The case is sure to raise fears among abortion rights advocates about the future of self-managed abortion.
A South Carolina woman was arrested and charged last week after she allegedly took abortion pills to end her pregnancy more than a year ago.
The case began in October 2021, when the woman went to a hospital in Greenville, South Carolina for medical help, according to local news outlet in the State, which first reported the news. He reportedly told medical personnel that he had taken the pills, and the Greenville County Coroner’s Office eventually reported him to the police. A warrant for his arrest was signed in 2022.
It’s the latest case of a woman facing criminal consequences for self-managing her abortion, and it’s sure to fuel fears among abortion rights advocates about the future of self-managed abortion. Performing your own abortion is one of the few options available to the millions of abortion seekers who live in states that banned the procedure in the wake of Roe v. Wade. Basically, this abortion outlaws abortion providers, not patients.
The woman passed a fetus that was determined to be 25 weeks and four days, according to the State. He reportedly posted $2,500 bail and was released. It is not clear why there was such a delay between the alleged incident and his arrest.
Currently, South Carolina prohibits almost all abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy. However, the South Carolina legislature is currently weighing bills that would ban abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy or even from the point of conception. South Carolina is also one of the few states in the country where self-administration of your own abortion is outright illegal.
Self-administration of abortion in early pregnancy may be medically safe; the World Health Organization has even recommended protocols for doing so. There are signs that more people are now turning to self-managed abortions since the Supreme Court overturned Roe: At least 20,000 packets of abortion pills are estimated to have been sent to people in the country in the six months following the decision , VICE News reported last week.
Self-managing an abortion in any state can be legally dangerous. Between 2000 and 2020, law enforcement in 26 states investigated or arrested at least 61 people for allegedly engaging in a self-managed abortion, according to a report last year from in the If/When/How legal advocacy group, which also operates a legal defense fund for people facing criminal consequences for self-managed abortion. In 45 percent of those cases, healthcare providers or social workers provided information to the police.
A spokesperson for the Greenville Police department did not immediately return a VICE News request for comment, and If/When/How was unable to comment to VICE News on this particular case.
Source: https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7ejw8/south-carolina-woman-arrested-taking-abortion-pills
