✨ Self-Managed Abortion Resources Starter Pack ✨
➡️
@Plancpills
has info on finding safe abortion pills
➡️
@HTUabortionpill
has info on proper use of abortion pills
➡️
@MA_Hotline
provide free, expert medical support
➡️
@ifwhenhow
provides free, expert legal support
Took my ADHD meds and drank a large iced coffee to try to knock out the introduction and methods section of this manuscript and instead just came out of a 90 minute adderall hyperfocus trance where I was in Canva creating a UFO-themed abortion sticker
Let sex workers decide what's best for sex workers. Sex worker organizations have been crystal clear for years: Full decriminalization is what they need.
I don’t think Columbia University will ever recover from this. This will be their legacy — a full out war on their students for peacefully protesting a U.S.-backed ethnic cleansing campaign that has systematically murdered nearly 40,000 people.
insane that columbia has locked down campus to everyone. no research, no books, no labs. no libraries, no medical services appointments, no studio or practice space. no lectures, no concerts. just the pure administrative university and its disciplinary power.
ICYMI: I’ve been in Twitter Jail for sharing the official WHO protocol for medication abortion, which Twitter says is “promoting self-harm.” I’m a public health scientist with expertise in medication abortion—and the National Academies have a consensus report on its HIGH safety.
I also hope y’all took note of who got Lizelle bailed out & who got the charges dropped. It wasn’t big “reproductive rights” legacy orgs. It was Black and brown-led abortion funds & reproductive justice orgs on the ground. Put your money where the work is actually happening.
As someone who grew up in poverty in rural Appalachia & then went to Duke, Hopkins, and Emory, let me remind you that a lot of poor kids go to private schools bc they offer full financial aid. I guarantee you protesters are not “all trust fund babies.” Also s/o to class traitors.
Suicidality, preeclampsia, sepsis, hemorrhage, ectopic pregnancy, cancer that requires chemotherapy, lupus that requires methotrexate, placental abruption, heart failure—should we keep going?
@TwitterSafety
has left this up for nearly 12 hours. Disinformation like this kills.
Abortion has no long-term health effects whatsoever. All of these myths about increases in risk for depression, breast cancer, infertility, etc. are exactly that—myths. Nothing about abortion is dangerous. It has a lower complication rate than wisdom teeth removal or colonoscopy.
There is absolutely nothing you could do to get me to eat inside a restaurant or wear anything but an N95 (or similar) inside a grocery store right now. I have no idea what the rest of y'all are doing. We know BA.2 is here, and we know it's rapidly spreading and undercounted.
PLEASE stop with the “camping” stuff. However well-intended, it’s INCREDIBLY dangerous for the people doing it and for abortion patients. You are SERIOUSLY underestimating how many militant anti-abortion activists would be thrilled to pose as a patient or host.
Speechless. We just drove 2 hours to buy a new car. Loved it. They ran the numbers, & it was more than expected. They wouldn’t negotiate at all. So we said ok, give us 30 minutes to go talk it over. They ok, sounds good.
THE SALESMAN BOUGHT THE CAR HIMSELF WHILE WE WERE TALKING.
I will NEVER forget that Democrats had 53 whole days between the Dobbs decision leak to the day the ruling officially came down to do SOMETHING to help prevent harm before Roe v. Wade fell. Instead, they simply watched it happen. No plan, no ideas, no action, no nothing.
🧵 Before I say this I want to be very clear that Lizelle is NOT at all to blame for what is being done to her. Full stop.
But for others in the future, there are some things you can do to reduce (not eliminate) the risk of criminalization with a miscarriage or abortion at home:
A lot of people's default reaction when I say I'm working on abortion disinformation is that anti-abortion activists aren't interested in learning. That's true. The much bigger problem is how many pro-choice people unknowingly believe outright lies about abortion and spread them.
What you can RIGHT NOW to help people get abortions:
1) Support abortion fund(s):
2) Support independent abortion clinics:
3) Share accurate information about safely self-managing an abortion at home:
I am begging y’all to realize we are not going to vote our way out of this. They have nothing. They have been briefed over and over and over by legal experts on alternative actions they could take right now. Today. And they still CHOOSE to do nothing.
It’s a HIPAA violation to ask someone whether they’ve been vaccinated but it’s fine to sit outside of abortion clinics filming patients with go-pros and writing down their license plate numbers for tracing, got it
It’s a really fascinating time to be taking the CPH exam because the CDC is currently violating almost every established ethical principle in the field of public health that we must know how to define and apply
Oh my god?????? The Texan who was wrongly charged with murder for self-managing an abortion last year was given a C-SECTION to remove retained tissue instead of a few misoprostol pills or gentle suction. MAJOR SURGERY instead of safe, simple care. The absolutely cruelty in that.
Today anti-abortion protesters set out a homemade spike strip at the clinic to get employees’ tires & when the cops came they pretended to not know about it (while it’s sitting with their chairs), so the cops left. If you still think cops are a useful response to clinic violence.
THIS CAR HAD BEEN ON THE LOT FOR 6 MONTHS. HE HAD 6 MONTHS TO BUT IT. WE MADE THIS APPOINTMENT ON TUESDAY. AND WHILE IM WRITING THE DOWN PAYMENT CHECK YOU SWOOP IN TO BUY IT????? AND THE MANAGER LETS YOU?????
4 hours of having to listen to anti-abortion protestors screaming outside the clinic at the crack of dawn is always a stark reminder that the very core of anti-abortion messaging is
1) pregnancy is easy and risk-free
2) children are a punishment for having sex
Pls send good vibes to your clinic escort and clinic worker friends -- 40 D*ys for L*fe started today.
If you aren't familiar, this is when entire churches show up outside abortion clinics to harass patients and staff every single weekend for 7 weeks.
What if I told you…that the number of abortions doesn’t need to be reduced because there’s literally nothing bad or dangerous about abortion except for abortion stigma that is maintained by constantly suggesting that abortion is somehow bad or tragic…
And the manager had the nerve to come out and tell me that I needed to calm down because I wasn’t being fair and that my frustration wasn’t deserved.
I have never so much as asked to talk to a manager. Never reported anyone for anything. But when I say I snapped.
I don't think people understand how bad things are. Money raised after the SCOTUS leak is LONG gone. Most "pro-choice" people were mad for a month & then moved on. Abortion costs skyrocketed, donations dried up, and Dems hung everyone out to dry. MANY funds are barely hanging on.
The salesman was kinda rude the whole time and straight up refused to negotiate at all on the car or our trade-in, despite undervaluing it by $3K. SO HE COULD BUY IT.
Absolutely clear that she, like the rest of the anti-choice movement, has no interest in the wellbeing of this woman or her family and would rather weaponize her own hypocrisy to hurt them
A beginner’s NO list for talking about abortion accurately & without stigma:
🚫 coat hangers
🚫 handmaids
🚫 “safe, legal, rare”
🚫 gendered language
🚫 “Underground Railroad”
🚫 “only ends safe abortion”
🚫 euphemisms like “right to choose”
🚫 “no one’s pro-abortion”
The standard of care for IUD insertion or removal should be nitrous oxide or twilight anesthesia. The lack of pain relief offered is nothing short of inhumane, and we all know it’s because the U.S. healthcare system doesn’t recognize the pain of people who can get pregnant.
Y’all hover over visibly clean public toilet seats but won’t wear a mask in public places, and I do not get it!!!!
Do y’all think the skin on your ass cheeks is more susceptible to germs that your lungs????
3. If you need to seek medical care, please go. Don't disclose info about self-inducing an abortion to ER staff. This is how most people are reported. "I think I'm having a miscarriage" + your symptoms. No mention of pills. There is no widely available test to detect misoprostol.
PSA: As long as misoprostol tablets aren’t inserted vaginally, there’s no way for a clinician to tell the difference between a medication abortion & a miscarriage. There’s no blood test that can detect misoprostol. The treatment for any complications is the same as a miscarriage.
4. Do not talk to the cops. Period. Do not. If questioned: "I am exercising my right to remain silent, and I wish to speak with an attorney." Contact the Repro Legal Helpline as soon as possible: 1-844-868-2812.
1. Leave no online footprint of searches or purchases. Digital Defense Fund's privacy guide is your go-to. Private browsing, 2-factor authentication, encrypted messaging, etc. are critical:
We have A LOT of evidence that clearly shows abortion is NOT associated with any negative health outcomes. Abortion does NOT increase the risk of clinical depression, infertility, su*cide, breast cancer, substance use, etc. Those are all ideologically-motivated myths.
I’m going to keep saying this until folks stop trying to create a binary where one simply does not exist:
ALL abortions are medically-necessary abortions. Care that someone needs to be holistically well is medically-necessary.
It makes me sick to say but we should go ahead and talk about it -- I will be shocked if medication abortion or miscarriage treatment that uses mifepristone is still allowed in the U.S. by the end of February. Anti-abortion orgs have carefully set this up to ensure a win.
This isn't a one-off. As I told
@Jezebel
, Billionaires like M*sk & Z*ckerberg are greasing the wheels of fascism. There's a reason white supremacy & antisemitism are included in their definition of 'free speech'—but a scientist sharing abortion info isn't.
ENOUGH. I have had ENOUGH of seeing white women making
#HandmaidsTale
references. It is so VIOLENT and HARMFUL to be comparing something a brown woman is actively experiencing, something that this country has done to Black & brown people for centuries to FICTIONAL WHITE WOMEN.
If you’re wondering what it’s like to be fat in public health, this person has a MPH, and I simply corrected their false citation on abortion outcomes. This was their response:
As I said before, none of this eliminates the risk of criminalization. Sadly, many people have been arrested and charged for miscarriages. Black folks, Indigenous folks, and Latine folks are disproportionately targeted. But sometimes these strategies can make the difference.
It’s my responsibility as a researcher & a health educator to share this. Abortion pills are extremely safe. Self-managed abortion is extremely safe. No billionaire can change those scientific facts. People deserve to have evidence-based info to make their own health decisions.
Addendum that I forgot: Misoprostol pills should be taken under the tongue or in the cheeks. Misoprostol cannot be detected in the bloodstream BUT undissolved remnants can be found during a pelvic exam if they were inserted vaginally. Thanks to
@hannahmsays
for this reminder!
Y’all are misunderstanding. I do not care at all if you disagree with a fact. I’m trained in public health & am very confident in my ability to understand the scientific evidence & necessary precautions. Don’t waste the thumb strokes coming on here to say something uninformed.
Full transparency on where I’m coming from with this: I’m not a lawyer or a legal expert. I am a public health researcher who’s tried to read all of the self-managed abortion guidance/research/arrest reports out there. This is a brief summary of what I’ve collected along the way.
Folks have asked for examples, so here's a few things that people get wrong: abortion doesn't have any known long-term health effects, abortion is extremely safe, self-managed abortion with pills is very safe & effective, abortion often isn't a difficult or sad decision, etc.
Another abortion clinic set on fire and heavily damaged—this time in Wyoming. In just the 10 years between 2010 and 2020, abortion clinics were intentionally set on fire 20 times with 8 additional arson attempts. Anti-abortion violence is a crisis.
This is what a pregnancy looks like at 6 weeks. This is an actual SEM image taken in 2009 by the UNSW Embryology Department.
This is what it's illegal to terminate in Georgia, Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Iowa because of "heartbeat bans."
2. Medical complications are very uncommon with abortion pills but not impossible. If it's not an emergency but you need expert health advice, use a service like Google Voice to call or text the Miscarriage + Abortion Hotline at 1-833-246-2632.
When 99% of the public loudly votes no, & 75% of the people who allegedly represent them vote yes, that’s deliberately embracing authoritarian rule.
Don’t get it twisted — these council members are not ‘far right’ politicians. These are Democrats endorsing fascism.
#StopCopCity
I think a lot of folks don’t realize this is how most religiously-affiliated shelters work. Orgs like the Salvation Army are well-known for requiring Bible Study or worship services in exchange for food or shelter. It’s so violent.
The lengths that Americans will go to assert property rights over children is absolutely draconian and outright bizarre. Adolescents are parental property, but fetuses and embryos are independent persons with Constitutional rights.
NEW: The 5th Circuit grants a Texas father the right to deny his daughter access to birth control, holding that Title X does not override parents' "right to consent to their teenagers’ obtaining contraceptives" under state law.
h/t
@MikeSacksEsq
maybe I’m a little grouchy or maybe it’s just that the DEA would rather me not have lifesaving medication & suffer through WEEKS of unnecessary withdrawal than a single person have a single milligram of adderall that they might not need. 15 day wait for my medicine—0 days notice.
Update: I tried a little experiment with a burner account and got the same Twitter suspension for "promoting self-harm" by posting the WHO medication abortion protocol. It seems like this is not just a random error due to general company meltdown.
If the White House's official position is that abortion advocates are "consistently out of step with the Democratic Party," then it shouldn't bother asking for our votes.
People have been sharing info about self-managed abortion for years. It is perfectly legal to do so, and as mentioned, it's backed by A LOT of scientific research. Sharing info alone has never been a problem until recently. Now we see Facebook, Instagram, & Twitter censoring it.
Just wanted to share one of my favorite poems with y'all: "WHO recommends that pregnant persons in the gestational age <12 weeks can opt to self-administer m*fepristone and/or m*soprostol medication without the direct supervision of a health worker."
This
#Barbie
followed the WHO protocol for a safe & effective medication abortion by swallowing 200mg of mifepristone, waiting 24-48 hours, and then holding 800mcg (4 tablets) of misoprostol between their cheek & gums for 30 minutes before swallowing any remnants 💞✨
To be clear: Twitter did NOT let me back online. I was required to delete the tweet & complete a 12 hour suspension or lose access to my account. I chose the former because I still have a lot to say about self-managed abortion. My appeal of the suspension went unacknowledged.
4 federal offices fired “30-40 shots” to execute
#MichaelReinoehl
in his own vehicle as they snuck up on him because they “heard he was carrying a gun.” Washington is an open carry state. This was revenge.
Imagine your administration’s approval rating is 33% and your response to collapsing hospitals and 1,600 deaths per day with no tests to be found is essentially “why don’t you Google it you dumb bitch”
Also: I had a car bought out from under last year and while it was very frustrating, it was at least just another customer who bought it and happened to be moving faster than we were. I didn't hold it against the dealership. BUT THE SALESPERSON SELLING ME THE CAR???????
First of all, this is disgusting. Second, she didn't tell anyone shit. She made a reimagined white woman fan fiction of EXACTLY what white women did to enslaved Black women and then wrote Black people out of the story so white women could be the victim.
Fuck Margaret Atwood.
Again: Healthcare workers are NOT mandated to report suspected self-managed abortion in ANY state. Even states with total abortion bans do NOT mandate reporting. NO ONE is a mandatory reporter of self-managed abortion. HHS has been very clear on this—it is a HIPAA violation.
IMPORTANT: You can donate to grassroots
@AbortionFunds
across the country that help folks afford abortion care, transportation, lodging when they’re forced to travel, etc.
Most of the 22 people who have been arrested for self-managing an abortion were reported to police by a healthcare worker when they sought care.
Zero states require healthcare workers to report abortions, miscarriages, or other pregnancy outcomes to the police. Zero.
Already seeing comments from nurses & other HCWs that they believe they “have to” report abortions to authorities & this is FALSE. They believe that this is not a violation of federal HIPAA laws & this is ALSO FALSE.
You are not agents of the state, stop trying to be.
Maybe you haven’t seen yet but FOUR REPUBLICAN SENATORS USED THEIR PRIVATE CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFINGS ABOUT COVID-19 TO DUMP THEIR STOCKS BEFORE THE INFO WENT PUBLIC WHILE ALSO LYING TO THE PUBLIC ABOUT HOW SERIOUS IT WAS
CW: fatphobia
People sharing photos of me on my wedding day to argue for why fat people are “gross” and shouldn’t be allowed to work in public health is always my favorite part about having a semi-viral tweet. As if it’s already so easy to work in a field that HATES you.
You are literally advertising yourself as a holding location for people who are about to have an abortion. Do you know how many abortion clinics have been set on fire in the past 5 years??How many clinic workers and volunteers get stalked??? You are putting people in danger.
Clarification: We agreed to pay the full listing price of the car! We (my partner & I) took time to talk it over bc it was over the budget we had set. When we came back, we asked for a smaller negotiation. They said no again. We said ok we still want it. We started paperwork.
“Let this radicalize you, rather than lead you to despair.”
Channeling the radical hope of
@prisonculture
today. Equitable access to safe abortion care is a fundamental component of Reproductive Justice, and we will not negotiate.
And I'm just even more angry because the car I want is a very specific and not super common car. I don't want to mention the make/model on here because I have several ongoing threats to my safety. But there was a reason I drove 2 hours to get it. This one was EXACTLY it.
OK LOOK I hear the calls to see the sticker but graphic design is very much not my passion, and I was just puttering around on a silly little sticker to help reach my goal for my
@HollerHealth
fundraiser!
So I need y'all to adjust your expectations!!!
Y'all, please stop making Handmaid's Tale comparisons on here. It is harmful, and if you don't understand why, please see the essay "White Women in Robes" by Sherronda J. Brown.
95% of abortions happen before 16 wks. But people need abortions after this for a variety of reasons: some have their care delayed by anti-abortion restrictions, some w/o regular periods discover pregnancy later, some get a poor diagnosis for themselves or their fetus. All valid.