The Constant Battle of Abortion 1

The Constant Battle of Abortion for Women: Literature Review

Yaneli Montes

California State University Channel Islands

Section 003

Professor Winans

October 3, 2021
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The Constant Battle of Abortion for Women

Abortion has been a constant struggle over the years for women. Women have had

difficult times trying to express what they can and can’t do to their own bodies. Unfortunately,

men have interfered with the decision of abortion and even some woman that are against

abortion, making it hard for woman to acquire a safe abortion. Some states have made it hard for

woman to have abortions due to their strict laws of abortion, these laws are made to have

restrictions on abortion which can cause a huge burden for women. According to Planned

Parenthood states such as Texas,Wyoming, Oklahoma and other states have strict restrictions for

abortion. These restrictions include abortion ban for certain weeks after the first day of the

missing persiod, insurance restrictions, parental involment and certain hours waiting period

depending on the state. Planned Parenthood has predicted that if Roe v. Wade is inverted in the

states that have strict rules for abortion, abortion can be banned (n.d). This literature review will

address what can happen if abortion is banned in states that have strict restrictions towards

abortion as well as experiences of woman who have had a self managed abortion.

If Abortion is Banned; Consequences:

Many states have made it a burden for woman to get an abortion. Some states have even

thought about baning abortion which can cause a huge problem for woman to have one. If

banning abortion was to take place, safe abortions would not be an option for a woman.

According to the article “Perspectives on self-managed abortion among providers in hospitals

along the Texas– Mexico border” the authors state that in some states such as Texas, where

abortion options are very restrcited, patients who wish to have one try another “method” before

seeking a clinic for an abortion. Patients have stated that the methods that they use are herbal

remedies or medications such as misoprostol (Raifam et al 2021). The authors also state that their
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has been a huge correlation of patients conducting a self abortion method through Texas and the

Mexican border, they state that this corelation has to do with medications such as misoprostol

being cheap in pahramices that are located in Mexico (2018). This shows that many women who

have a harder time getting a safe abortion look for other aleternatives which can harm their well

being.

In another article titled “Abortion Bans, Doctors and the Criminilazation of Pateints” by

the author Michelle Oberman, Oberman states throughout her article what can happen if states

were to ban abortion. These predictions that Oberman has stated in her article were finalized by a

study that was made when El Salvador banned abortion. Oberman argues that some women will

go to another state in where they can get a safe abortion and other women with “fewer

recources” will find other alternatives such as illegal abortion drugs. Women with limited

resources will struggle the most and teen mom rates will increase rather than decrease along with

rates of teen mothers committing sucicde. Doctors will have it hard understanding the protection

of confidentiality of their patients and seeing their patients as “criminals” (Oberman 2018).

These articles are a perfect example on what can happen if abortion is banned. Many women will

perform unsafe abortions which can cause them to either face legal consequences or

consequences with their health due to the harm toxins that they put inside their body.

Experiences of Women who had Self managed Abortion:

If women do not have the option of have a safe abortion, what happens to women who

are not ready to have kids or just simply do not want kids? In the article “Texas women’s

decisions and experiences regarding self-managed abortion” the authors talk about a study that

was conducted in 2014 by survey in which they asked random selected women if they had ever

attempted to have an abortion on their own, the results were 2.2 percent of women had tried to
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end their pregancy by themselves. These women claimed that the methods that they used were

either drugs, alcohol, certain foods, or herbs and vitamins (Fuentes et al 2020).

Conclusion:

In another another article “"I'll just deal with this on my own": a qualitative exploration

of experiences with self-managed abortion in the United States”, the authors state what the

opinions of the women who have had a self managed abortion were as well their deision making

on deciding what kind of method they used. The authors conducted a research in 2017, in which

they interviewed women who managed to get an abortion on their own in the United States. They

discovered that some women had thought about self managed abortion methods throughly and

the methods that they had contemplated were options that someone they knew had told them

about. They also considered the risks that some methods could cause if they used dangerous

methods. Women also mentioned that they conducted self managed abortion, or SMA, not only

becuse of their state strictly regulations for abortion but their were other obstacles that they faced

such as, low resources for instance, few facilities and income problems, additionally the stigma

of abortion stopped them from seeking safe abortion (Raifam et al 2021). Finding articles for my

literature review I learned that many states in the East Coast are against abortion, with the chart

that Planned Parenthood had I could see all the strict regulations that each state had for abortion.

I also learned that many women living between the Mexican border conducted SMA due to the

low cost of pharmaceutical medications for abotion. I think it is important to support women

with their decisions because it is their body and making decisions for them is unethical especially

if they are in circumstances in which they are unable to have children. Baning or having strict

regulations for abortion will only make women find other alternatives that can be dangerous to

their bodies.
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References

Fuentes, L., Baum, S., Keefe-Oates, B., White, K., Hopkins, K., Potter, J., & Grossman, D.

(2020). Texas women's decisions and experiences regarding self-managed abortion. BMC

women's health, 20(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-019-0877-0

Oberman, M. (2018). Abortion Bans, Doctors, and the Criminalization of Patients. The Hastings

Center Report, 48(2), 5–6. https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.831

Parenthood, P. (n.d.). Where is abortion illegal?: Abortion limits by State. Planned Parenthood

Action Fund. Retrieved October 2, 2021, from

https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/abortion-access-tool/OK.

Raifman, S., Baum, S. E., White, K., Hopkins, K., Ogburn, T., & Grossman, D. (2021).

Perspectives on self-managed abortion among providers in hospitals along the

Texas–mexico border. BMC Women's Health, 21(1).

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-021-01281-w

Raifman, S., Ralph, L., Biggs, M. A., & Grossman, D. (2021). "I'll just deal with this on my

own": a qualitative exploration of experiences with self-managed abortion in the United

States. Reproductive health, 18(1), 91. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12978-021-01142-7