Reproductive Rights Prof Blog

Ulcer Drug Popular Self-Abortion Method Within Dominican Community

NY Times: For Privacy’s Sake, Taking Risks to End Pregnancy, by Jennifer 8. Lee & Cara Buckley:

Amalia Dominguez was 18 and desperate and knew exactly what to ask for at the small, family-run pharmacy in the heart of Washington Heights, the thriving Dominican enclave in northern Manhattan. “I need to bring down my period,” she recalled saying in Spanish, using a euphemism that the pharmacist understood instantly.      

It was 12 years ago, but the memory remains vivid: She was handed a packet of pills. They were small and white, $30 for 12. Ms. Dominguez, two or three months pregnant, went to a friend’s apartment and swallowed the pills one by one, washing them down with malta, a molasseslike extract sold in nearly every bodega in the neighborhood.

S.C. Bill Would Expand on New Ultrasound Law

The State: Proposed S.C. bill sets stage for abortion fight, by Leroy Chapman, Jr.:

Abortion foes in the Legislature have sown the seeds of what could develop into another battle over regulating abortion in South Carolina.

Seven S.C. House lawmakers have prefiled a bill that would require women seeking abortions to be given a list of clinics and other facilities that provide free ultrasounds. That list could include pregnancy crisis centers — many run by antiabortion groups — that actively discourage abortion and encourage women to choose other alternatives.

The bill expands upon the law the General Assembly passed this year that requires abortion providers to give women seeking an abortion the option of viewing an ultrasound beforehand.

Anne Hendershott on Kennedy Family and the Right to Abortion

Wall St. Journal Op-Ed: How Support for Abortion Became Kennedy Dogma, by Anne Hendershott:

For faithful Roman Catholics, the thought of yet another pro-choice Kennedy positioned to campaign for the unlimited right to abortion is discouraging. Yet if Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of Catholics John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, is appointed to fill the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Hillary Clinton, abortion-rights advocates will have just such a champion.

Ms. Kennedy was so concerned to assure pro-abortion leaders in New York, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Dec. 18, that on the same day Ms. Kennedy telephoned New York Gov. David Patterson to declare interest in the Senate seat, "one of her first calls was to an abortion rights group, indicating she will be strongly pro-choice."

H/T: Suja Thomas