“Under international human rights law, everyone has a right to life, a right to health, and a right to be free from violence, discrimination, and torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Access to safe abortion is a human right.
“In many circumstances, those who have no choice but to resort to unsafe abortions also risk prosecution and punishment, including imprisonment, and can face cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and discrimination in, and exclusion from, vital post-abortion health care.” ~ Amnesty International
Who gets abortions?
In 2014 the Guttmacher Institute conducted an extensive research project on abortion in the US: https://www.guttmacher.org/united-states/abortion. Here are some of their findings on who gets abortions:
- About ¼ of American women.
- 59% of the patients had previously given birth, i.e. they were likely already raising one or more children.
- 75% of abortion patients had incomes less than twice the federal poverty level. For a family of two, this would have been under $31,460.
- 69% of all abortion patients were aged 18 – 29.
- White patients accounted for 39% of abortion procedures in 2014, black patients for 28%, Hispanic patients for 25%, and patients of other races and ethnicities for 9%.
- 54% of patients identified as Christian ranging from Catholic to Protestant, including Evangelical.
- 51% had used birth control in the month they became pregnant.
You might find these short videos informative: Who has abortions in the US?
Part 1: https://youtu.be/w5o1oW_udFI
Part 2: https://youtu.be/AUfUDB0S75U
An organization making a difference
From May 25th to June 15th Advocates for Women are raising money to benefit I Need an Abortion (ineedana.com), an organization which anonymously helps pregnant people seeking abortions. To donate to I Need an Abortion go to euuc.org and click on the Give button. Select “Advocates for Women” from the drop-down menu. All money donated to Advocates for Women during the fundraiser will be sent to I Need an Abortion.
Anonymous and location-specific
With 3 non-personally-identifiable pieces of information that aren’t collected or stored (age, zip code, and date of last period), I Need an Abortion gives those seeking abortions information relevant to their individual circumstances. Users are given the closest clinics, applicable laws, and local support resources. For those under 10 weeks pregnant and in a state that allows tele-medicine and abortion pills by mail, that is shown as an option.
Current projects
I Need an Abortion’s three primary projects this year include translating their website into Spanish, adding a Clinic Checker (a clinic’s URL can be listed to show if it is a legitimate abortion clinic or a “crisis pregnancy center”), and expanding text-line experience for those that don’t have secure access to a web browser.
People behind the website
The organization is a small team of professional writers, designers, developers, and data analysts. They have clinic escorts, practical support volunteers, trained abortion doulas, abortion funders, fierce advocates and former provider staff. The founders started I Need an Abortion in 2013 to provide a simple, up-to-date, and localized source of information for those seeking abortions. It is the largest, most up-to-date resource of its kind in the United States.
You can make a difference too
To give to this cause go to euuc.org and click on the Give button. Select “Advocates for Women” from the drop-down menu. All money donated to Advocates for Women during the fundraiser will be sent to I Need an Abortion.
Please also read “Supreme ─ but No Longer Esteemed ─ Court”.