| Finally, I can get this over with, she thought.
Julia, a woman in Ohio who is being identified with a pseudonym, was digging through her closet for abortion medication that she’d preordered in case of emergency. She was facing an unplanned pregnancy, one she knew she didn’t want and that she intended to end through a self-managed abortion.
Julia — who let HuffPost reporter Alanna Vagianos observe the process — rented a cabin where she could take the pills away from home. She told only a few select friends, using an encrypted messaging app. She prepared to burn all the menstrual pads she would use, to prevent the possibility of them being found in the trash.
Self-managed abortion is a legal gray area in Ohio, where lawmakers who oppose abortion rights have tried to pass a six-week ban. There are no state laws against self-managed abortions specifically, but it’s not impossible that a prosecutor with an agenda could try to bring charges against someone who undertakes one. Women have been prosecuted for self-managing their abortions in Ohio. And recently, in Nebraska, a teenage girl was sentenced to 90 days in jail on charges of concealing or abandoning a dead body, after she ended her own pregnancy with her mother’s help. Her mother is awaiting sentencing on related charges.
On Tuesday, Ohioans will go to the polls to vote on a referendum that could be the first step toward further restricting abortion in the state. Issue 1 asks voters whether they’d like to raise the threshold for passing an amendment to the state constitution, from 50-plus percent of a statewide vote to a 60% supermajority. The ballot measure is a precursor to the November election, when voters will get to weigh in on whether to enshrine abortion protections in the state constitution. If Issue 1 passes, it will make it that much harder in November for abortion-rights advocates to win those protections, which currently have about 58% support in the state.
Julia said she sees her ability to manage her own abortion as an act of resistance, in defiance of legislators who want to suppress abortion rights.
“It comes down to control,” she told Vagianos. “They want to control us. They hate women and they want to use this to mobilize voters.”
“I think it scares them that women could self-manage an abortion all on their own,” she said. “Once they realize that we don’t need them, they panic.” | 