Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, more women have been crossing the border to Mexico for abortion medications and procedures.

Since the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, more women have been crossing the border to Mexico for abortion medications and procedures.

At 6 pm, after a long day at work and with her children out of the house, Tania (not her real name) takes four pills and waits for them to melt under her tongue. Six hours later, the pills having dissolved and dispersed through her body, she begins to expel blood clots that she doesn’t look at. She bleeds, but she was told that this could be normal; her belly is in great pain, but she was also told that this would be normal. She cries in the darkness of her room in San Diego. She is afraid to be alone.

The pills that Tania took traveled amid the more than 90,000 people who cross the border every day between Tijuana, in Mexico, and San Diego. At the world’s busiest border crossing, the lines can stretch for blocks. People pass by hostile immigration officers searching for “illegals” among the thousands making the journey. Hidden in a suitcase are boxes of mifepristone and misoprostol, two abortifacients used in conjunction with one another. When Tania took them, she put them under her tongue to speed up the effect, as she was instructed. Mifepristone stops the production of progesterone, while misoprostol, which was originally indicated to treat ulcers, causes contractions and bleeding similar to a miscarriage.

  • mx_smith@lemmy.world
    72·
    7 months ago

    There are at least three planned parenthood clinics in the San Diego area, why didn’t she go to one of them. It seems the women in the article only knew about the religious services that don’t do abortions.

    • parrhesia@sh.itjust.works
      1·
      7 months ago

      Well it was only one woman talked about that needed an abortion, the rest of the article described organizations that help women across countries and also Texas and Oklahoma, some of many states that have banned abortions… Which seemed to be the main focus of the article. She might have not known about planned parenthood in her state but called her friend, that gave her the fastest resolution that she knew of, which was still pretty quick. Planned parenthood has appointments that have to be set up so it may still have been the fastest resolution in the end for her anyways.

      Adding to this, there are religious organizations that frame themselves as abortions clinics to manipulate women into keeping the pregnancy. She might have been unlucky and got the first 2 in her search terms.