The
@Abortion_Squad
’s Ariella Messing (
@aBigMess
) on fighting disinformation in a post-Roe world, the unending challenges of giving abortion advice to strangers online, and the trade-offs of self-managing abortion. A conversation with
@irin
To make this as clear as can be: If you have a textbook perfect cycle, if your period is 2 days late you are 30 days pregnant. This is a total abortion ban.
A gentle reminder to everyone: this is not a situation where we want to “rip off the bandaid.” Thousands of people have appointments scheduled in the next week. Every day without a decision is another day people can access legal abortion care.
Here’s my recommendation to everyone ~not in repro~ who is furious about what’s coming: look up the price of a first trimester abortion in your state. Divide that number by 12. Then set up a recurring monthly donation to your local abortion fund in that amount.
Shoutout to the professors in my department who nixed my 2015 dissertation topic about self-managed abortion because “that isn’t an US health policy topic.”
I've worn my "everyone loves someone who had an abortion" shirt dozens and dozens of times over the years. I probably got a handful of comments in all that time. Today EVERYONE on the street commented on it.
I’ve spent 3 years cleaning up the messes caused by the “auntie network” on Reddit. Elevating their so-called work (which really just consists of people posting things like “I live in rural Arkansas and have an extra bedroom!”) is dangerous.
Lol @ people who think saying “I regret my abortion” is a compelling argument. I regret going to grad school, but I am not saying it should be illegal.
The movement needs to find a way to provide low-cost ultrasounds to pregnant people looking to terminate. We cannot stand by and let pregnant people go to CPCs for a dating ultrasound.
Noticing all the small things that reporters get wrong about abortion makes me extremely worried that this happens for all topics and I just don’t notice. That is terrifying!
People are freaking out about “people who menstruate,” but it’s just correct here. The millions of girls & women who don’t menstruate are not looking for tampons. (“People who need tampons are having a hard time getting them” would have been fine too.)
Tampons, a necessity for many, are becoming harder and harder to find.
People who menstruate are saying it's hard to find tampons on store shelves across the U.S. right now, as supply chain upsets reach the feminine care aisle.
@KimberlyNFoster
A lot of misinfo being shared here & in the replies.
The facts:
🔴Plan B is less effective if you weigh >155
🔴Ella is less effective if you weigh > 195 lbs
🔴Copper IUD within 5 days is more effective
🔴New research shows that mirena/liletta (hormonal iud) is just as effective!
People assume that post-Roe there will be states without legal abortion (true) & all the other states will have perfect, easy access to abortion (false). There are significant barriers to care in states where abortion will be legal. We must prioritize dismantling these barriers.
Abortion pills are safe to use. 100% true. But people have dozens of questions & need more support than they are getting. If clinics/telemed services don’t want to provide this support, then there needs to be a funding mechanism to sustain the orgs/ppl that *are* providing it.
If your abortion clinic has a website, please include specific information about how minors can access confidential care. There are a lot of scared teens out there who will benefit from easy access to this information.
I will scream this until my lungs give out! I’ve counseled thousands of people for whom the prolonged duration of medication abortion and the ensuing month of uncertainty/stress is unbearable.
I’m glad medication abortion means that people can safely manage their own abortions and get care despite legal and logistical barriers but also:
many people prefer an aspiration abortion and they deserve that option. 🤷♀️
2 things can be true at the same time:
▪️Crisis Pregnancy Centers are bad & don’t provide real medical care.
▪️Pregnant people will continue frequenting CPCs until we provide an alternative place to get the services they want (in particular, free ultrasounds).
BREAKING: Mexico’s Supreme Court decriminalized abortion nationwide Wednesday, two years after ruling that abortion was not a crime in one northern state.
@MarisaKabas
@ejdickson
And it will cause many people to have disabilities and chronic illness, which people are downplaying because they clearly have never dealt with that kind of problem before.
It’s time to find some very rich people who will donate $250k to open
@PartnersClinic
(a new clinic in MD providing abortion care throughout pregnancy) & $500k to keep
@alabama_west
’s doors open to provide preventive care, trans care, and post-abortion care. Who do we know?
@washingtonpost
In printing this headline you are responsible for spreading misinformation. Emergency contraception is not an abortifacient. Take this down.
#New
: Lyft says it will cover all legal fees for drivers sued under Texas’ abortion law.
The company says it will also donate $1 million to Planned Parenthood.
“Unborn” is a disturbing word and I think it should mean a baby going back inside their parent for just a little longer. Like going inside to take a quick nap.
Just my 2 cents (take it or leave it): Abortion funds should be increasing their fundraising goals to 7 figures. The whole world is watching & is ready to rise to the challenge. When your goal is low and has nearly been met, you’re sending the message that the need has been met.
If you are looking for a way to get involved in the fight for abortion access, make sure abortion stays legal in Kansas. Get involved in the VOTE NO on the “value them both amendment” fight. Kansas is critical.
I’m 5 hours into working to arrange for an abortion for one person. Anyone who continues to suggest that ordering abortion pills online is our way out of a constitutional and human rights crisis will be receiving an invoice from me.
I just had an appt w/ a new PCP (family med). I spent a full 10 min convincing her to provide abortion care—med abortion, at a minimum—for her patients instead of referring to PP. I think I really got through to her when I noted the difference in OOP cost to patients.
WE ARE OFFICIALLY OPEN!!! We are so excited to finally open our doors to the people of Wyoming and the Mountain West. To schedule an appointment, go to the link in our bio or call (307) 224-7851.
There is absolutely NO excuse for an org's website to still say that "in the U.S., abortion is legal in every state, and every state has at least one clinic that provides abortion care." This is false. Roe v Wade was overturned 1 year + 11 months ago. UPDATE 👏 YOUR 👏 WEBSITES.
universities are sending students home but requiring staff to continue working, which means graduate students will finally get an answer to the big question:
are we students or are we employees?
Grateful to Planned Parenthood for continuing to provide essential services in Alabama and elsewhere while helping to fight the state legislative bans on women’s human and constitutional rights.
I'd like to see more abortion activism around insurance (private and public) reimbursement rates for abortion. It would be great if medicaid in every state covered abortion, but clinics cannot survive on these meager reimbursements.
Today’s mife hearing is likely going to be followed by calls for donations to organizations that have massive budgets. Think critically about where you want to donate & whose fundraisers you will choose to amplify. Ask questions about what will be done with the money.
If someone tells you they need to travel to another state because abortion is illegal where they live, please please please confirm they are correct. Hearing that patients traveled because they mistakenly thought abortion was banned in their home state is enraging.
@TEAFund
That pregnancy is measured from the first day of your last menstrual period. That means that the first two weeks of your pregnancy were before you had sex.
In today’s garbage, a 17 year old who wanted an abortion at 5 weeks spent 12 more weeks vomiting and feeling sick until she turned 18 and didn’t need parental consent.
I hate to tell you this, but she was one of *many* flying to CO, NM, and MD that week. And the week before. And the week after. This is not an isolated scenario.
A woman from Columbus Ohio recently spent over $10,500 (not including plane tickets, hotels and food) for an abortion in Colorado at 23 weeks. Why? -->
Imagine thinking that spending three weeks obsessively tracking a package from India while vomiting nonstop and caring for your children isn’t an undue burden.
Mail-order abortion services are a little awkward for clinics and abortion funds, since they weaken the argument that pregnant people face an undue burden
@the_sar_bear88
thanks for writing this thread. Here's a guided quiz
@beesandthanku
and I wrote so people can get to know their state abortion landscape.
I’m a bioethicist and even I think there are few questions more boring and less relevant than “when does life begin?” Yet for some reason, the NYTimes continues to publish an endless stream of articles on the topic.
This is insulting. I’m turning 34 on July 1. 90% of
@Abortion_Squad
volunteers are < 40 years old. And frankly, we are breaking our backs helping people get abortions. I haven’t taken a vacation since 2018. 🧵
It won’t win me any popularity points, but I’m considering writing an article about how inflated egos in the repro sphere often create rather than dismantle barriers to abortion care.
1) we aren’t asking you to donate. We are asking you to fundraise if you can.
2) abortion has been effectively illegal in texas since sept 1. You are just now getting angry?
3) sharing info on miso, getting people talking to their networks, fundraising IS MOBILIZING.
I'm tired of being silent. Poor and working class people do not have the money to fund abortion, and it's absurd to tell us to get prescribed Misoprostol when we can't get life saving medications to begin with. This is all I've seen Texas "RJ" orgs advocate for! No mobilization.
Unable to get appointments at local clinics, people are turning to CPCs for ultrasounds because they want to confirm that their pregnancies are intrauterine before ordering pills online. They deserve better.
I'm glad
@maddow
finally talked about
#SB8
last night, but no, this was not "a sneak attack, out of the blue." This bill was signed in May. That a whole lot of episodes with no mention of abortion in Texas.