Abortion Explained!

Self-Managed Abortion

Are You A Journalist Covering Someone Accused of Self-Managing an Abortion? Read Our Guide!

Abortions have been around as long as people could become pregnant. For centuries people did abortions on their own using herbs, teas, or other methods passed down from families and cultural traditions over generations. Some of those traditions are still used today.

Today, many people around the world induce their own abortions using medications, mifepristone and misoprostol. Approximately 2.2% of people who’ve had abortions have tried to self-manage an abortion before, though many go unreported. People choose to self-manage their abortions for many different reasons. Sometimes it’s because they want to be able to have their abortions in the comfort of their own homes surrounded by loved ones or because they want to use traditional methods. Sometimes it’s because they are unable to access clinic-based care due to cost or immigration status, for example, while others have a complicated relationship with medical systems due to racism or transphobia, and others may want to keep their abortion a secret from someone in their life.
There are a lot of reasons. All are valid.

 

Self-managed abortion today looks different than it did in the past. Because of medical advancements and more information on how to safely self-manage an abortion, it’s not the unsafe back-alley and coat hanger procedure experiences of our ancestors.

 

A self-managed abortion (SMA) is the process of inducing an abortion on one’s own, usually without medical supervision or guidance from a doctor.

Image Description: A Brown person with short kinky hair wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt sits on a red couch. A Brown person with long marley twists wearing a white tee shirt lays across the couch with their head on the other person’s lap while hold
Image Description: On a yellow background, images of herbs appear, including cotton root bark, pennyroyal, Queen Anne’s lace seeds, pomegranate, parsley, and black cohosh root. Text: People have self-managed their abortions for thousands of years. Bu
Image Description: A light-skinned person with long brown hair in a ponytail wearing a yellow and white striped shirt appears on the left holding a box of Cytotec as she jointly holds it with the Brown person with short tight curls wearing a red and
Image Description: Four hands of different melanin shades hold a box of mifepristone and misoprostol. Text: That same decade, French scientists created RU 486, also known as mifepristone. Together, these make up the abortion pills we use today.
Image Description: A light-skinned person with short spiky hair wearing a green shirt and a zig-zag black and white skirt stands using prosthetic legs and forearm crutches. They’re speaking and the speech bubble reads “We all deserve access.” Text: M
Image Description: A masculine Asian person in a green striped shirt wearing glasses and a hearing aid looks on as they take an abortion pill. Text: Mifepristone and misoprostol can be used together during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Misoprostol
Image Description: A light-skinned person with curly hair wearing a blue hospital gown lays in a hospital bed with an IV connected to their arm. Their speech bubble reads, “I had a miscarriage.” Text: In the unlikely event that a person needs to go t
Image Description: A Brown person with long hair in a ponytail wearing a red sleeveless shirt and blue jeans says “It’s my body,” as they’re being arrested by a white policeman. Text: People have been arrested—or even jailed—for taking the pills on t
Image Description: A Brown person with short kinky hair wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt sits on a red couch holding the hand of another Brown person with long marley twists wearing a white tee shirt while holding a hot water bottle on their abdomen
Image Description: Several people of varying shades, abilities, and genders hold up protest signs that read: Learn more: AbortionOnOurOwnTerms.org, WeTestify.org Text: We can create a world where self-managed abortions are safe and compassionate. If

Attempting to self-manage an abortion using medication is generally safe, but can be legally risky. People who have been accused of self-managing their abortions or experienced pregnancy loss, like miscarriage and stillbirth, have been prosecuted. Self-managing an abortion can be a safe and effective method to end a pregnancy, but criminalizing it only seeks to punish people and makes it harder for those who are already disproportionately impacted by barriers to abortion care—particularly people of color, undocumented immigrants, formerly incarcerated people, and trans and gender non-conforming people. 

Even though states may criminalize the act of self-managing an abortion, legally, people are under no obligation to disclose their abortion to medical providers, and medical providers are not required to report self-managed abortions disclosed to them. Since the medications used to self-manage an abortion metabolize quickly, they cannot be detected in the body through medical testing. Still, people who self-manage an abortion may fear seeking emergency care, especially in areas with religious hospitals.

It is important that people who are considering self-managing their abortions consider the risks and have resources in the event something doesn’t go as planned.

 

The Repro Legal Helpline

(844) 868-2812

offers legal information to anyone who is concerned about the legal risks of self-managing an abortion.

M+A Hotline

(833) 246-2632

provides medical advice over text or phone from volunteer doctors for people who are experiencing a miscarriage or self-managing an abortion.

Pills & Information

Women Help Women, Self-Manged Abortion Safe and Supported, Plan C, the Euki app, Women on Web, and Aid Access offer more resources on self-managing an abortion.

Abortion on Our Own Terms

a website with a list of resources and materials for people who want to learn more about self-managed abortion.

 

“It took two weeks for the pills to arrive. I’m pretty sure the mail was backed up because of COVID-19, so after a week, I asked them to send another package. While I was waiting for it, I was just thinking, I’m only getting further and further along. It was so stressful. The people who sent them buy them outside of the U.S. and send them to women who need them.”

— We Testify storyteller Esmarie in Cosmopolitan

Read More We Testify storytellers' and their Self-Managed abortion stories