I able to receive the
pill asap? Please?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
These are emails American women sent to activists who share
them with us.
Speaker 10 (03:33):
I'm inquiring about abortion pills and how to get them
sent to me.
Speaker 7 (03:37):
I'm in no way, shape or form financially ready to
have a child.
Speaker 4 (03:42):
I'm desperate.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
In recent years, American women have been reaching out to
the network by the hundreds of thousands.
Speaker 8 (03:52):
The network in the US is trying to meet this demand,
but like we've seen in previous episodes, when the network
starts to grow, it's not clear what will happen next.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
In Argentina, the network led to cultural and policy changes.
In Brazil, it based backlash and restrictions. So in this
episode we look at how the network in the US
has expanded in the last few years and what a
fact that's having on this country.
Speaker 8 (04:23):
How will the network adapt in the face of mounting
abortion restrictions. From MPRS Embedded and Futuro Media's Latino USA,
This is the Network, a series about the DIY method
that took safe abortions out of the clinic.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
And the women who made it happen.
Speaker 8 (04:47):
I'm Victoria Estrada, I'm Marta Martinez and this is episode
three deja Vu. For decades in the US, the network
was almost entirely absent, but not completely. There were a
(05:07):
few places It began showing up in the mid nineties.
Speaker 11 (05:10):
We just started hearing that patients were taking some pills.
Speaker 8 (05:14):
This is doctor Mark Rosing and OBGYN who works at
a hospital in the bronx. Back then, he saw patients
from immigrant and Spanish speaking communities taking me, so.
Speaker 11 (05:25):
In Spanish they called it the star pill because it's
a hexagonal pill.
Speaker 8 (05:29):
According to Mark, the women he was seeing in his
hospital could have gone to a clinic, but he says
many didn't know that in New York insurance or medicaid
would cover it, so instead they relied on the network.
Speaker 11 (05:42):
They would say I got it from my aunt, I
got it from my cousin, and I got it from
someone who knows amba. And then sometimes they would also
say that they got it in some of the bodegas
and the pharmacies around in Washington Heights.
Speaker 8 (05:55):
For decades, the network stayed like this, small underground, mostly
tied to immigrant communities, but in the late twenty tens,
the demand for the network began to grow. American women
started to lose access to doctors who could give them
an abortion. During this time, states passed hundreds of new
(06:16):
restrictions that close clinics and shortened the timeframe women had
to get an abortion.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And then in twenty twenty one, one state passed law
that foreshadowed where the entire country was heading.
Speaker 4 (06:29):
The Texas Heartbeat Bill is now in effect.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
A year before Robosa returned, Texas made national headlines for
this new law, Senate Bill eight or SB eight.
Speaker 8 (06:41):
Senate Bill eight prohibits abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected,
which can be as early as six.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
Weeks, barely enough time to know you're pregnant.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
The new anti abortion law in Texas has generated an
unprecedented level of fear and anxiety for both providers and
abortion seekers the state.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
The demand for self managed abortion in Texas exploded overnight.
Speaker 6 (07:13):
For US, it was de jabu, de jabu. Vera como.
It was like going back twenty years.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
This is Vera Cruz, the founder of Las Liveres, who
we met earlier in the series. Veto heard about SPA
from friends in the US. It reminded her of the
severe restrictions Mexico had an abortion when she started the
group in two thousand. With two decades of experience supporting
people through self managed abortions, Veto knew how to help,
(07:43):
and she wanted to. She floated an idea to some
other collectives in the Mexican.
Speaker 12 (07:47):
Networks, why don't we build a network to help people
in Texas?
Speaker 6 (07:53):
Tod Himosi. We all said yes.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
In January twenty twenty two, Veto helped organize a meeting
to strategize how to do this. They met in a
hotel conference room in Mexico. There were almost fifty activists
there from different Mexican accompaniment collectives, and a handful of
people video calling in from Texas.
Speaker 12 (08:15):
Principal our main idea was that Mexican networks would train
networks in Texas and the Texas networks would.
Speaker 4 (08:22):
Do the work.
Speaker 6 (08:24):
But there was a problem Mido.
Speaker 12 (08:28):
The people in Texas were really really scared. People were like, no, no,
that's illegal. They can put us in jail.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
SB eight made it illegal to quote aid and a
bed a woman having an abortion, but the lot didn't
define what that meant, so it put pretty much everything
the network does into a legal gray area.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Veto says.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
The activists on the US side of the call said
they weren't ready to get involved in the way she
was suggesting, so Veto when the Mexican collectives decided to
step in, they would directly provide women in Texas with
pills and help them self manage their abortions, and they
were going to be very public about it. Veto held
(09:14):
a press conference and posted Lasivre's phone number on social media.
She wasn't sure it would reach anyone, but that day
ten Americans contacted her.
Speaker 12 (09:25):
So they only wrote the word help.
Speaker 4 (09:31):
In response.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
The Mexican collectives carried pill packages across the border and
mailed them to the people in the US who had
asked for them, free of charge, just like they'd been
doing in Mexico for more than two decades. And as
work got out, Americans from around the country started contacting VEO.
Some sent money, others asked how they could join the network.
Speaker 12 (09:54):
Decades people wrote and said I want to help.
Speaker 8 (09:57):
How do I help?
Speaker 12 (09:59):
Mela Pasenes I spent every day having a lot of
video conferences, giving workshops, explaining to all the volunteers how
it was done, how it worked, why it was safe
for mandoles companies, training them to do a compania.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Miento accompaniment, being there during the whole abortion process, regardless
of the legal risks.
Speaker 12 (10:24):
Yeah, and from those people, we formed a lot of
groups throughout the US.
Speaker 6 (10:44):
Self managed abortion wasn't only getting support from across the border.
Speaker 8 (10:50):
There were other notes simultaneously developing around the US.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
This is new abortion pills by mail is really really new.
In the United States.
Speaker 8 (11:00):
This is Elisa Wells, one of the founders of an
organization called plan C, which focuses on getting people bills
without having to go to a clinic in person.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
A lot of people still don't even know about it,
and when they find out about it, they think, whoa
you know that is? That's insane.
Speaker 8 (11:18):
Plancy's website links people to a variety of places where
they can order abortion pills online, in many cases both
MIFA pristone and Misoprosto. The website lists international clinics and
pharmacies abroad that sell the pills, and also US based
groups that mail free pills to people living in states
(11:39):
with abortion restrictions. Plan C tests the pills from all
these sources to make sure they're real.
Speaker 5 (11:45):
These are viable ways for people to access pills, especially
if they live in a place where there are so
many restrictions that they could be forced to carry a
pregnancy to term.
Speaker 8 (11:55):
Other groups in the network focused on raising awareness about
self managing with pills. They put up billboards through parties,
slapstickers advertising abortion pills on bathroom doors, and they also
pulled publicity stunts.
Speaker 13 (12:13):
Jack, So I want to start with you, you seem
to be promoting abortion pills.
Speaker 8 (12:19):
Like activists Jex Blackmore. They're part of the organization Shout
Your Abortion. In twenty twenty two, they went live on
a Detroit Fox affiliate to talk about the pills and
do an impromptu demonstration.
Speaker 14 (12:32):
Charlie, I just really I want to show you how
easy it is and save if it is by taking
it myself.
Speaker 15 (12:39):
You're taking it, are you are?
Speaker 16 (12:43):
You're not pregnant?
Speaker 6 (12:44):
Are you?
Speaker 14 (12:46):
I would say that this is going to end a pregnancy?
Speaker 8 (13:01):
And then some groups focused on providing support. Activists answer
questions on Reddit and US based hotlines, including a hotline
run by doctors like Maya Bass, the doctor we heard
from earlier.
Speaker 7 (13:15):
I was taught that you need to have an ultrasound,
and you need to have this, and you need to
have all this. So like I didn't think it was safe.
Speaker 8 (13:22):
She thought this until she read research to the contrary,
research that showed women around the world were taking MISA
on their own and doing it safely.
Speaker 7 (13:33):
Maya was shocked, like wait, what, Like seriously, I never
knew about any of this.
Speaker 8 (13:39):
Studies Maya read showed that the protocol she used, the
multiple appointments, the ultrasound wasn't always needed, and she felt.
Speaker 7 (13:48):
That realizing that I was unnecessarily putting people through hoops
that's hard. And then I felt also excited slash maybe
release like this means that I can be less scared
for people who are doing this.
Speaker 8 (14:07):
After Maya's realization, she wanted to offer women support.
Speaker 7 (14:11):
So it really became like, Okay, how can I help?
Right at that point, it's like what can we do next?
Speaker 8 (14:20):
She decided to become part of the network by volunteering
for the support hotline set up by doctors. It's called
the Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline. Maya news self managed abortions
couldn't replace all abortions. Some people need medical intervention or
just preferred to go to the clinic. But to Maya,
(14:41):
the hotline and the immediate access it gave women to
doctors felt innovative. No longer wait times, no expensive or
unnecessary tests.
Speaker 7 (14:51):
It feels like I'm just on the cutting edge of medicine.
I'm practicing evidence based medicine that is the leading edge
of what repairted of health care might look like.
Speaker 8 (15:06):
In recent years, American doctors on the whole have gotten
more comfortable with self managed abortion The American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists has publicly supported it.
Speaker 6 (15:19):
In a statement, they called on.
Speaker 8 (15:21):
Doctors to educate themselves and provide assistance for patients who
self manage. Other doctors have acted more directly, prescribing pills
from states with abortion protections to people in states with restrictions.
This wasn't the network of the nineties anymore small and niche.
(15:42):
In the span of just a few years, it had
grown and become far more organized.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
And then, on June twenty fourth, twenty twenty two.
Speaker 7 (16:05):
The Supreme Court upended nearly a half century of legal precedent.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
The day the network had been preparing for arrived.
Speaker 7 (16:13):
It's a moment advocates for abortion rights have feared and
that opponents have been working toward for decades.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
In the case Dobbs versus Jackson Women's Health Organization, the
Court overturned Roversus Wade. It left the legality of abortion
up to the states, thirteen of which immediately criminalized or
nearly banned abortion. On the day rule was overturned, the
number of women reaching out to the network grew exponentially.
Speaker 5 (16:43):
Our website traffic went from about three thy eight hundred
a day to three hundred and eighty two thousand.
Speaker 16 (16:51):
And it didn't stop once Rowe fell. We reached about
two thousand people a day in our first month.
Speaker 6 (16:57):
We have days now where the phone is kind of
ringing all day.
Speaker 10 (17:00):
This waterfall of calls coming.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
In groups that male people pills were inundated.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
They got so many requests that it crashed their system.
It just shows you how big the demand is for
this service.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Over the past few years, the network's role has expanded
in the US, and self managed abortion has become more mainstream.
Cosmopolitan magazine even published a handful of articles about self
managed abortion, including a complete how to guide.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
But it's not just.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Women who want abortions who are paying attention.
Speaker 5 (17:34):
We've certainly been called drug dealers. We've been called murderers, abortionists,
you name it.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
The anti abortion movement is too.
Speaker 13 (17:42):
People who are working in their communities to help other
people access abortions. They are increasingly coming under the crosshairs.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
That's after the break.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
The legal landscape around abortion has been constantly shifting since
Rowe was overturned, with dozens of new state laws restricting
abortion going into effect. It can be hard to keep
track and for people seeking abortions. All the changes have
created a lot of uncertainty, confusion, and fear.
Speaker 10 (18:16):
People are just absolutely terrified. They are experiencing spiraling anxiety.
Speaker 8 (18:24):
This is Elizabeth Lying, a lawyer at ifwen how, a
reproductive justice organization. She helps run their legal helpline. She
says they've been getting a lot of calls in the
past few years with people asking questions about the safety
of self managing their abortion or helping someone else. Not
medical safety, but legal safety. If they do it, will
(18:47):
they end up in jail?
Speaker 10 (18:48):
Is my Internet history being watched? Is my mail going
to be searched? A lot of what if this happens?
What if this happens? What if this happens?
Speaker 6 (18:56):
She says. The fear has made some people too scared
to act.
Speaker 10 (19:00):
The chilling effect makes people afraid to even ask the
question of what are my options because they are worried
that if I ask the question of what are my options,
that is now somehow going to get me into legal trouble.
Speaker 8 (19:19):
The people who call into the legal helpline are not
being paranoid. Seeking an abortion can put you at legal risk.
It didn't used to be this way. Historically, abortion seekers
have not been the target of restrictions doctors have and
they still are. Some state attorneys general have sued the
(19:40):
doctors who are doing the work we mentioned earlier mailing
pills from states with abortion protections to people in states
with restrictions.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
But a self managed abortion with pills has taken off,
abortion opponents have broaden their strategy.
Speaker 13 (19:55):
They have realized that banning abortions after sixpeaks of pregnancy
is not sufficient to stop people from ending unwanted pregnancies.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
Parad Estello is a lawyer and colleague of elizabeths at
if When how She's watched how abortion opponents have begun
to target women the network and its method self managing
with pills. But bringing charges against women at least has
been challenging because for the most part, there aren't specific
laws that criminalize ending your own pregnancy. With the exception
(20:29):
of Nevada, it is not illegal for a person to
self manage their abortion. So prosecutors are getting creative. They're
using other laws to charge women.
Speaker 13 (20:39):
Laws that prohibit concealing a birth that were intended to
punish people for hiding out of wedlock births, laws against
abuse of a corpse, which are really about desecration of
human remains and brave robbing.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And on the most extreme end of the spectrum.
Speaker 13 (20:58):
In some seats, we're talking about homicide charges.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
That happened to a woman in Texas after the state
passed its six week abortion ban. She was arrested for
murder after taking abortion pills.
Speaker 16 (21:11):
Charged with murder because of a quote self induced abortion.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
She's been arrested and will be of rained Wednesday.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Abortion opponents are also going after the people women are
turning two for support, people who.
Speaker 13 (21:24):
Are working in their communities to help other people access abortions.
They are increasingly coming under the crosshairs.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
In some cases, mothers who've helped their daughters self managed
have been arrested. Cases like these have made news in
Louisiana and Nebraska.
Speaker 17 (21:40):
A teenage girl and her mom in Nebraska are facing
criminal charges following the teen's abortion. Alice got their Facebook
messages about it through a search warrant.
Speaker 8 (21:50):
The pills themselves have also become a political target. For example,
Robert F. Kennedy Junior brought them up at his confirmation
hearing to become US Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Speaker 18 (22:03):
President Trump has made it clear to me that he
wants me to look at safety issues.
Speaker 8 (22:09):
He recently ordered the Food and Drug Administration to review
federal regulations for one of the abortion pills, mifa priston.
He referred to a paper from a conservative think tank
that questioned the safety of mifa pristone and called for
more restrictions on the drug, but it wasn't peer reviewed,
and medical experts have criticized it for flaws in its analysis.
(22:32):
More than one hundred peer reviewed studies have found the
use of abortion pills to be safe. On the state level,
some laws find people thousands of dollars for giving out
pills if they are not licensed to provide abortions. A
few make it a crime with the possibility of jail time.
So far, only a few women have gone to jail
(22:55):
for having abortions or supporting.
Speaker 6 (22:57):
Others through it.
Speaker 8 (22:59):
But Pherah said that even for people who don't go
to jail, there are still lasting effects.
Speaker 13 (23:05):
That person's name comes up again in Google searches, and
that creates this indelible, inescapable record. I've had former clients
who have been unable to get work. I've had clients
had to change their names because of the harassment they
faced in their Communities.
Speaker 8 (23:22):
Fares organization IF when How has been keeping track of
the ways people get caught up in the legal system.
About half of all criminal cases for self managing start
in a medical setting. According to the organization's data, the
vast majority of self managed abortions with bills do not
result in any complications, but if a woman feels like
(23:45):
something might be wrong and goes to the hospital, she
increases her chances of coming into contact with law enforcement.
Speaker 13 (23:53):
Hospital personnel, whether that was nurses, doctors, social workers reported
them to law enforcement because they were suspicious of them.
Once it happens, it is like a train going down
a track.
Speaker 8 (24:05):
If healthcare workers think someone may have committed a crime,
they're allowed to share information with the police that would
otherwise be private. As we've said, except in Nevada, self
managing is not a crime, so there's no reason for
doctors and nurses to call the police, but sometimes they do.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Anyway, FARA has noticed that some people are more likely
than others to end up in legal trouble.
Speaker 15 (24:32):
In the cases that we've worked on, it is mostly
people who are trying to figure things out on their own.
It has never been either somebody who was supported by
an accompaniment network or somebody who was involved with an
accompaniment network.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
The network has developed strategies to try to protect women
who are having abortions. We spoke to a woman named
Elle who does this work. She's an abortion to that's
what many Americans who do accompaniamento call themselves. We're not
using Elle's full name because she fears potential violence against her.
We're also using a voice actor. From the moment that
(25:13):
women reach out, Elle coaches them on how to keep
their communications secure. If they contact her on Gmail, she'll
tell them.
Speaker 16 (25:20):
This is not safe for you or us, and I
can't interact with you until you download an encrypted app.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Once they're in touch, Elle explains that the pills are safe,
but the side effects like vomiting and heavy bleeding can
be alarming. She walks them through how to help prepare
so they don't seek medical help unnecessarily.
Speaker 16 (25:40):
You should have plenty and plenty and plenty of maxi pads.
You should have your IBET profile, and you should have
plenty of fluids.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Elle also advises women on how to take the pills.
Elle tells them to not insert them me so vaginally
where it can leave a residue, but to dissolve it
in their cheeks or under the tongue. That way, if
they go to the hospital, there's no evidence they've done
something to cause an abortion.
Speaker 16 (26:06):
The symptoms of an incomplete abortion and the symptoms of
a miscarriage are igentical. They can't tell.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Once the abortion starts. Elle checks in often, and if
a woman needs or wants to see a doctor, El
tells them to call the miscarriage an abortion hotline, the
one runs specifically by doctors, or she points them towards
doctor's offices that the network trusts.
Speaker 16 (26:31):
In some places, we have friendlies, you know, we have
clinics where we know we can safely send someone if.
Speaker 2 (26:37):
They need to get care outside the network's connections. LL
runs through what to say to medical staff.
Speaker 16 (26:43):
We role play what would you say if they're said,
what's going on? What did you do?
Speaker 4 (26:49):
What did you take?
Speaker 9 (26:50):
Well?
Speaker 16 (26:50):
What's going on is I don't know. I think I
might be having a miscarriage. I started bleeding all of
a sudden.
Speaker 8 (27:07):
The network is also taking measures to protect itself when
speaking in public. Volunteers have learned how to use language
that isn't incriminating. They talk in a code of hypotheticals
even in social media videos.
Speaker 13 (27:21):
I figured I would let you know what I would
do if I were to find out I was pregnant
and I wanted to have an abortion.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Now please note this is not medical device whatsoever or
at all, just one person sharing resources with another.
Speaker 10 (27:33):
I would take four of the mesa prostel.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
Have you ever seen a more iconic pill.
Speaker 8 (27:43):
So far, the growing legal restrictions have not stopped the
network in the US from helping women self manage their abortions.
But there's another challenge. The network is struggling with a
much broader invisible force.
Speaker 6 (27:58):
That's after the break.
Speaker 2 (28:05):
The network is global, stretching all around the world, but
in each place it shows up it's different. It adapts
to the specific culture it lands in and faces specific barriers.
Speaker 8 (28:19):
In the US, one of the largest barriers is awareness.
For so long, access to abortion in the States was
centered around clinics. As a result, many Americans don't know
there's a way to have a safe abortion without a
doctor's help.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Research published in twenty twenty four found that most Americans
who have attempted to self manage their abortion in the
past few years have done dangerous things like kid themselves
in the stomach or drink alcohol. Only about a quarter
of the women in the study use pills.
Speaker 8 (28:50):
When Americans do find the network, they're very American about
the way they interact with it.
Speaker 6 (28:56):
They treat it like a service.
Speaker 8 (28:59):
Veto, who studied Las Libts in Mexico, noticed this as
she began supporting women in the States.
Speaker 12 (29:08):
I would take some time to reply to them, and
it was like, hey, answer me. I wrote to you
five minutes ago, and it was.
Speaker 18 (29:15):
Like hey wait.
Speaker 10 (29:16):
No.
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Verto explained that Last Divides was not a service or
a business. It was just a bunch of volunteers sharing
pills and offering support.
Speaker 9 (29:27):
The bido bacincia, the bo respect.
Speaker 12 (29:30):
So I'm going to ask for your patients and I'm
going to ask for your respect. And people were like,
oh sorry, I'm just very nervous.
Speaker 2 (29:43):
And just like a purchase. After women in the US
got what they needed, that was it.
Speaker 18 (29:49):
It's very American in some ways to say, oh, look
there's a pill, let me get the pill.
Speaker 6 (29:55):
One sociologists.
Speaker 8 (29:56):
We spoke to Naomi Brain, who studied the self managed
abortion movement across the world. She's noticed that Americans generally
think that the pills alone can overcome abortion restrictions, but
Naomi wants them to think bigger.
Speaker 18 (30:11):
This pill only comes to life in some way within
a network. It only comes to life in the presence
of solidarity. Otherwise you're alone with cramps in a bathroom
and nobody knows, and that's really not a very liberatory experience.
Speaker 8 (30:37):
L the abortion doula is a bit more pragmatic. She
thinks the pills in and of themselves are powerful, but
like Naomi, she wants Americans to focus more on supporting
each other.
Speaker 16 (30:50):
I wish there were more We need more people.
Speaker 6 (30:53):
But she doesn't see that happening anytime soon.
Speaker 16 (30:56):
I think that people are really heads down, trying to
survive a lot, and not necessarily thinking about linging arms
and marching forward in solidarity. Whereas in Mexico, I have
the sense that the circle keeps growing. The people who've
been helped directly turn around and help others.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
But in our reporting, we have seen the circle widening
in the US in ways that remind us a lot
of how the network took shape decades ago. In Latin America,
we heard stories of older sisters who had self managed
before helping their little sister through it, people getting pills
and advice from their hairdresser, and several examples of people
(31:40):
who had been supported by dulas getting trained to become
dullas themselves.
Speaker 10 (31:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 9 (31:45):
I just wanted to be a part of it too.
You know, this is H.
Speaker 2 (31:49):
We're using her initial because she fears harassment for what
she did. In twenty nineteen, H, a mom of four kids,
decided she wanted an abortion. She could have gone to clinic,
but she'd heard about protesters lining the sidewalks with bullhorns
and signs. She didn't think she could handle walking through
all of that.
Speaker 9 (32:10):
I didn't feel shame, but I felt like I could
have been persuaded to be shamed of what I was
about to do.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
H worked in the reproductive health space and a friend
in the same field told her about the network. ACH's
friend was part of it and said she could get
H pills for free. H was pretty surprised something like
it existed, with aliases and everything.
Speaker 9 (32:34):
Like, Oh, there's a whole group of you, and you're
all like underground and secret squirrel and using different names
and all this stuff. It was just mind blowing.
Speaker 8 (32:44):
Her friend, who's an abortion doula, offered to support H
through a self managed abortion. H hadn't realized it was
possible to do it this way, but she was.
Speaker 9 (32:54):
In I wanted some autonomy and control over the situation situation.
Speaker 8 (33:01):
Her abortion Doulah friend helped think through where she wanted
to have her abortion and what she needed to be comfortable.
When the day came, that friend, along with another Dulah friend,
and H gathered in a hotel room with plenty of
comfort food. H started by lighting a kendle and taking
time to reflect.
Speaker 9 (33:21):
I wrote out some negative feelings or anxieties that I
was having, and I ripped them up and we threw
them away as like a released ceremony.
Speaker 6 (33:33):
And then she took the bills.
Speaker 8 (33:35):
When she started bleeding and cramping badly, the women accompanying
H reassured her.
Speaker 9 (33:41):
Like is this normal? Is this okay?
Speaker 10 (33:43):
You know?
Speaker 9 (33:44):
And they're like yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 8 (33:46):
To help her manage the pain, H's friend prepared the
bath for her and four cups of hot water down
her back. They stayed with her all night through the
next morning.
Speaker 2 (34:00):
When I was finished, H says she felt relieved, a
feeling that stayed with her, and she also felt grateful
to have had the experience outside of a clinic.
Speaker 9 (34:12):
I just wish that there was more of a focus
on creating spaces for people that are going through this experience.
That's my desire is that everybody gets to experience being
supported through their abortion and that it's not just the
sterile thing that you have to go through.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
After her abortion, H wanted to create those spaces for others,
and so she trained to become an abortion dueler. She
remembers supporting one woman as she managed her abortion.
Speaker 4 (34:55):
At home.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
They were eating food and watching an episode of the
sitcom mod where the main character had an abortion. Worlded,
don't pat me there, that's what started this whole thing.
Speaker 9 (35:14):
We were just joking and laughing, and then her cramping
got a little bit harder.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
When the woman started cramping, H told her to get
into a hot bath to help manage the pain, just
as their Jula friends told her to do during her
own abortion.
Speaker 9 (35:28):
She got out of the tub eventually and walked over
to go open the sliding glass door and turned around,
and the pregnancy expelled as she was like taking the step,
and she realized what happened and instantly dropped to her knees.
Speaker 2 (35:42):
H says the moment suddenly became still and quiet, and
then the woman went out onto her deck where she
had plants.
Speaker 4 (35:51):
She was crying.
Speaker 9 (35:53):
She buried it in a pot of wildflowers that her
other children had potted, and then we tucked her into bed,
like right before her husband brought her children home.
Speaker 8 (36:12):
When age got involved with the network, she didn't know
the history she was stepping into, how Brazilian women discovered
me so how Latin American activists built entire communities to
support women using this bill. She didn't realize that her
experience was part of such a large scale shift. The
(36:33):
pills and the communities growing around them are already changing
how people have abortions across the world.
Speaker 2 (36:41):
In twenty twenty two, the World Health Organization published guidelines
for self managed abortion that said it's safe and effective
in the first trimester. In our reporting, we found that
parts of the network safely support people later.
Speaker 4 (36:54):
Into their pregnancies.
Speaker 2 (36:56):
The guidelines even mentioned accompaniment and say that when men
who self manage benefit from access to support, which doesn't
necessarily have to come from a doctor.
Speaker 8 (37:07):
In places with abortion restrictions, like the country where we
started the series, Brazil, self managed abortion may be the
only option for most people who want to end their pregnancies.
But the who encouraged doctors to not look at self
managed abortion as just a last resort but a quote
(37:27):
potentially empowering and active extension of the health system. Plenty
of women already see self managed abortion this way. Like
in Argentina, the year after abortion became legal, there thousands
of people reached out to the accompaniment collective we mentioned in.
Speaker 6 (37:44):
The last episode, the Socoristas.
Speaker 8 (37:47):
More than three quarters of those people chose to self
manage with the Socorista support instead of going to the
public health system. So the network has totally changed what
abortion looks like in Argentina.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
Will the network do the same for the US too?
Speaker 3 (38:08):
There's no putting that Genie back in the bottle.
Speaker 2 (38:11):
This is the red wine. She's American, but for thirty
years she worked for Planned Parented Global in Latin America.
She watched as the pill and the network swept across
the continent, and now she's seen signs that something similar
is happening in the US.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
That wave is coming.
Speaker 9 (38:28):
It's here.
Speaker 19 (38:29):
It's like crashing over the shores of the United States,
and it is going to change entirely the landscape of abortion,
just like it did globally.
Speaker 8 (38:45):
The entire ecosystem around abortion pills in the US, activists, doulas,
and doctors has contributed to a surprising statistic. Since Roe fell,
Americans are having more abortions, even in states with bands.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
The irony of this post Dobbs World is that if
it goes the way that I think it will, which
is what I saw in Latin America, in some ways,
abortion ironically will become more accessible but less legal.
Speaker 2 (39:19):
In the minds of many Americans. Access and legality are
inextricably linked, but these two things are becoming untethered because
of abortion pills and because of the network.
Speaker 8 (39:35):
In the years to come, there's a question both abortion
rights supporters and opponents will be asking themselves. The government
can make abortion illegal, but can it end safe abortion
as long as the network is around.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
This was the final episode of the network. If you
want to learn more about the network, like how doctor
Maya Bass and other doctors changed their minds about self
managed abortion, go to NPR dot org slash Embedded Network.
That's NPR dot org slash embedded network.
Speaker 8 (40:28):
The network from Embedded is a collaboration with Latino USA
a production of Futuro Media.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
This episode was reported by Abbi Wendel and Me Victoria.
Speaker 6 (40:38):
Strada and me Marta Martinez.
Speaker 8 (40:41):
This episode was produced by Arianna Garrett, Lee, Adelina Lenzianie
and Abbi Wendel, with production support from Monica Morales, Garcia.
Speaker 6 (40:50):
Reyna Cohen edited the series.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Fact checking by Donia Suleiman.
Speaker 6 (40:55):
Robert Rodriguez mastered the episode.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Leanna Simpstrom is our supervising senior producer, Katie Simon is
our supervising senior editor, Irena Gucci is our executive producer,
and Colin Campbell is the Senior Vice President for Podcasting
at MPR.
Speaker 8 (41:13):
The embedded team also includes Ristreis and Dan Germa.
Speaker 2 (41:17):
From Latino USA. Our executive producers are Merlin Bishop and
Pennilee Ramidez, and our production managers are Jessica Ellis and
Nancy Truchigo.
Speaker 8 (41:27):
Thanks to our Managing editor of Standards and Practices, Tony Kevin,
and to Johannes Urghy and Micah Ratner for legal support
and Tommy Evans, MPR's managing editor Editorial Review.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
And thanks to NPR correspondents Selena Simons, Stephen and Alissa
Nett Warney.
Speaker 8 (41:45):
Our visuals editor is Emily Vogel. Original tail art by
Luke Medina.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Voiceovers by Andrea de Alva, Alvaris, Barbara Trehar, Justine jan
Leanna Simpstrom and Abby Wendel, and thanks.
Speaker 8 (42:00):
To Matthew Alstrom for the engineering assist. This is our
final episode of the network and we want to thank
the many people that we've talked to who didn't appear
or weren't mentioned in the series, including Phoeba Bramowitz, Amelia Bono.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
Simone, Denice Angel Foster, Jesse Hill, Jenkarlin, Vania Maya, Ariela Messing,
Maureen Paul, Jamila Parrott, Mariana Brandini.
Speaker 8 (42:27):
Catherine Romanos, Ruge Doulas, Lupita Sanchez, Carrie Sistra, and Susan Yano.
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Your knowledge and experience helped us shape the series, and
we're grateful for the time you gave us, and a
big thanks to our Embedded Plus supporters. Embedded is MPR's
home for ambitious journalism, and Embedded Plus helps us keep
that work going. These supporters get early access to every
Embedded series and they get to listen sponsor free. Find
(42:56):
out more at Plus dot NPR. Dot Org slash embedded.
Speaker 6 (43:01):
I'm Marta Martinez.
Speaker 4 (43:03):
I'm Victoria Strada.
Speaker 6 (43:04):
This is embedded from MPR.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
Thanks for listening for the scutar.
Speaker 19 (43:16):
Latino USA is brought to you in part by the
Levi Strauss Foundation, outfitting movements and leaders fighting for a
more just and abundant world, with the support from the
International Women's Media Foundation as
Speaker 7 (43:29):
Part of its Reproductive Health, Rights and Justice in the
America's initiative, and the v Day Foundation
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