"i'm pro-abortion/pro-choice, but..."
but nothing
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This is a two part post:
First, an update on a case where two women in Nebraska have been criminalized for self-managing/helping to self-manage an abortion.
And second, why we need to throw the phrase “I’m pro-abortion/pro-choice, but…” in the trash, forever.
The case update
A mom that helped her daughter access abortion pills in Nebraska was sentenced to 2 years in prison on Friday as part of a plea deal (she had faced up to 5 years). As you might remember, the young woman who took the pills was sentenced to 90 days in jail and two years on probation earlier this year. She was released this month after being imprisoned for 53 days.
Losing a pregnancy at any stage is not a crime in Nebraska. Self managed abortion is not a crime in Nebraska. There’s no basis for either person to have been charged. So instead, prosecutors used other existing laws far beyond their intended scope to criminalize them anyway (something that is happening, and increasingly so, across the country). Shout out to Rafa Kidvai, director of If/When/How’s Repro Legal Defense Fund for this zinger: “It doesn’t have to be [illegal]. The prosecutors are like, ‘This is illegal in my heart.” Note: self-managed abortion is currently only explicitly banned in one state - Nevada.
There are a lot of garbage takes about this case. So let’s start with this: It is good that this mom supported her 17 year old daughter and helped her access the reproductive care that she needed. Her daughter had the absolute right to terminate her pregnancy. People have abortions later in pregnancy for all kinds of reasons - including not being able to previously access care due to high costs, inability to travel, not realizing you’re pregnant, judicial bypass laws, and more. Not to mention the barrage of abortion bans and restrictions put further strain on and often *make it impossible* to access care (at the time that this happened Nebraska had a 20-week abortion ban in place). These restrictions/bans create a culture of fear that further isolates and stigmatizes people who need abortions. The bans specifically target poor people, BIPOC, young people, people in rural areas, and immigrants. These groups of people are the most criminalized for having abortions and helping people have abortions (and the most criminalized in general, by far). People who have abortions and help people have abortions deserve support, not punishment.
Criminalizing pregnancy outcomes puts every pregnant person at risk. And there are a lot of things criminalization can look like. Some examples: charging people with murder and other crimes for self managing their abortion, for purchasing abortion pills online - for yourself or people you love, “removing or concealing” skeletal remains, jailing people for allegedly using drugs during pregnancy, and accusing people of being at fault for having a miscarriage. In these types of cases, people are generally reported to police by either medical staff (who are not obligated to do so) or someone they know. In this case, it was someone the women knew. The police play a substantial role in reinforcing the state’s mechanisms of control over pregnant people. Adding to the layers of horror: the prosecution relied on Facebook messages obtained by police to convict the women.
This is pure cruelty, and it’s morally reprehensible.
*You might have noticed that I haven’t published names/images here. Here’s a note from If/When/How about why and how we can better protect people who are criminalized for pregnancy outcomes:
Why “I’m pro-abortion/pro-choice…but” is so yesterday:
Absolutely anything that starts with “I’m pro-abortion, but” is unhelpful.
Our job as pro-abortion advocates isn’t to create and enforce distinctions between situations when people should have abortions and shouldn’t. Our job isn’t to pass any kind of judgement. Our job is to advocate for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy - for everyone, at any time, and for any reason. Trying to determine “acceptable” vs “unacceptable” situations puts all people who have abortions and all pregnant people at risk. Any restriction on abortion is an unnecessary and harmful restriction. Criminalizing any pregnancy outcome serves no purpose outside of causing harm.
If you are focusing on the timeline of someone’s abortion/abortion later in pregnancy, you are playing directly into the state’s hands by indulging their narrative used to criminalize people who have abortions or lose pregnancies for any reason. We do not need to know what you think you would/wouldn’t do in a particular situation, or your opinion about what someone else has done. It is irrelevant. Our job is to show up for people who have abortions with love and unconditional support. We can lead by example through unwavering respect and compassion for people who have abortions.
Here’s some things you can say instead of “I’m pro-abortion/pro-choice, but…”
No one should be criminalized for their pregnancy outcome. Ever.
Restricting access to abortion is harmful mentally, physically, and emotionally to people who do not want to be pregnant, and I don’t want to contribute to that kind of harm.
I respect people who have abortions, and I don’t need to know the circumstances or reasons why.
I am proud that I made the right decision for me. I want everyone to be able to make that choice without experiencing criminalization, regardless of their circumstances.
Everyone deserves the right to determine what happens to their body, and I know that my opinion about it is irrelevant.
I trust people who have abortions.
I believe in bodily autonomy, so I support people who have abortions.
I don’t believe in sending people to prison for any pregnancy outcome.
I’m pro-abortion/pro-choice. Period.
some related things
Nebraska Abortion Resources is currently the only state-wide abortion fund operating in the state. You can support them here - 100% of your donation goes to helping folks access abortion via direct funding for their procedure, travel support, lodging, food, childcare costs, medications, and more.
If you self-manage an abortion and seek medical care you do not have to tell them you took abortion pills - they will not be able to tell.
The primary risk to self-managing your abortions is a legal one, not a medical one. There are resources to help you if you are facing criminalization related to any pregnancy outcome. Start with the Repro Legal Defense Fund and Pregnancy Justice.
Here’s a new report from The Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, If/When/How, and Pregnancy Justice on U.S. Criminalization of Abortion and Pregnancy Outcomes. The report highlights human rights violations that occur when states pass laws that criminalize performing abortions and when state officials misuse other laws to surveil, investigate, arrest, detain, and prosecute pregnant individuals based on the perceived impact of their actions on their pregnancy.
TLDR:
“Currently at least 33 states have criminal abortion laws. Sixteen states have made it a felony to perform an abortion at any stage of gestation, and providers can face sentences up to life imprisonment. While the rapid expansion of laws criminalizing the provision of abortion has created a human rights crisis, criminalization and punishment for self-managed abortions and adverse pregnancy outcomes is not new. From 2000 to 2020, at least 61 people were criminally investigated or arrested for ending their own pregnancies or helping someone else do so. In addition, from 2006-2020, more than 1,300 people were arrested in relation to their conduct during pregnancy. Prior to the Dobbs decision, these prosecutions regularly occurred through prosecutors’ improper use of laws meant to protect pregnant people and children against them.”
abortion affirmation of the week
Regardless of what the state says, you deserve and are entitled to bodily autonomy.
xoxo,
your favorite becca
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So true! Similarly I’ll always remember the lightbulb moment I had when @pieandfash on Instagram explained how unhelpful talking about abortions in terms of “well nobody *likes* them” or “well ideally nobody would have them” is -- because it is still, as you say, positing situations in which they are acceptable vs not/less.
I’m pro-abortion but ... we need to normalize having abortions in the second & third trimesters for a whole variety of reasons.
There are medical reasons like severe fetal abnormalities that might necessitate having an abortion late into pregnancy, but there are probably even more non-medically indicated reasons why women seek abortion care later into pregnancy like mental health, death of a partner, & simply just not knowing that you are pregnant to begin with.